Re: What is it? XLIII

[Dave W]

240 is, you asked for it, a nostril spreader for examination purposes.

[R.H.]

Yes, but you forgot to mention that it doubles as an automotive tool.

[John Thomas]

"R.H." wrote in news:pYhDd.9687$iu5.6281 @fe2.columbus.rr.com:

#240's a spreader for battery terminals (car battery). #231 looks like something telephone related (dialer from a switchboard?)

Regards, JT

[R.H.]

[R.H.]

Correct

Yes, it's telephone related but not from a switchboard

[R.H.]

cutters, maybe someone modified them.

[R.H.]

I assume that they haven't realized that the answers have been posted, so I respond to their posts, figuring that they'll probably catch on soon to how I run the site.

[s2s]

Here I go.

237 looks exactly like the tool we used way back there when I was a typewriter repair guy. It was for machines with the keys that flew up and hit a ribbon which transferred to the paper. You know, the kind that jammed all the time and got the letters messed up from hitting each other? It's a peener or a crimper depending on who you ask. It's for adjusting the typefaces so they line up again after hard use. Pinch the type bar in one place and the typeface moves up, pinch it someplace else and it moves down. It was an art I didn't really get the hang of till electronics took over. Probably used for other applications too. The heads are adjustable and replaceable so you and peen different thicknesses of metal in different configurations. Eventually the letters just won't line up and you had to replace or resolder the typeface. Boy, that brought up a few years I haven't thought about for a while.

[C.]

(snip)

Typewriter? What is this "writer of types" you speak of? Keys flying up? Ribbon?

You and me both. 8-)

C. Who still has his trusty Manual Olympia close at hand, because, well, You Never Know...

[George H Hughes]

I happen to own one of the original version of a Royal portable with its case. And I even remember when they were the new thing...... And that thing got used a couple of months ago..... Try to make your word processor fit some these little bitty pre-printed forms and they tell you to print or type. Hxxx!

[Gunner]

You mean you dont keep one on your keychain?

Sigh..no pocket knife or cigarette lighter either I suppose...

Gunner

"The French are a smallish, monkey-looking bunch and not dressed any better, on average, than the citizens of Baltimore. True, you can sit outside in Paris and drink little cups of coffee, but why this is more stylish than sitting inside and drinking large glasses of whiskey I don't know." -- P.J O'Rourke (1989)

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[R.H.]

I did a search on "peener" and couldn't find anything. My final answer on this one is going to be "Starrett adjustable jaw cut nipper that has been modified into a crimper", unless I hear some evidence that indicates otherwise.

[Jeff Wisnia]

Yep, I do....

in between a .45ACP cartridge and the wooden fob, which before it got so worn, could easily be seen to read "WTF". SWMBO and I have a matching pair of those which we got a guy at a crafts fair to make for us on the spot about 15 years ago. I remember telling the carver we wanted to remember my dead uncle Willam Thomas Feinbaum. If you look close you'll see where I epoxied in a brass bushing when the hole in the wood got worn dangerously large.

Needless to say all my keys save one for the car stay behind when taking a commercial flight or entering a court building.

Jeff

[George H Hughes]

Hee Hee Hee no not anymore, remember those days though. George

[DoN. Nichols]

[ ... ]

I know of the practice, though I have never seen the tools designed for the task -- but this sounds like an excellent explanation of what you have. There were not enough of them made to justify making them from scratch, and the compound leverage of the Starrett cut nipper, plus the ratchet jaw mounting would work very well for the task.

Like many specialized toolkits, different people have different names for the same tool, so this may be a term for it which is not widely distributed.

One thing which would confirm this would be if the jaws are more domed in both dimensions. They are obviously so in one dimension, but I don't think that the other shot (which shows from the proper direction, but shows the whole tool) has enough detail available.

If nothing else, it at least could be a cut nipper modified by an individual to serve that function.

Enjoy, DoN.

[R.H.]

They're just domed in the one dimension.

I've got a couple more things that I pulled from the same tool box that I'll be posting shortly, if anyone recognizes them maybe it will help ID this one.