Odd Tongs Dividers ?

[wvtools]

I have ended up with 4 pairs of these things.  I am not sure what to call them when I put them on Ebay.  They have joints and legs very similar to heavy blacksmith's/wheelwright's compasses and dividers.  However, the tips are odd and different than on those dividers.  One leg turns inward at 90 degrees on the end and it nests into a concave rounded other tip.

Does anybody here have any ideas?

Thanks,

John
WVTools

[Papaw]

Could be cotter pin removing tools.

[johnsironsanctuary]

Looks like you could use it as a tack holder, but I keep thinking coopers tool. I just can't figure out what the split would fit on while the ball tip made a mark on the OD.

[rusty]

Nicely made, full box joint and all, but, yeah, what the heck does the end fit into?

[Billman49]

I have seen these before, and should remember what they are used for, but alas old age is catching up.... Somewhere I have a faint memory that Papaw is in the right ballpark... Lynch pin removers for wagon/carriage wheel axles???

[anglesmith]

These  are called a clip wrench or clip tongs for putting the clip or keep plate on the Ubolts on the axles of carts and sulkies  See Salaman's dictionary of woodworking tools page 533. These have come up before!
Graeme

[Billman49]

Well done - now I remember - I was only about one foot away from the correct answer - I recall now that there is a French video showing a wheelright using them to assemble the axle of a small cart...

[wvtools]

Graeme,

Thanks a lot.  I appreciate the information.  Now I think I will keep a couple to take to a tractor shows instead of selling them all on Ebay.  I like to have conversation pieces, particularly when I know what they are.

I looked through several sections of Salaman and several other books last night looking to the answer.  I was hung up on it being some kind of scribe because they have the same joint and leg (but not tip) pattern as old heavy dividers.  I did not think to look in wrenches.  I should have because the bent tip looks like a hook spanner wrench end.

Thanks,

John

[anglesmith]

WVTools, John If you check through some sulky/waggon hardwear catalogs I think you will find similar joints on the folding sulky hood iron work? Where the joint is different to most calipers etc, are those two large shoulders that limit the unfolding and there also is no tapering of the legs that caliper/dividers would normally have.  I have not explained that well, but I think you will get what I'm meaning!
Graeme

[wvtools]

I have had a few pairs of the dividers that look just like these, except the tip.  I have posted a photo below.  Look at the top one.  Also, of the 4 pairs of clip tongs that I have, only 1 has the shoulders to keep them from opening to 180 degrees.

JMH