'Nother whatsit

[bridger berdel]

The function is obvious- it cuts a groove about 1/8" wide in a concave surface. Could be like the groove for the lid in a cask but no sign of a fence to set the distance from the rim, and 1/8" seems a bit small. Tiny cask, perhaps? The stamp seems to say something like buck and hickman364932364933364934364935

[ken hatch]

Bridger,

You are having way too much fun with your "new" box of rust.

ken

[bridger berdel]

You 'Ain't seen nothin' yet....

[Noah Magnuson]

It looks like it is definitely a single purpose tool and cask-making is a great guess. This is going out on a limb, but say you had a 1/2" wide dado and in the base of this, you needed an 1/8" dado. You could make a single purpose blade, but It would probably be quicker and easier to sharpen to have a two-step process. It could be a relief channel for debris like when you cut a groove for sawdust to fall in., Or, something like a gasket channel to lay in some cord within another dado.

Or just a tool to extract for freehand inlays. The curvature just for clearance.

Very interesting. I can picture it in some warehouse worker's pocket to do some last-step packing or unpacking task.

Or it could be used by a leather worker. It looks like it would make cord.

[Stewie Simpson]

Could be an earlier version of a Coachmakers Jigger; http://www.handplane.com/images/Catalogs/Buck-And-Hickman-1935-Catalog/BuckAndHickman1935Catalog3-Big.jpg

[bridger berdel]

Now I just have to figure out what a higher router does....