Thread: Mystery tool.

Yes Ian I thought I had seen some of that style of hose clamp but my memory and google failed to find any.
Usually if you push the opposite side of a ring back into the groove in the piston the ends should poke out far enough to get hold of them. That's not to say I've done a complete 180 and am now a piston ring expander convert I still have my reservations in that regard.
CB, over engineered is right, you can close the jaws on two different thickness material and they will both clamp tightly. As they travel apart, increased resistance the harder they grip.
I've also been looking for patents, companies with the name Jason, no luck there either.
Cheers,
Geoff.

Shoelace tightener? Or for tightening girdles/ corsets?

Ha ha, you nailed it Rob, or a button hole stretcher for your cardie.
The owner of the original one has confirmed that the jaws are indeed smooth which poses the question was the tool available with or without hatching or has one been modified.
All viewers of this thread to please sort through your undie draw to see if you've got one we can compare.
Cheers,
Geoff.

Maybe something in the vein of this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scold%27s_bridle?

I've enjoyed reading this thread and am frustrated at the failure for it to reach a conclusion. I am a fan of mystery tool queries, but unfortunately am useless at solving them. In this case, however, I think we might look further into the rag trade for ideas. Since the handles are so small, along with the vintage we are considering, would it be wrong to think that this might be some sort of stretching tool used in the garment industry? It mainly employed women and children in the time we are thinking of, so that would at least account for the handle size. Also, what about those hanging dog-ear hoods? That must have been to maintain spacing, which would discount either wire stripping or piston ring applications. Don't know about saw blades. We must not forget that garment making largely fueled the industrial revolution.

Thinking along the line of a tool to tense a thread, twine or cable what about their application to the installation of security ties such as those sealed with lead. This tool pulls the cable tight and another applies the seal?

It does bear similarities to a modern wire stripper that Lee Valley sells. That may just be a coincidence though.

Self-Adjusting Wire Stripper - Lee Valley Tools

Click on the "Instr" at the bottom for closeups of the mechanism.

Pete

I took it to the Waroona Vintage Machinery Rally on Sunday and it generated a lot of interest, there are a lot of knowledgeable old blokes at these rallies but also a lot who had to make do without sophisticated tools. Some were adamant that it was a PRE others equally in favour of a WS. A point made was that older wiring, rubber insulated rather than plastic, would probably strip easier.
An interesting suggestion was to grip an overlapping soldered joint then apply the soldering iron to separate the two halves. Then of course there was the usual dental, sawset, eartagging, or testicle removal suggestions.
It was a good day out but disappointing that we didn't get a definite answer on it.
Cheers,
Geoff.

Hello Geoff,

Well this mystery tool has now generated 5 pages of discussion, who would have thought eh,

So just to add some fuel to the inferno, here are some more photos of the pair I have, with the
following measurements for the jaws: before squeezing together the gap between the jaws is 1/4" X 1"
and when the handles are squeezed, the closed jaws then spread to 1 3/8" apart.

The stamping on mine has been suggested as German origin.

They are of a sturdy but light weight construction and suggest to me that they were made for only
light work such as piston ring removal/insertion.

I love a good blaze.

Regards

Graham.

As this tool is of a different manfacture but still obviously designed for the same purpose and it would appear to be totally unsuited for wire striping I think we can now safely discard that possibility. The tool now not having a contemporary manufacture would suggest that whatever its purpose was it is no longer required. This would suggest that we need to look in the direction of trades or skills that are no longer practised.

Brake spring pliers for drum type brakes or upholstery springs?

Originally Posted by rob streeper

Brake spring pliers for drum type brakes or upholstery springs?

I am a fully paid up member of the 'wire stripping' camp but spring loading makes a strong counter argument? I could imagine it gripping inside the eyelets of a tension spring and loading the spring to place the eyelets over 2 lugs?

Originally Posted by Bohdan

Thiswould suggest that we need to look in the direction of trades or skills that are no longer practised.

Or a wire insulating technology that is no longer used?
My father's company provided the public address system for many outdoor events such as the Bathurst car and bike races from 1946 to the late 70's. In the 60's we were still using Army surplus signal wire between the speakers and this wire had 16 copper strands, 1 steel strand for strength, a layer of rubber and then woven fabric (linen/cotton?). To splice a speaker line into the main line, we would knife around the fabric and rubber, spread the insulation and wrap the speaker wire around the exposed bare conductor. In that way, the steel conductor was unbroken and the main line retained its physical tensile strength. I could certainly see the 'mystery tool' spreading the rubber and linen insulation to expose the conductor?
fletty

I'm thinking of the relatively short springs that were used in older automobile seats that were accessible from below.

One of the things that I am hung up on is the handles of this tool. Now if you look at the style of handle on the tool in Grahams photos above, that is more comfortable to use if you were repetitively doing the same job all day, such as inserting springs. Whereas for piston ring or wire stripping you are going to do a few then go on with other steps in the process. Ie put 2,3 or 4 rings on a piston then put it in the bore and bolt up. A four cylinder engine you're rebuilding you might use the tool 16 times in one day.
I also like fletty's description of stripping a section of the line, that sounds very feasible to me. Maybe it was a multi tool?
Cheers,
Geoff.