PLEASE help identify the original purpose of this tool.

[Baron]

Please take the time to take a quick look.

[Wade Lippman]

Its for setting barbed wire.

[Murray Peterson]

"Wade Lippman" wrote in news:AJsxb.1866$ [e-mail]:

I agree -- used one on the farm when I was younger.

[Mark & Juanita]

Looks like an early version of a fencing pliers. Other versions look more like this:

[Rob Stokes]

It's a "fencing tool", usually used to work a wire fence (including barbed wire) to wooden fence posts.

Rob

[nsum]

Gee Wizzzz Guys--

Don't y'all know what a first generation LEATHERMAN tool looks like?!?!?!? It's called "The Grand Paw."

[Mark]

I disagree with the fencing tool responses. While it looks somewhat similar, a close inspection indicates that it actually doesn't have any of the tools needed for fencing (except hammer).

It does, however, have a number of general purpose type tools. I believe it's simply an older multi-purpose tool. Not expensive when new, not worth much now.

[Baron]

Not too concerned about value, just really interested in it's 'original' use. Because the only examples presented seem to come from Europe I was thinking it might be an old military issue for troops working with horses in the field. It would make a quick and dirty shoeing tool.

[Baron]

That is true. It could very well be a box tool.

[Norman D. Crow]

I have to go along with Howard & Baron, as it sounds very logical. It is most definitely NOT a fencing tool!(DAMHIKT) Fer one thing, the hammer head on this is smooth, and the hammer head on a fencing tool is cross-hatched like a framing hammer.

Nahmie

[Howard Ruttan]

Although it looks similar to fencing pliers, which I have used, I think I have to disagree with some of my esteemed colleagues. I think it's an old fashioned box tool used by warehouse and dock workers. Everything you need to open or close a wooden crate in one tool.

[Rob Stokes]

I never said it was a *good* fencing tool

Rob

[Unicorn]

I have never seen a set of fencing pliers with a cross-hatched head. All fencing pliers I have used have had a polished face.

Matt

[Norman D. Crow]

Well, you know how it is with us oldtimers sonny, our memory may not be quite as sharp as we like to think. Nahmie

[Andy Dingley]

Unless it's firearms or wine related, in which case the collector price can make rare Millers Falls planes look cheap !

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

[Trent©]

If it IS a specialty tool...for some trade...it probably had something to do with piping...because of the round, teethed opening.

When closed, does the opening happen to be just under 1/2"?...or 3/4"? See how it fits over a piece of galvanized pipe.

Wishing you and yours a happy Thanksgiving season...

Trent

[Andy Dingley]

I don't think it's a fencing plier, although it's close.

Fencing pliers have round heads (like a claw hammer) and a single spike to the back of the head, rather than a hatchet. One of their primary uses is to strain wires tight, by using them like a prybar. The head on this tool wouldn't "roll" correctly.

If the sides of the "screwdriver" are sharp, then it's a gas fitters tool, from the days of lead pipe. Lighting fittings needed the end of the lead pipe opened up in this way, before attaching the gooseneck. Larger pipes, like those to stoves or heaters, used a separate tool, but the small lighting pipes often had part of a multi-tool for it.

Overall though, I think it's just an early multi-tool.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

[Erik]

Careful here, your talking about my wife 8~)

[Howard Ruttan]

That could be the foreman's behavior adjustment tool. I used to have a relief foreman that, if she caught you sleeping on night shift, was known to wake you by firmly gripping your "wheel base". You might think some were not averse to this form of behavioral modification except that she looked like bigfoot - only uglier.

[Al in WA]

Just checked the fence tool I inherited from my Dad. Yep, cross hatched.

Al in WA