Anyone know what this is?

[msimmons]

This belonged to my grandfather and on display at a county fair but no one knows what it is.
Large pictures:
http://stinkbugonline.com/unknowntool/2011-06-11_10.31.37.jpg
http://stinkbugonline.com/unknowntool/2011-06-11_10.31.45.jpg
http://stinkbugonline.com/unknowntool/2011-06-11_10.31.53.jpg

[lzenglish]

This belonged to my grandfather and on display at a county fair but no one knows what it is.
Large pictures:
http://stinkbugonline.com/unknowntool/2011-06-11_10.31.37.jpg
http://stinkbugonline.com/unknowntool/2011-06-11_10.31.45.jpg
http://stinkbugonline.com/unknowntool/2011-06-11_10.31.53.jpg

Welcome to the site "msimmons"! At first glance, I would say it is a dowel shaving tool of some sort, but that is just a WAG. It does look to be very well made, and not home made. Was your Grandfather a Woodworker?

Wayne

[Papaw]

I inserted your pictures.
Dowel shaver or pointer is my WAG. Looks like you would lay the dowel across the blade area and twist it against the blade. The center portion could be lowered to handle a larger diameter dowel. Maybe for making pool cues?

[lzenglish]

In the third picture, it appears to be hollow, is it? And if it is, what size is the hole on the bottom of it?

Wayne

[Branson]

What a whatzit!   It is set up a bit like a hand pencil sharpener, and I think the whatever was turned in the tool like a pencil.  Oddly, it looks like the whatever was turned counter clockwise... The hollowness could provide for letting shavings drop. 

The middle section is adjustable for angle, but I can't see that it is in any other way adjustable, which makes me think it was for dealing with a specific diameter of stock.  A very narrow piece of stock at that.   Looks like it could taper, or form a round tenon.  It could be something useful to a maker of Windsor chairs, but I can't think of anything else. 

It's almost certainly a relative of the widget.

[msimmons]

Was your Grandfather a Woodworker?

Wayne

I think he was a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. I don't know a whole lot about him but I know he engineered built a dam & set up a hydro-electric generator back in the 40's, and a few other projects like that (even though he was missing an arm).

His father ran a saw mill though so its possible that he was the one that made it.

The center portion could be lowered to handle a larger diameter dowel.

actually the center portion is on a "pivot" or "axel" (for lack of a better description). In pictures 1 & 3 it is fully "open" and in pic 2 is it fully "closed"

In the third picture, it appears to be hollow, is it? And if it is, what size is the hole on the bottom of it?

It is, I believe the hole is smaller than a dime in diameter.

Oddly, it looks like the whatever was turned counter clockwise...

I'm having a hard time working out the logic in my head, but wouldn't a counter clockwise turn produce a thread on the dowel or stock to screw into a threaded hole in a proper right hand manner?


I'll check with my pops to see if a dowel shaver or pointer makes sense.
Thanks & keep the WAGs coming :)

[1930]

Sorry, I cant help your pict arent quite big enough to see:)

[Branson]

Oddly, it looks like the whatever was turned counter clockwise...

I'm having a hard time working out the logic in my head, but wouldn't a counter clockwise turn produce a thread on the dowel or stock to screw into a threaded hole in a proper right hand manner?
[/quote]

Think of a pencil sharpener.  You stick the pencil in and twist it against the blade by turning it clockwise.  This tool appears to be held in one hand, while the other hand twists the dowel or whatever with the other hand.  To shave off the wood, you would have to turn it in the other direction.

[Branson]

It's almost certainly a relative of the widget.

It occurs to me that widget has come to mean a whatsit.  It was, however, a wood working tool back in the day.  Roy Underhill showed one, and how it worked back around 1980 on The Woodwright Shop.  I can't even find a reference to that old tool online.    The stock looks like the stock for a threader (see attached pic), with its two handles, and the working business in between.

Instead of holding a die, however, it had a blade set like our current whatsit.  It worked like an endless pencil sharpener, as Underhill remarked, turning out  round stock.   

The blade in the stock was set so that what you wanted to make round was held in a vise, and you grasped the handles and turned them clockwise.
The tool we are looking at might be used that way, but I was looking at it as though the tool was held and the material was turned.

So,  it appears to me to be a relative of the old tool properly named a widget.

[scottg]

This is an excellently made tool!
Whatever it is

Its not a tenon cutter (or a dowel maker either), the geometry is all wrong and besides the tenon it cut would be under 1/4" in size if it was. Also terribly sloppy since the blade is nowhere near the operating position of a tenon cutter. 
I have no idea exactly what it is, but I do what it ain't.  :) 
  yours Scott 

[Lewill2]

Looks like a pool cue dresser. Used to clean up the end of the pool cue leather tip and/or cut the end straight to install a new leather tip.

[Lewill2]

OOPS I forgot to say I like the looks of the hog oiler in the back ground.

[jimwrench]

  Looks like it would be useful in squaring up a pool cue end prior to installing a tip. Insert cue from bottom of handle and rotate. Strickly a guess but looks like it would work.