?Not a filler Gauge?

[adamo]

I bought this years ago at an estate auction. We were in Vegas in 2011 and saw one just like it at the Pawn Stars Pawn shop but didn't think to ask about. OK I was too embarrassed to ask.

I thought it might be some type of filer gauge but the tips aren't at all even enough to be any good for that. ???

[adamo]

sorry the photos are poor

[mvwcnews]

fleam ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleam ) -- George Washington is said to have encouraged his physician to use one perhaps too often.

[Bill Houghton]

So it's more of an empty-er gauge.

[adamo]

So it's more of an empty-er gauge.

LOL you are right feeler gauge. Just wasn't thinking.

[adamo]

fleam ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleam ) -- George Washington is said to have encouraged his physician to use one perhaps too often.

Wow Thanks I would never have thought of going in that direction with this.

[Papaw]

I remember we've seen them here before, and I think Pawn Stars showed them once on the show.

[Billman49]

Farriers fleam (flamme in French) - used to bleed horses. Used with a blood stick...

See: http://phisick.com/article/breathing-a-vein/fleams/ or http://www.medicalantiques.com/medical/Scarifications_and_Bleeder_Medical_Antiques.htm

For human use smaller blades were used, or scarifiers, which had a number of spring loaded blades that were released with a trigger..

[oldtools]

So it's more of an empty-er gauge.

LOL you are right feeler gauge. Just wasn't thinking.

Bill was right!!  Empty blood from horses...

[Branson]

Not just for horses, but for people as well.  Standard doctor equipment at one time.  The different blades are for making deeper and shallower cuts.

[scottg]

 I have one covered in a cow bone case, that has 3 blades.
3 sizes
     Children, people and horses.

  You know the striped barber pole rotating out there in front of the shop?
That was originally meant to represent blood dripping down the "pole".
  There was a short pole set in the dirt floor, with a knob on top to rest your hands, in the back room of the barber shop. Sometimes with a bowl on the ground.
 
The sign out front used to read.................... Barber and Surgeon

  One of the English Kings came down with a cold. 1400's? 1600's?   whatever
  They went right to work and blistered his feet with hot stones from the fire.
They peeled all the skin off the top of his head with caustic poltice, and more skin besides.
  They gave him "heroic" doses of calomel. The most violent laxative known to man.
 
  And inside of a weeks time, they bled him to death.
      yours Scott 

[Billman49]

The barber-surgeon/doctor bled humans and the farrier/veterinary bled horses - it is highly unlikely the same tool was used by both. If you read the second link that I posted above, the larger, usually brass cased, fleams were used for horses - the fleam for humans was often single bladed, or even spring loaded...

By the late 19th century bleeding was rarely carried out on humans, but on horses it continued well into the 20th century. When bleeding the blood was collected in a bowl so that the amount of blood could be measured.

I have several brass bound fleams, both English and French - the English one has three blades, as the one illustrated - the French ones often have five or more blades, and include other tools for veterinary use, one of which is a farrier's hoof knife..

More details (in French) at http://www.forum-outils-anciens.com/t2628-Flammes-et-batons-a-saigner.htm or http://www.forum-outils-anciens.com/t2956-vrai-ou-pas.htm

I always understood the barbers pole refelected blood seeping out of white bandages.... See http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-lindsey-fitzharris/the-bloody-history-behind-barbers-pole_b_3537716.html or http://www.cracked.com/article_19909_6-famous-symbols-that-dont-mean-what-you-think_p2.html also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barber's_pole

Ref English kings being bled to death, apparently George Washington was bled too much in 1799....