stapler like tool

[john k]

I didn't find this, have made it known around work I like old tools, and a fellow handed me a box of junk, mostly.   Got it out of his dads house, had no idea what any of it was.  Mostly made of cast iron, the red bar is wood, it works and I've put it to use.  If I turned it around the name is visible, but that would give the game away, so anybody got a guess as to what it does?

[jimwrench]

Looks like a glaziers point stapler to me.

[wvtools]

It is a glazier's point tool.  If it has points in it, little flat diamond shaped pieces of metal should shoot out of the front.

EDIT:  Jimwrench beat me to it while I was typing.  It is probably a Red Devil.

[john k]

Right on both counts, damn, gonna have to dig deeper to stump this bunch.  Works great too.

[Branson]

Yep, glazier's point driver.  Older ones use diamond shaped points, newer ones use triangle shaped points.  I had to buy one about 10 years ago, and it set me back about $80.  Point drivers ain't cheap.  Also used for fastening pictures in frames, as I did in my grandfather's art and framing store back in the '60s.

[scottg]

Here is the hand alternative.
 Homemade hammer. The square head slides along the glass and the bent shank keeps your knuckles off the surface.
 Extra punch/driver which has a small rabbit under the "nose" so it catches a point and keeps hold of it to drive it in straight when you hit the other end with the hammer.
 Points in their box and a glaziers chisel (nooker knife) for removing old putty or widening a frame barely, in case you cut the glass just a hair overlarge (not that I or anyone else ever did that).
 
  yours Scott   

[Branson]

I started framing before the glazier's points were in vogue.  Nails were the deal then.  Before the point drivers, there were a lot of different things for nailing in the pictures.  I used one of those spring loaded brad drivers -- the ones that look like screwdrivers.  Didn't like them much.  And then there was a special hammer with a swiveling triangular face that was always flush to the picture.  About the time I got used to that one, framers discovered the point drivers.

Yeah,  of course we never cut the glass anything like over large.  If I ever *had* though, chiseling out a bit at the bottom of the rabbet *might* have occurred to me...

[Ietech]

I have seen these before and they are a good thing for older homes with the old style windows.

As far as picture  frames go i guess they would be useful but a bit of overkill.

I have used brass brads for pic frames for as long as iI can remember. Actually I don't  think I have ever seen a glaziers point in a pic frame -- even a large one. There are probly some out there just never seen 'em

[m_fumich]

My mother has had one of those for years. She does art on glass and uses that when she frames anything. After everything goes in the frame, 2 to 3 diamond points go on each side of the frame in the back to hold everything in place. Then the back gets covered with brown paper. Anyone that frames pictures a lot would have one if those.

[rusty]

>I don't  think I have ever seen a glaziers point in a pic frame

You aren't supposed to use points in a picture frame. Points don't hold the glass in a window, the putty does, the points are just to keep it in place until the puttly sets. If you put them in a frame, they would chew through the backing until they got to the glass, and then start fracturing the glass.

Backing board and brads or staples (glue on the cheapo frames) is still the usual way for frames that don't have channels.
I have seen all kinds of strange things over the years tho.....

[m_fumich]

In a picture frame there is a back board and sometimes matting between the points and the glass. Additionally, picture frames don't move much. It's highly unlikely that the points would ever get through the backboard due to chafing.

[Branson]

>I don't  think I have ever seen a glaziers point in a pic frame

You aren't supposed to use points in a picture frame. Points don't hold the glass in a window, the putty does, the points are just to keep it in place until the puttly sets. If you put them in a frame, they would chew through the backing until they got to the glass, and then start fracturing the glass.

Backing board and brads or staples (glue on the cheapo frames) is still the usual way for frames that don't have channels.
I have seen all kinds of strange things over the years tho.....

Rusty, diamond points and triangle points have been an industry standard for custom framing for over 40 years now.   It is the usual way professional framing is done.  Recently the point drivers have been re-engineered for a new style of point that is narrower and longer (about 3/16 X 1 inch).  They hold the pictures in just fine -- I've never had one come back in all those years.  They don't chew through the backings, and they don't get to the glass any more than the finish nails I used when I first started out framing and fitting art, or the cut nails that were used in the 1800s.  I started framing pictures professionally over 50 years ago, and have framed probably 100 paintings and drawings since October alone.  At least one of the paintings I have framed over the years is hanging in the Oakland Museum of Art.  One of the places I worked when I was in college did all of Wayne Thiebaud's framing back in the late '60s.

[1930]

Not just for custom framing, el-cheapo frames ( what I have experinced mostly ) use the glazier points as well. Im sure a walk thru wal-marts framing section will show a bunch