I think I know what this handsome little tool is for but I am wondering if anyone knows the company behind the logo. My guess that it is a small tack or nail puller is based on a similar one that was posted somewhere here in the last few days ... could be wrong. It's a small one, just 7 inches long and only an inch across the widest part of the jaws. Anyway, it's a looker, and I thought you all might enjoy a look see. I did take a lazy look on Google, but all the llistings were for a JMC Tool Company established in 1993. I don't think they made this one.

It is welcome in my tool belt anytime.

Well, it isn't a nail or tack puller.  The rounded tips on the jaws would just slide up the shank, and they would never work their way under the head.   At 7 inches, it's not so small for a puller -- my smallest is around three inches.  I think some kind of crimper is more likely.

"Old Tool Man" has one listed on his web site. He says they look like dynamite cap crimpers.
I used my dynamite cap crimpers to pull a few dozen staples and finish nails out of a tree trunk in my yard yesterday. When I get some dynamite caps to crimp, I'll let you know how that goes :)

Quote from: kxxr on April 13, 2012, 06:59:18 AM
When I get some dynamite caps to crimp, I'll let you know how that goes :)

when you find some caps to crimp I can show you a few Beaver dam to blow :)

According to http://www.oldtoolman.com/tool/OTM-2880/  , it is a dynamite crimper.


Perhaps ( but a long shot) Jaynesville Machine Co. Better known for having been absorbed by GM to build their Samson tractor.

Old Tool Man says it "looks" like a dynamite cap crimper, but .... this Crescent dynamite cap crimper and the DuPont model just like it seem to have a different, almost scissoring feature to the way the jaws overlap. Hmmmm....

I was going with Janesville Machine Company as well, but all I could find that was documented as being from them was an implement wrench, and the logo there was J.M.Co. They were a farm implement manufacture, not a tool manufacturer, so it stands to reason they only made the tools necessary to maintain their implements in the field. I'm going with this tool being a crimper, though I agree with kxxr, not likely a cap crimper. My guess would be electrical or possibly for the little metal clips used to join wire panels to make small animal cages.

Another (guess), Jeffrey Manufacturing Co, in which case they might be roller chain pliers....

(Jeffrey goes back to 1876 and made, among other things, road rollers, cutting machines, conveyors, and mine locomotives )

https://www.jeffreyco.com/our-history

I read the Jeffrey Co. history which is linked at the bottom of the article Rusty had linked. Anyone feeling down in the dumps and thinking their job sucks should give it a read. The job of cutting coal seams prior to automation by companies like Jeffrey is one that was tough, dirty and very dangerous. In that article, it says that a Jeffrey employee went on to form the Joy Manufacturing Company, making mining machinery also. An interesting read.
Jeffrey, Janesville, Joy or none of the above.
In about 1919, GM bought both the Samson tractor company in California and the Janesville plant in Wisconsin and moved the tractor operation to the Janesville plant in an attempt to compete with Ford's success in the tractor business. It didn't work out and the Samson division was closed but when the last Tahoe rolled out of the Janesville plant in 2008, they closed the oldest GM assembly plant in North America...
I learned all that, but not who made the tool or what it's for. That's the 'fun' of it. I did see another listing of the same tool on eBay where it is called a "wire ring crimp" Janesville Machine Company.
There is a pretty big store chain, "Blain's Farm and Fleet", that branched out of Janesville, Wisconsin where Janesville Machine Co. was located. I wonder if there are any 100 year old guys working there that would remember selling these tools?

I recognize the logo, but only because I have a set of the same pliers.  It is interesting to know that it might be for crimping dynamite caps.  I've used mine for crimps on some solderless terminals - they worked great!  The short distance from the hinge to the jaws gives them a ton of pressure.
Yours are much shinier than mine.