What are these?

[Mike Cogswell]

My mother-in-law let me go through her father and grandfather's tool chests in her basement this weekend. One of the chests belonged to her grandfather who was a carpenter for a railroad in PA and as far as she knows hasn't been opened since about WWI. More on that later.

Amongst her father's tools were a set of chisel-like items I'm not familiar with. The have pointed ends, beveled sides and are curved like a spoon at the end. I've attached a photo of all five and well as a photo of the ends with one of them turned on its side so you can see the curve.

Anyone know what they are, and how they are used?

- Cheers, Mike

241777241778

[Jim Koepke]

Those look like babbitt scrapers.

Old bearings were often split sleeves of a lead alloy. Before replacing them, the old ones needed to be scraped off of the bearing journal surface.

Some were also made from molten lead poured in to the bearing area.

Search Google for babbitt scraper and then select images.

jtk

[jason thigpen]

Are there any visible markings on them? How long are they? Looks like a great find!

[Tom Stenzel]

I think Jim has it right.

I remember a contractor at work fitting the tilting pad bearings in a Demag air compressor with tools like that. That was, ahem, a few decades ago. He didn't use them to just remove the babbitt, he also used them to fit the new bearings and chamfer the oil holes just so.

We got 15 years of service out of the compressor after that. It was removed because it was too small.

-Tom Stenzel

[Ryan Baker]

Yeah, I also think Jim probably has the answer.

[Jonathan McCullough]

Yes, bearing scrapers. Once sharpened they're also good for scraping finishes off curved surfaces like plane totes and saw handles.

[Jim Koepke]

They could likely have a different bevel ground and be made in to a custom paring chisel.

jtk

[Frank Drew]

Except for the spoon shaped curve, there's a traditional Japanese paring tool that looks similar, called a spear point chisel or something like that. I think.

[Adam Neat]

As mentioned those are made for scraping in babbit bearings. The old bearings were melted out or knocked out. New ones were cast in place and then scraped to fit. You put the shaft or whatever in place with some spotting compound that will indicate the high spots, you scrape to get a good fit and a certain % of contact area, leaving room for oil, (you dont want 100% contact)

[Jack Curtis]

Except for the spoon shaped curve, there's a traditional Japanese paring tool that looks similar, called a spear point chisel or something like that. I think.

This was the first Japanese plane, called a yarikanna; but as the proud owner of a single bearing scraper who thought he had a yarikanna for cheap dollars, I can attest that they're very different. Now, the bearing scraper could probably be turned into something like the yarikanna, depends on what steel was used to make them.

[Mike Cogswell]

They have a BM Co in an oval which, thanks to the excellent replies here identifying them as bearing scrapers, I was able to figure out is Braunsdorf-Mueller Corporation.

The longest is a bit over 13" and the shortest a bit over 9".