Strange iron hand tool -- can you identify?

[sherman bay]

A friend of mine collects antique tools, mostly from farming and logging operations. He acquired this strange object and doesn't know what it is or what it is used for. Anybody have any ideas?

http://www.doorbell.net/video/peg/what_is_it.jpg

(The rope in the pic is not part of the tool.) It appears to be sharpened at the triangular end and fits a hand well on the other. It does not look like it was intended to be struck with a hammer, as the end is rounded. It is very heavy, solid iron, and approximately 10-12 inches long (I didn't measure it, just going from memory).

Or if it's not a tool, could it be a component part of something else?

[Neals]

I recently saw one very similar in an antique shop being sold as a meat mincer for making cutlets etc. No idea if that is correct.

[gibsontool]

It looks to me like it could be a log splitter,maybe for splitting cedar shake bolts. It may never have been used as such and that explains the lack of hammer marks? Just a wild guess.

[rusty]

Seems awfull solid, an iron for making cuf pleats or such?
doesn't look like something you should strike, and making it solid cost more and was more work, so there must be a reason if it is...
Either so you can heat it, cool it, or make it heavy....
(Yet another ice chipper?)
Sugar breaker?
hmm

[sherman bay]

I think it's a cooper's tool. Look at the 3rd & 4th pics on this page:

http://answers252-r.blogspot.com/

I don't quite get why it should be triangular.

[OilyRascal]

The 1954 Beaver pipe catalog has a reamer (page 4) that is very similar in concept - not sure on diameter of what you have there.

[skipskip]

Nutcracker


somebody had to say it.


Skip

[Branson]

I think it's a cooper's tool. Look at the 3rd & 4th pics on this page:

http://answers252-r.blogspot.com/

I don't quite get why it should be triangular.

Well, that's the same tool alright.  Why it's triangular escapes me, too.  If this one has been used, it must have been struck with a mallet or a club, like a froe.

[wvtools]

I think it's a cooper's tool. Look at the 3rd & 4th pics on this page:

http://answers252-r.blogspot.com/

I don't quite get why it should be triangular.

Well, that's the same tool alright.  Why it's triangular escapes me, too.  If this one has been used, it must have been struck with a mallet or a club, like a froe.

I think it is triangular, so that when you split it, you get 3 strips that are about the right width for a barrel hoop.  You would then plane or shave down the pointed part of the triangle of each piece until you had a piece to make the hoop.  Kind of the same concept as making a billet for maknig bows by hand.  You would end up with a long, strong strip of wood.

[lbgradwell]

I think it's a cooper's tool. Look at the 3rd & 4th pics on this page...

How did you find that?!

[jimwrench]

Now that it is identified it is easy to find on page 449 of Sellers Dictionary of American Hand Tools

[Fins/413]

Cool tool but the writer of the description evidently doesn't know the difference between hoops and staves.

[Branson]

I don't quite get why it should be triangular.

I think it is triangular, so that when you split it, you get 3 strips that are about the right width for a barrel hoop.  You would then plane or shave down the pointed part of the triangle of each piece until you had a piece to make the hoop.  Kind of the same concept as making a billet for maknig bows by hand.  You would end up with a long, strong strip of wood.
[/quote]

Just wonderin' why three is better than, say, four strips.

[Aunt Phil]

I don't quite get why it should be triangular.

I think it is triangular, so that when you split it, you get 3 strips that are about the right width for a barrel hoop.  You would then plane or shave down the pointed part of the triangle of each piece until you had a piece to make the hoop.  Kind of the same concept as making a billet for maknig bows by hand.  You would end up with a long, strong strip of wood.

Just wonderin' why three is better than, say, four strips.
[/quote]

3 rather than 4 allows the use of smaller caliper saplings.

Rushed barrels were made using braided hoops that were placed after soaking or steaming so as the hoop dried it tightened the staves onto the rush.

[Branson]

Useful information, Aunt Phil.  Thanks.