Odd Iron Implement...and Old!

[Neals]

May be part of a set of cattle dehorners. I sold my set but looks very similar. Would have 2 long handles. On the bottom was a loop with 2 blades mounted at an angle in the bottom. The center piece had a Guillotine blade. Mine were solid steel but the action was very similar.

[wlwhittier]

That sounds pretty reasonable!  I'm on it...

[Lewill2]

I second that Neals

[WiebeLC]

Here is a patent for a dehorner. The gearing is the same but the business end appears to have a different function.
https://www.google.com/patents/US534112?dq=leavitt+dehorner&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TEf8UvLzNsL-oQS_uoKwBA&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA
There is an example based on this patent at the museum where I work. I can try to get a picture if its needed.

[OilyRascal]

dehorners.  I work around the picture hosting issues by using Photobucket (or the likes).  Never had an issue since doing it that way.

[wlwhittier]

The issue I have with accepting "De-Horners" as the answer is that NONE of the others shown on Google Images have attachments...they're all-in-one. There are MANY vintage, cast-iron types, of various configurations, makers and patents. Not a one of them has other parts, as this one would.

This thing would need, at minimum, a vee-shaped receiving blade, into which the horn would be forced by the pusher.  And the pusher isn't well-shaped for a horn, being more flat than radiused.

Having a second, 'loose' attachment to deal with while attempting to apply the fixture to the horn of a less-than-docile bovine sounds like a non-starter...to me.

[oldtools]

Looks like some type of press, ~1 1/2" travel, hooks on a cross piece & presses a ~2" wide piece into the cross piece?.. or a hub?

[wlwhittier]

Yeah...like, maybe, a wedge?

The taper on the hooks suggest something loose enough to perhaps be 'lifted' by them; the pusher face is relieved to center or capture that wedge, keeping it between the two 'ears'.

Also, the pusher has that D-shaped hole thru it...and the opening has a taper, or 'flare', more pronounced beneath the push-face, that isn't just draft-angle for casting convenience (that feature may not show well in my pics).

The longer I look at it, the stranger it gets. I don't think we're there yet.

[wlwhittier]

I had an inspiration in my slumber, and showed it to a man with extensive experience in wild-animal trapping.  I suggested that it might have been used to compress springs for setting spring-loaded traps of some variety, and asked what he thought of that idea.

"Nope," he said..."no trap I've ever seen has been configured to be set with that contraption!"

Sigh.  wlw

[keykeeper]

Picket fence tool. For removal/replacement of wooden pickets/slats in snow fence, I believe.

Go here, scroll down the page a little, it has handles in their photo. http://www.patented-antiques.com/Backpages/T-F-S/FARM/misc_farm.htm

I remembered this from the old forum before the big crash some time ago......

[wlwhittier]

Looks like you've nailed it!

Thank you very much, all, for your thoughtful responses to this thread...

Whew...Glad to be done with it.  On to other mysteries!  wlw

[rudeawakening55]

  I would say it's an old fencing tool .......tightner.

[keykeeper]

Why? I posted a link with an explanation as to its use, that references an old advertisement for it?

  I would say it's an old fencing tool .......tightner.

[ron darner]

Looks like it could have been part of a de-horner.  See http://nicemedinst.com/detail/98/  or http://bainbridgevet.com.au/shop/bainbridge-keystone-dehorner/ for similar ones.  They still make replacement blades for some of them . . .

[Lostmind]

Maybe a tire bead breaker? looks like hooks insert in rim and the gear driven part pushes down on tire.