What is it? CLXX

[R.H.]

A new set has just been posted:

[John Husvar]

987. Very small swage block?

[Marc Dashevsky]

984. carriage brakes 985. shingle splitter 988. dipstick

[Leo Lichtman]

986--It closes on a steel surveyor's tape, so the correct tension can be applied. 988--Seems like it must be for gauging liquids. "BARL" could stand for barrel, but I would have expected "BBL."

[JohnM]

Gopher mallet.

Book binding tool.

Eric Bloodaxe's baby toy.

Fold-up brass knuckles.

Patent universal ashtray.

Measuring stick for beer.

[WoodButcher]

983. Hammer for posting notices overhead. Lower brass(?) clip holds the bottom of the poster, upper clip holds the tack & top of the poster.

Art

[DoN. Nichols]

According to R.H. :

An interesting (and puzzling) set.

983) An interesting variety of long-handled hammer, apparently designed for reaching up high overhead and starting a tack or broad-headed nail (perhaps a shingling nail?) using the spring clip on the side, and then rotating the hammer head to use it normally for driving in fully. I expect that it would be a bit of a job to control accurately that far from your hands.

Given the second clip about six inches below the nail clip, it could have been used to start hanging a notice "bill" already started on the nail in the clip and with the bottom edge held by the clip until the hammer is eased down off of it. Perhaps even for enameled metal advertising signs, such as those which advertised sodas.

984) The base holds onto something round like a log, while the jaws close to hold something thin upright with a rope passing around the log and affixed to the two arms. Perhaps for a red clearance flag when towing or carrying something longer than the vehicle? 985) Perhaps for removing bark from logs? 986) The round ends are on eccentric pins, so when the two "scissors handles" are brought together, they grip something between the two round ends. If they are fairly new, then I would suspect lead, and they serve as a clip-on weight for some purpose. Otherwise, I would think cad or zinc plated steel, and for fixturing something as you work on it. 987) This seems to be missing a matching top half. But it looks as though its function is to crimp sleeves onto cables by laying them in the grooves (cable in the round bottomed side, sleeve in the V-bottomed side, and striking the upper half with a heavy hammer (probably with the whole thing resting on an anvil). 988) Depth gauge of some sort -- and double ended, so probably for measuring two different things. One end could be for measuring the depth of fuel in the fuel tank of a vehicle, while the other end would be for measuring the cooling water in the radiator. Both depths are relative to the metal flange sticking out at about the 2/3 point along the length.

And the differing scales are perhaps to handle the liquids at different temperatures.

Or -- it could be for measuring depth of beans or grain with the differing scales showing the weight of a given depth for the different types of product.

Now -- to see what others have guessed.

Enjoy, DoN.

[Christian Stü]

oops, i´m comming late this week ...

988 maybee i am wrong, but i think i can remember my grandma had some similar thing and that she used it for tailoring and measuring her skirts.

986 i would guess the same as don, the two "scissors handles" seem to be eccentric, clip on weight, to squeeze, or to make something thinner.

greetings from germany chris

[Leo Lichtman]

"R.H." wrote: Several different people told me that it was for pulling long tape measures, but most likely it was also used for surveyor's tape. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Surveyors stretch their tape horizontally for measuring. The ground is generally not level, so one end of the tape has to be held above the ground, and the tape sags a little. The amound to sag is controlled by pulling the tape to the correct tension--the "brass knuckles" gripper tool is used to apply the tension. We did this in my college surveying class about 60 years ago. (You drop a plumb bob from the raised end to get a reading.) By now it is probably all digitized.

[Dave Balderstone]

I worked on a survey crew about 30 years ago and we used a laser transit then. No tapes.