No clue what this is

[Nolatoolguy]

A friend asked me about this. I wasn't able to give him a awnser. Hopefully someone here knows what it is. 

[keykeeper]

I'd call it a good looking woman...oh, you mean the tool, not the poster on the refrigerator....

I'd say some odd patent of a rasp, maybe for lead removal in bodywork???

[oldgoaly]

little coarse for lead???  but on the order of a file / rasp teeth don't look sharp so maybe for something soft? softer than lead.

[Ken W.]

Could it be for shaving tires ?

[Aunt Phil]

Leadburner's dressing tool.  If memory serves, that one is called a gobber or seam gobber, used to initially dress a completed weld.

Leadburners are weldors who specialize in WELDING, not soldering lead.
There probably aren't 6 left in the US worthy of their hire, the trade still flourishes in England.
Until manufacturing, mainly Stanley left the US, Meridian Connecticut employed up around 50+ lead burners full time.

For reasons beyond my understanding lead anodes used in plating tanks are welded up from sheet lead rather than cast around the support fixture.  Most now come from China.

The other major use of lead is lining radiation containment rooms such as Xray rooms.  The lead barrier MUST be welded to a watertight level. 
While lead can be welded with the TIG process, the preferred and arguably superior method is Oxy/Hydrogen torch.  Smith is the only US manufacturer of O/H equipment, and appears to only be offering remaining stock for sale.

[Billman49]

Not seen this particular tool before, and not going to argue with Aunty Phil over its usage....

Just want to add that in the UK we would call this a float (c.f. gunstock and planemaker's tools for use with wood) and in France you would find the blades set into a wooden body, and it would be used on soft stone or plaster to get a smooth surface (rabot de plâtrier or chemin de fer)...

[Billman49]

In the UK lead is still widely used for roof flashings etc, so lead burning (using a special oxy-acetylene blowpipe) is still taught to most plumbers.

Personally I've never tried it, but still have soft soldered flashings in place that I made nearly 50 years ago that are still 100% serviceble....

The old way was with a red hot iron, tallow as flux and a strip of rod scraped clean of its oxide film as a filler rod....

I do have a couple of the old iron soldering irons (which is why the copper bitted iron is so named) - they are big heavy unwieldy beasts - plumbers used to get deformed, claw like, hands from using them due to the steam that came off the wet cloths  that were wrapped  around the handle  to keep it cool....

[oldgoaly]

lead burners are here too, phone company used it, so do plumber although they called it wiping a joint.  basically they are using the base metal to joint it instead of a alloy (lower melting temp) Autobody solder is a alloy tin/lead , tinning butter in acid and tin. For autobody leading the teeth are curved as not to catch a edge and dig in.  these teeth are not sharp looking, straight and deep!
 Is there a large flat surfaces or a seam in lead burning in some types of equipment?  So if they  made a cover from lead sheet they would have one long seam to joined the edges? Interesting tool!

[eddie hudson]

I wiped many a lead sleeve with the phone company. We used a treated cloth to do the job. One of my old buddies used to use newspaper to wipe a joint, just like in the really old days.

[tucker]

when apprenticed 60 odd years ago was taught to do lead burning in the workshop.
the was to keep the lead moving using the torch,this would make a neat pattern around
whatever you were welding.ie for upstands around pipes etc.wiping joints is another kettle of fish.
brian
ps should read art.

[Aunt Phil]

Phone & underground power guys get to cheat & use solder.  Lead burners do it the right way, strips dressed from the material they're working so the alloy is right.
I was told that by a leadburner in Meridian, Conn, and I gotta take his word for it.

Fellow was going to teach me how to wipe a lead drain pipe years ago.  I decided I didn't want to learn when he poured half a ladel of lead into the sheepwool pad he was holding with his hand.  I might be nuts, but there are limits.

[RedVise]

Holy Smokes !!      Quite the forum we here, Guys!!


Thanks for sharing the info !



Brian

[Billman49]

Wiped joints were usually soldered - the type of stick solder is about 1 1/8" x 5/16" section. The lead/tin eutectic shows that at 62%Sn/38%Pb the molten solder 'freezes' instantly - ideal for electicians, but not for plumbers who need a 'pasty' stage where the solder is in a semi-molten state and can be shaped (usually in the UK with a moleskin cloth).

Plumbers' solders tend to have a much higher lead content - up to 80% which gives a greater 'pasty' temperature range. The solder was melted in a lead pot and splashed onto the joint with the ladle, then reheated with the blowlamp amd 'wiped' into shaped.....

Lead burning was usually resticted to sheet materials, often pre-welded on the bench, such as pipe flashings and cowls. For pipe work (water and gas) the lead pipe would have deformed if heated to melting point - the addition of tin to form a solder lowers the melting (eutectic) point so the solder melts before the lead...

I cannot comment on wiped electical joints, but if the outer casing of the cable was lead, then I suspect solder was used, for the same reasons as used on lead pipe, as stated above...

[rusty]

Aside from the interesting (and good) diversion into lead work , this appears to be a horse shoe rasp...

The idea being you can disassemble it to sharpen the plates..

[Billman49]

Shoe rasp?? Or hoof rasp, to prepare the hoof to take the shoe??