What is this shaving/cutting tool used for?

[marvela]

Hi all,

I have a cutting tool that has stumped a number of antique forums, so I'm bringing in the big guns. I have this tool that I haven't been able to figure out what it's used for. I've done countless search. At first I thought it was a tobacco cutter, but I didn't find anything that looked exactly like it. I then realized that it doesn't "cut," it shaves. The blade is partially blocked by the lower part of the arm. If you stick something through the hole, the guard just hits it. If you stick something in the hole so that the guard clears it but it's still pressed against the face of the guard, the blade will shave off a paper-thin section. Here are some details and answers to questions I most frequently get:

• Size: the base is 8.75" x 3.5". The circle where the item to be cut goes is 2.5" in diameter
• it's made out of solid brass that is pitted
• there are no marks or writing on it anywhere
• the thickness of the slice is hair-thin. I tried this on a carrot and the resulting slice was see-through.
• The slices accumulate at the base in such a manor that it makes me think that the slices aren't the product/usable, but that maybe this was supposed to sheer a clean face off of something.
• I picked this up from a thrift store in Idaho

Any help would be amazing. There are a few forums that are dying to know the answer.

Thanks,
Marron

[oldgoaly]

about the right size for a sausage slicer but could it cut meat? bologna?
maybe cheese?

[Lostmind]

OldGoaly might be on the right track.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-rare-Raadvad-Hand-Operated-Bread-Slicer-c-1900-Guillotine-Style-Denmark-/271593063602?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f3c3544b2

Maybe search for Guillotine style slicer.

[Papaw]

I agree- meat slicer- or cheese. The blade should adjust for thicker slices.

[marvela]

I've included "guillotine" in all of my searches. I did see these bread slicers and thought they were close. The slices are just soooo thin.   Attached is a photo of what this did to a piece of cheddar. This is 6 passes of the blade, and it isn't adjustable. Someone on another forum suggested it might be a micortome, but I haven't been able to find another example like this.

[rusty]

Something that is sliced very very thin is microscope samples for transparent microscopes...

Seems a bit crude for a laboratory instrument tho....

[mvwcnews]

Wouldn't a  slicer for soft items like meat, cheese, etc.  have some kind of cradle to hold the mass from which the slice is cut?  I don't see anything on this to show where a holding cradle attached. 
Very puzzling!

[oldtools]

Maybe to true up the end of a dowel or spoke? could shave the end at an angle?

[Papaw]

Looks like two screws hold the blade . Can the blade be moved up or down when the screws are loose ?

[marvela]

The screw holes in the blade are only big enough to fit the screw (no sliding it) and the screws don't slide within the arm at all.

[marvela]

It's almost like it's a hand tool to plane the ends of dowels or table legs or something. Is that a thing?

[oldgoaly]

could it be for shaving chocolate? confectioner's  tool
can't think of any other soft food product?

[turnnut]

many candy machines/cutters were made of brass,

could be to clear cut some sort of food before wrapping ?

I had thought of trimming cigars, but had never seen one in brass.

[amecks]

I like oldgoaly's idea of chocolate shaver.  But I like anything that has to do with chocolate. 
How about an ice shaver?

Al

[bear_man]

I doubt it's for ice.  I own an "ice plane" or "ice shaver" and it's nothing like this beauty.  And keep in mind that I've never been wrong before, tho' I've been mistaken a time or several.   *bear grins*