Anyone know what tool this is?

[Walter Plummer]

Hello all. I found this while hunting tools and do not know what it is for. But it is cool, so I bought it to post here. When you roll it on something it makes marks a fat 5/16" apart. Why is it 3/16" wide and not just a point? If no one knows for sure let the guessing begin.

[David Gendron]

To me it look like a leather tool. But just a guess...

[Todd Burch]

I would agree - used to lay out stitching marks, I think.

[Jamie Cowan]

My guess is either leather or a roulette wheel for woodcut printing blocks.

[harry strasil]

No guess work to it, 5/16 apart and 3/16 wide, you need to talk to an ancient scribe. It was used to make marks on parchment and the paper of the time for drawing the lines on the material so the scribes could print the letters neatly across the page in a straight line. There is probably ink or graphite residue on the ends of the spurs.

My inflated .0002 ¢ worth.

P.S. they are a rare item.

[Sam Takeuchi]

An evil pizza cutter :)

Actually I have seen this in my parents' house when I was a kid. I never really figured out what it was for, but I remember playing with it by running it over paper to make dotted lines.

Of course...I don't see why it shouldn't work on a pizza :D

[Walter Plummer]

I thought stitches at first but 5/16 seems real wide. Also the 3/16 width of the wheel bugs me. Why not points? Harry I like your idea so far but I am still open to suggestions. Thanks everyone.

[David DeCristoforo]

Well I can see that none of you guys were ever cowboys. That's a "hand spur". It's used when the cowboy is off the horse and cannot use his boot mounted spurs.

[Ben Davis]

Well I can see that none of you guys were ever cowboys. That's a "hand spur". It's used when the cowboy is off the horse and cannot use his boot mounted spurs.
Boy they sure don't make them like they used to, do they David? :)

[David DeCristoforo]

"Boy they sure don't make them like they used to, do they David?"

Nope. They sure don't Ben. the new ones have cheesy plastic handles and aluminum spur wheels. They are OK for occasional use by those "weekend" cowboys but the pros will pay a premium for the good vintage tools like the one in Walter's picture.

[george wilson]

I considered a leather tool,too. The thickness of the tool put me off that,though. I have seen tools like that made of whalebone that the sailors made for their women to decorate pies with. It doesn't have the look of a kitchen tool by today's standards,but is it possible?

Doesn't look ancient enough for scribes. Seems like early 20th.C.,or late 19th.C..

[Jim Koepke]

I have a similar tool, only mine has points and is used in the sewing and sign painting fields.

For those two uses, they are called pounce wheels.

Not sure how it is used in sewing, that is my wife's forte. Though it is called a pattern wheel or dart wheel.

For sign painting, the pattern is drawn on a piece of paper. Then the pounce wheel is rolled around the outside of the design elements. The holes made by the pounce wheel then need to be sanded so as to remove the paper points. The pattern is then taped up to the surface that is being painted and then a chalk bag is "pounced" all over the design to create little chalk dots to guide the sign painter. This is mostly only used for high quality signs and not the big "Weekend Closeout Special" kind of signs.

Though this one is not like the pounce wheels for sign painters. It may be industry specific, just finding the industry may be difficult.

Just did a search for > pounce wheel < and found they are also used for transferring quilt patterns and splicing tin foil.

jim

[David Keller NC]

I suspect this is unlikely because of the width of the wheel, but pounce wheels for tracing patterns and for lining paper were in common use into the 19th century. Several of my old tool books have examples that were produced around that time specifically for lining paper - one wheels it down one side, then uses a drawing square to draw lines across the paper.

That said, any of these that I've ever seen were filed to points, and would actually prick the paper. However, someone that's a bookbinder may have better knowledge - it's certainly logical that such a wheel could be dipped in ink or graphite to provide permanent marks on fabric, leather or paper.

[Jim Sears]

Ditto on the pounce wheel. Used for marking lines, probably in leather, to trace or cut.

[Paul Atkins]

O.K. Not a guess. The real use of this tool is for embedding wire into wax foundation for bee hives. I used to have bees and still have the same tool. I've been trying to figure another use for it too.

[Ken Higginbotham]

Could be used to perforate a pattern (like in dress making) then lay the pattern over the cloth and dust chalk over it and the pattern shows up on the fabric - ??

[george wilson]

Another obscure tool solved!! And now,he has a perfectly good tool should he go into bee keeping!!

[Walter Plummer]

Thanks to Paul Atkins it is identified as a bee keepers tool. I looked it up and it is correctly a "spur embedder". Now I have to go find another mystery tool.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

To me it look like a leather tool. But just a guess...

Perzakly so.

[Chris Kennedy]

Ditto on the pounce wheel. Used for marking lines, probably in leather, to trace or cut.

I showed the picture to my wife and that was her take -- not so much for sewing leather but marking it for cutting.

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks to Paul Atkins it is identified as a bee keepers tool. I looked it up and it is correctly a "spur embedder". Now I have to go find another mystery tool.

I have had a perfect candidate "mystery tool" for over 30 years. It was going to get posted in a different thread. Before doing that, I thought I would search on it one more time. Wouldn't you know, it has finally found its way on to the internet.

Here is the closest patent page:

http://www.datamp.org/displayPatent.php?pn=88836&id=20135

jim

[Ken Higginbotham]

Looks like a roach clip, or they used to be called that ;):D

[Jim Koepke]

Looks like a roach clip, or they used to be called that ;):D

A little old for that, first patent was in 1869, about 100 years early.

jim

[george wilson]

Is it a mechanical pencil?

[John Schreiber]

Does the button at the non-working end spin freely? It could be a finger drill such as used by a jeweler.

Never mind, I just read the patent. Doesn't that answer your question? Watches have little circular springs in them. I would guess that this is designed to adjust the tension on one of those springs.

[Walter Plummer]

Jim I like it. A watch key. How did you find the info? If we find enough of these we could make a poster.

[Jim Koepke]

Jim I like it. A watch key. How did you find the info? If we find enough of these we could make a poster.

The name, "John S. Birch" and some patent dates are stamped into the metal. I have looked before, but yesterday was the first time I have found any information.

The internet is interesting that way. It is growing every day and life will be changed because of it.

30 years ago did wood workers from all over the globe spend much time communicating instantly with each other?

jim

[Chris Padilla]

30 years ago did wood workers from all over the globe spend much time communicating instantly with each other?

jim

Possibly...it was just slower. :)