Mystery Woodwork Tool!

Hi All,

I am not often stuck with woodwork tools but bought this in an auction box of tools with just a bad photo to go on.

I thought it was a a chair makers spindle rounder by SWAN of the USA but it isn't!

I cannot work out what it is for, can anyone shed any light please, there are no apparent makers marks?

Cheers, Martin

Carpenter myself but never seen anything like that. The fact it has a tang may be suggests it’s use is via a Carpenters brace and possibly used to lock onto some form of spindel for further grip/torque? Keen to know myself.

External threading tool?

Dowel Cutter?

Could be a tool for forming tenons on dowel spindles, does it have cutting blades ?

Michael

This says it's a tennon cutter

This also has it as a Swan hollow auger for cutting tennons

More swans

Edited By JasonB on 01/03/2021 19:34:23

Hi Jason,

You have cracked it.

Michael.

Not sure if I have because Martin says it is not one of those?

Oh well back to square one.

When i were a schoolboy, i made a folding wood work bench . Teach said it would last me a lifetime , old school enthusiastic teacher he was . . After exams , i stayed on a bit , finishing stuff i'd made . Teach, suggested i make i wooden vice for the bench too , thread an' all , as he had the tap and die to suit ...

I can't remember what the die was like , or the selected wood for the screw , but it cut beautifully . The clamp bits were beech, if i remember . Now, either the tap was blunt ,or it was rubbish wood , but the internal thread was rough as a badgers ...

Any way , once the screw was in,and the vice assembled , you couldn't see it anyway ! It worked fine ,sort of.... with a bit of candle fat ... until it got damp in the garage after i'd left school , and i snapped the tommy bar tying to open it ! Threw the whole lot away , good old Black n Decker workmate since

Hi Jason,

You have it just right!

I have never seen one of these and it did not click in my brain that it is for round parallel sided tenons.

The "normal" Swan cutters make different sizes of conical ends on spindles, they come in set sizes and rarely in adjustable form a bit like the one shown.

They are almost always clearly marked SWAN USA but not this one unless it is somewhere when I take it apart?

A couple of years ago I was at the posh china and glass antique fair at Shepton Mallet and a chap had the most amazing array of delicate china and glass on a large trestle table all sitting on a white tablecloth held down at the corners by 4 "lumps of steel" in his own words!

Looked at me like I was nuts when I offered him £20 for the "lumps" and snatched my hand off!

Full set of 4 numbered SWAN rounding tools!

Cheers and thanks for the help.

Martin

It is a tenon making tool for use mainly by wheelwrights to put round tenons on the end of the spokes to go into the felloes

Look at this about 10;30 into the video

Hi Derek, Many thanks for that, nice to see a skllled man at work!

Martin

Yes very talented not many like him around today. I came across him while doing some research

Hi all,

I have dismantled the unit and sharpened the cutters, replaced the very worn cutter locking screws with 3/16W cap screws (kept the originals to go with it!)

The main thread is very fine and required careful removal but after degunking all the rubbish now turns easily and smoothly. The adjustment mechanism is just like that on a scroll chuck, again all crudded up but now free turning.

Absolutely no sign of any makers marks! Just numbering of the scroll parts.

Be interesting to see how it does.

Cheers, Martin