MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

Sorry, nobody is anywhere near and I can't really think of a good clue. The key is in the fact that they are dead hard and brittle. Their efficacy lies in the taper and their ability to resist deformation under extreme pressure. Big clue, think about the tube plate on a fire tube boiler......

[chinatyke]

Ha? For using to swage the ends of boiler tubes onto the end plates. I've seen them used when a small steam boiler had a few tubes replaced.

Swage: Is that the correct term?

[Stanley]

You're near enough China. They are the drivers for tube expanders (swage is the correct term for the operation) Slightly misleading to just show the drivers because the essential part is a spigot with a collar on which fits exactly in the end of the tube. Inside the spigot, exposed on the inside to the driver and on the outside to the interior of the tube, are three hardened steel rollers set at a slight angle. You pop the driver inside the spigot where it contacts the rollers and as you turn it clockwise it tries to drag itself further in because of the angle on the rollers and as it does so and the rollers roll round the interior of the tube they expand the tube to the point where they are perfectly tight in the tube plate. When you've reached that point you simply turn the driver backwards and it lets go of the rollers and the spigot is loose. A brilliant piece of kit and of course there are a multitude of different sizes. It's worth saying that they are so efficient that even with a steel boiler tube you can go too far and actually cut the tube between the rollers and the tube plate. You have to judge when you've done enough by experience.
Try this one....

[Gloria]

Compression blocks for tube bending???

[Stanley]

No, but it's a bit misleading to show it laid down Gloria. Imagine it stood upright and screwed to the bench.....

[Tizer]

Jeremy Clarkson's nutcracker.

[plaques]

I'll go for a heavy duty leather punch or riveter.

[chinatyke]

Sheet metal punch?

[Stanley]

Both P and China are close enough to the mark. All the identifiers are worn off it and the punch works into a hollow anvil, I suppose there used to be a set of different sizes. So I'm not exactly sure what it was intended for but I favour metal as for leather it would be a flat anvil of soft metal. I have a suspicion that it was part of a Meccano like boy's toy called Juneero that appeared after WW2. You made stuff out of the strips they supplied and made your own holes. It never took off. (LINK) I found this on the web and it shows the shear but not the punch....
Try this one.... Clue, not a gelding iron, the give-away is the looped metal handle....

[Gloria]

Something to do with a fire grate, although we have nothing like it????

[chinatyke]

For opening bungs on metal drums, like the TriSure type bungs?

[Stanley]

Good suggestions but wrong I'm afraid. Clue ' the sinews of his brawny arms stand out like iron bands'.....

[Gloria]

Is it a fullering iron for putting the groove in horse shoes?

[Stanley]

Well done Gloria.... That use hadn't occurred to me but it is definitely a smith's tool and was also used for cutting hot metal on the anvil and yes, you got the name right. The looped metal handle withstood the heat and kept relatively cool.
Next for shaving?

[plaques]

the sinews of his brawny arms stand out like iron bands'....

Which brings to mind. Which cartoon character used to say " I stands it until I stands it no Longer".

[chinatyke]

Doctor Jago's reflex tester?

[PanBiker]

the sinews of his brawny arms stand out like iron bands'....

Which brings to mind. Which cartoon character used to say " I stands it until I stands it no Longer".

That would be the spinach chomping Popeye.

[plaques]

PanBiker. I can see that it was Saturday afternoon matinees for you. Those were the days.
Next please for a real mystery object.

[Stanley]

It gets harder and harder to find you mystery objects! However, I went for a dig through my chisel drawer in a very cold workshop. The things I do for you! These two are no mystery, they are obviously a cold chisel and a mason's point. I put them in because they are a good illustration of the relationship you build up with your tools over many years. These two are a good illustration of a practice that is long gone. Every engineering shop had a blacksmith in the old days and one of his main skills was shaping, hardening and tempering cast steel bar to whatever you needed for the job. If the temper was slightly wrong you took the tool back and the smith modified it to suit what you needed.
Almost sixty years ago when I bought Hey Farm and started to bottom what needed doing I cleaned the midden outside the barn out right down to the bare earth in the bottom, it was simply a hole in the ground with access at the front for a two wheeled muck cart. When I reached the bottom I found several objects that shouldn't have been there and one was a five foot bar of rusty iron. When I took it down to the workshop and threw it on the concrete floor, despite the muck and rust on it it rang like a bell so I cleaned it up and realised that what I had was a very old rock drill made out of very good high carbon steel. I took it to my friend Jimmy Thompson who was the estate smith at West Marton and asked him if I was right. He liked it and made six chisels out out it, three for himself and three for me. He said it was some of the best steel he had ever worked and the chisels he made were brilliant. (He had an all steel Swedish anvil, a rarity because most are only steel faced, and he always tested his chisels by seeing if they would cut the foot of the anvil. These passed with flying colours). So these are special because of the association and their excellence. Sharpened in the fire, they have never seen a grinding wheel except for a very light touch up.



Here's the mystery. It's a very high quality tough steel bar about 14" long. Not a chisel. It had a very specific job. So what is it?

[LizG]

Lifting handle for a manhole cover, or as we have to call them now 'access points'?

[Stanley]

Very close Liz but the wrong area. Think road transport thirty years ago.....

[Gloria]

Lifting hubcaps or maybe tyres????

[plaques]

Some of the old hydraulic jacks had levers like this. I remember an old Lagonda saloon that had four lifting jacks that lifted the whole car operated from a single pump under a dummy wheel cover on the wheel arch. The car once belonged to Frank Randle and was up for sale at £400. Far too expensive for a young kid in those days.

[Stanley]

Gloria gets close but not quite there. I have a bunch of these so I'll come clean and give you a new one. The wheels on Old wagons, before the days of tubeless tyres and one piece wheels had a detachable loose flange which was retained by a large and very heavy spring clip sitting in a groove on the wheel. At the join there was a small cut out and this bar is designed to insert on the gap and pry the end of the clip out of the groove. A separate, specially shaped tool was used to follow the gap round and extract the clip. The system was very efficient. Flanges frequently cracked but were still retained safely even if broken into several pieces.

Try this one....

[Gloria]

A bolster chisel????