What is it? Set 344

[Lobby Dosser]

I'm telling ya, it's a Hodgsonia Nut Cracker! :)

[J Burns]

One interesting thing about the form is the wooden screw. Tightened down several times a day, it wouldn't last long. I would expect it to be a simple threaded dowel so that somebody with dowels and a die could replace it easily. Instead, the screw has a fancy, finished knob, as if it were intended to last years. That leads me to believe it was designed to hold something that didn't require much pressure and wasn't changed often.

It's also interesting that everything but the screw seems to be made of

2x4s. Was it homemade?

The Volstead Act made it illegal to manufacture, sell, transport, import, or export alcoholic beverages except those for Woodrow Wilson. Six months later it became legal to manufacture up to 200 gallons of wine per year in one's home for one's own use. Wine consumption soared.

This may be the story behind the small wine barrels and cradles on ebay. If you made small batches of wine, you would want to age it. If you bought moonshine and added grape juice, aging it in small barrels would improve it and make it look respectable and lawful, to tattletale visitors and your drinking guests.

I wonder if plans for this item appeared in a handyman magazine during the surge of interest in winemaking. The prospective winemaker could envision displaying his hooch in his living room while visitors admired his workmanship with a lathe and a die.

[Bruce Esquibel]

I was wondering that too, it looks to me the top bar, the one with the wooden screw in it, can rotate. If you look at the left hand side, it seems only connected to the vertical rail at the center. If that is a peg, that means the upper bar can rotate around, but would be stationary as far as the height.

It's not clear if the bottom bar, the one with the hole in it, can slide up and down. It also looks like to me on the bottom bar, there is an indent from the wood screw being tightend all the way down, or if the bar moves, it presses against the screw.

Point is, both bars can't move, there wouldn't be anything holding the whole thing together. I'm guessing the bottom one with the hole is fixed and doesn't slide up and down.

So I don't think it's a clamp.

I beleive, whatever the use is, you grab the ball on the wood screw and spin that whole top peice around, slide something onto the screw, rotate it back down and tighten.

Like a cylinder of twine or yarn.

Wish there was a bit more info, if either bar can slide, if both vertical rails have a groove in them.

-bruce [e-mail]

[dpb]

...

The top piece is stationary, you can see a small amount of the tenon/dowel where the left lag has separated slightly from the end is all.

Indeed, the compression indent on the upper half of the split pieces at the bottom is quite apparent. From that alone one can infer it was used to clamp something between the upper interior and bottom (indeed, fixed) pieces. Altho as noted earlier I don't have a good feel for what that actually was, I just don't think the wine/whiskey guess is in the right ballpark. Crystal ball is murky; could even be wrong but just doesn't feel right...

The question that might give the clue would be how far is the upper clamp bar allow to move? The oddity in the design in my mind is the asymmetry between the height and the cutout area and length of screw. If the object needed the full height then if it were round it doesn't need to have been so tall and the diameter of the cutout is quite small in comparison. Which leads me back to the idea there was a very specific purpose leading to those dimensions but I don't have a good guess as to what that purpose was. Inspection of the jaws themselves and other clues only visible from detailed examination might lend a few clues but not possible from the picture.

My guess is it isn't terribly old, either...there appear to be planer ripple marks in the clamping pieces that weren't fully removed before finishing. Note the vertical dark parallel lines in them that are consistent between the two. The piece was milled, the hole cut and then the two separated.

Where the piece was located/found _might_ be of some clue as well.

--

[humunculus]

I think the center 'contact points' are actually round knobs, and that the legs are attached by wooden bolts, and are removable. Whatever it was for, possibly portability is a factor?

--riverman

[Lobby Dosser]

The top piece of the 'clamp' section is not necessarily stationary. If it were, then why the mortice running from the top 'clamp' section to the upper stretcher? Put the photo into an image processing program and add a lot of fill light.

And 'milling' can be a manual process, so the age is not determined.

[dpb]

Lobby Dosser wrote: ...

That's what I said; the top section is what the other poster was saying wasn't...

Indeed, but those are definitely characteristic marks of a power planer that weren't removed.

[Doug Miller]

That does not mean it's of recent manufacture. I'd like to point out that electric motors have been in existence for nearly two centuries; even the AC motor dates from the late 19th century. DC motors were used to power machinery as early as 1837.

Further, "power" tool does not necessarily imply *electric* power, either: both steam engines and water wheels were used to power woodworking equipment in the 18th century, if not earlier.

[dpb]

That depends on what your definition of "recent" is.

I didn't say it was built yesterday; I'll stand by the assessment it's not yet 100...

--

[Scott Lurndal]

What makes you think the wooden screw wouldn't last? They are quite rugged and were used daily in woodworking trades for bench screws and clamping.

Once upon a time, that 'fancy finished knob' was standard workmanship.

scott

[dpb]

Doug Miller wrote: ...

And, that dates it as not colonial and under the premise that it's rare to have anything that's the first of anything as not likely being an example of some of the first available material having been run thru a power thickness planer or surface jointer.

When was the first modern-style rotating knife thicknesser...I don't know for absolute certain but certainly latter 19th century I'm sure and I'm thinking more likely early 20th or last 20 years of 19th.

You not believe those are planer/jointer marks, btw.... ???

--

[J Burns]

Ahh, that's been bugging me!

I wonder why someone with the tools and craftsmanship to make three fancy wooden screws, would fail to smooth the top clamp jaw.

I think it was a kit, assembled by a peddler who had fine sandpaper and varnish but nothing to smooth ripples in a board.

If it was built when lumber was milled by machine, metal screws should have been readily available. Why didn't the kit provider supply them?

I think the provider was an unemployed man for whom the price of metal hardware was an obstacle. Millions of Americans were in economic straits in the 1920s; the Depression made it worse.

The size of the frame suggests to me that it was to hold something about the size of a soccer ball. The holder would sell if it appealed to the customer and the price was right.

[Lobby Dosser]

I don't think so. Look at it after using some fill light on it.

[Doug Miller]

Not necessarily. Think water power. One water wheel driving a system of pulleys and belts can operate a lot of machinery. I agree it *probably* is not colonial, but I'm not willing to say it's *definitely* not.

I don't know. I wasn't able to find any references on that.

I think it's conceivable that they're natural (e.g. curly maple), but I agree it's more likely that they're marks from rotating knives.

[Sonny]

After further consideration, I don't think 1980 was meant for anything other than to sell. Someone put it together and passed it off as an old tool or appliance. All the finish is the same, no patina and no discoloration or wear where a clamped item would be placed. The ball handle is not discolored from oil from someone's hands. No edges are rough or worn from use. The dip in the upper "clamp", where the screw touches, was part of the make, not worn from use. That screw is not so stable that it would hit only at that spot. The center knob piece, under/center of the feet cross-piece, functions to attach the legs more securely. I don't think these center pieces were part of the original idea. The legs ended up being unstable (poor jointery), so those center pieces were added to further secure the legs.... and they additionally gave the faux tool/appliance more ammunition for passing it off as something unique.

Traveling salesmen sold tonics that had no function, but to fill the salemen's pockets. If that piece would ever sell, I suspect another would be put up for sale.

Sonny

[J Burns]

I seem to recall using clamps with wooden screws. Did they mate with metal fittings?

I liked the way they didn't vibrate loose. For a real carpenter, they would mean self-reliance: he could make and replace them.

I seem to recall that good wooden screws (intended to last) had threads with a square cross section, and had a larger diameter and coarser pitch than to a metal screw for the same job. The screw for 1980 appears to have an outside diameter of only 1/2" and a fairly fine pitch, like a metal screw I might expect to see used for such a clamp.

Fancy finished knobs may have been standard workmanship, but I wouldn't expect one on the handle of a screw-in push broom. The manufacturer would have to start with a bigger piece of wood, and shaping the knob would increase labor costs. Price is an important consideration for a threaded wooden device that may not last long.

[dpb]

There was power, there was no rotating-knife thicknesser/planer.

...

No way is that curly grain even from a picture like that.

[J Burns]

If the width if the frame is an indication of the size of the object to be clamped, the sliding bar would be near the top bar and the screw wouldn't have to be stable to hit the dent.

If it's furniture that went to the attic within 13 years, it wouldn't show much use.

Before 1933, a holder for a small barrel of homemade wine may have been a hot item to peddle. In this case, perhaps an unemployed vet showed a sample to friends at the American Legion hall, took orders, and assembled them from kits.

[humunculus]

Hmm, for some reason this looks like something made with the same level of craftsmanship as a window latch. I wonder if this worked on a window or door as a stopper, or even on a drawer in a file cabinet or cash register to keep a drawer open?

--riverman

[J. Clarke]

Could this have been a theatrical prop of some sort?