Seems insane, but...

[Branson]

Lerwill sent me the URL for this eBay auction, and I was pumped!  One of these is part of the kit I'm still trying to assemble.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Cavalry-Farrier-Field-Combination-Tool-Creaser-Pritchel-Horse-Shoeing-/351022945915?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&nma=true&si=cEnU6JQnim26Kpl8esodsVmTTWI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

It's late manufacture but it is army issue (made by Heller) and meets all the specs from the Ordnance Dept, though the heads are not finished like the earlier editions.  Nice piece.  But the bidding went, IMO, insane.  So I have downloaded the pictures, and have the seller's statement that it, and 23 others came in a box marked Heller.  But I don't have the tool.  If anyone runs across one of these, I'd like to know about it.  If it's (a lot) less than $210 I would consider buying one.

[Plyerman]

I've never seen one, but will keep an eye out. A double-ended-hammer would definitely be something I would notice. And we know there are at least 23 more of them out there somewhere.

[anglesmith]

That price is a bit over top to say the least. When did the army stop issuing these ? They are drop forged so it is unlikely that were made before the 1900s!? It would not take much blacksmithing to make those heads. If I was making them I would start a couple of s/h round eyed napping hammer heads  (over here you can pick them up for few dollars). They are made of good steel. drift eyes oval, adjust  lengths if necessary and forged to shape, re-harden and temper and bingo you have a genuine civil war issue tool ! I wish I was closer I'd make them for you.
Graeme

[rusty]

I have never even seen those head shapes, nevermind the entire hammer, but I will remember it, what an unusual tool :)

> less than $210

There is hardcore collector interest in Heller, I dunno why, but it is driving blacksmith tools out of sight :(

[Branson]

That price is a bit over top to say the least. When did the army stop issuing these ? They are drop forged so it is unlikely that were made before the 1900s!? It would not take much blacksmithing to make those heads. If I was making them I would start a couple of s/h round eyed napping hammer heads  (over here you can pick them up for few dollars). They are made of good steel. drift eyes oval, adjust  lengths if necessary and forged to shape, re-harden and temper and bingo you have a genuine civil war issue tool ! I wish I was closer I'd make them for you.
Graeme

Ya know, it would be really nice to have another tool for my kit from part of the Tool Talk family.  I have a creaser I can modify to proper dimensions, but not a fore punch.  I could send you the dimensions for the fore punch if you are interested. 

Actually, the tool is earlier than the Civil War, maybe by 20 years.  The drawings I have are from 1848, but I have reason to believe these drawings reflect designs established in 1840 or 41.  The first US mountain howitzer and its tool packs date from 1835.

[Branson]

I have never even seen those head shapes, nevermind the entire hammer, but I will remember it, what an unusual tool :)
> less than $210
There is hardcore collector interest in Heller, I dunno why, but it is driving blacksmith tools out of sight :(

I do like Heller, and have a few Heller tools.  But I can't remember ever paying more than, or perhaps as much as $10.   This price looks closer to Jay Sharp hammers. 

In the light artillery, with its greater wagon and cart storage, these were separate tools.  The creaser is for making the nail channel in horse shoes while the fore punch is for punching the holes for the nails, to be finished up with the pritchel.  Everything was reduced in making the kits for mountain howitzer artificers because everything had to be carried on horses to move as quickly as cavalry.   The 1848 Ordnance Dept drawings show the tool, and it was still being issued, though to cavalry only, in 1915.  The one on eBay almost certainly dates from this last period.

[anglesmith]

That price is a bit over top to say the least. When did the army stop issuing these ? They are drop forged so it is unlikely that were made before the 1900s!? It would not take much blacksmithing to make those heads. If I was making them I would start a couple of s/h round eyed napping hammer heads  (over here you can pick them up for few dollars). They are made of good steel. drift eyes oval, adjust  lengths if necessary and forged to shape, re-harden and temper and bingo you have a genuine civil war issue tool ! I wish I was closer I'd make them for you.
Graeme

Ya know, it would be really nice to have another tool for my kit from part of the Tool Talk family.  I have a creaser I can modify to proper dimensions, but not a fore punch.  I could send you the dimensions for the fore punch if you are interested. 

Actually, the tool is earlier than the Civil War, maybe by 20 years.  The drawings I have are from 1848, but I have reason to believe these drawings reflect designs established in 1840 or 41.  The first US mountain howitzer and its tool packs date from 1835.

Yes I would be happy to make it, please send me the drawings.
Graeme

[Branson]

Yes I would be happy to make it, please send me the drawings.
Graeme

Cool!  I'll get copies some time this week!!

[anglesmith]

Branson   I noticed that the double headed tool had the heads wedge on!?  Do you think that the original issue ones were wedged on?  It is / was normal practice not to wedge top tools on (usually little or no draught in the eye) as some of them particular cutting and punching tools required constant redressing on both ends.
 Graeme

[Branson]

Branson   I noticed that the double headed tool had the heads wedge on!?  Do you think that the original issue ones were wedged on?  It is / was normal practice not to wedge top tools on (usually little or no draught in the eye) as some of them particular cutting and punching tools required constant redressing on both ends.
 Graeme

The jury is still out on that.   This one is "as issued" so by the time (I'm thinking early 20th Century) it was made, yes.  The seller had a crate of them, 24 in all, of which this was the last one.  I've heard that older tools of any sort did not have any metal wedge at all.  What I can say is that I have a D.R. Barton shipwright's ax, probably late 1800s, with the original swept back handle.  It left the factory with a wood wedge, but never had a metal wedge.  Accident?  Evidence?  Dunno.

This tool was for fast moving cavalry, and a grinding stone was not included in the kit.  The kit did include a number of files and two "sand stones."   These were all the farrier had to dress the ends, so it probably didn't matter if they could be removed for dressing.  My feeling is that they would be fixed in place as a safeguard against getting lost in the field.