What is it? CXLIII

817: Somehow I think this is not a cardboard creaser, since it is so short. I remember a tool like this in the 1940's for expanding the skirts of aluminum automobile pistons. You ran the small radius wheel up and down inside the skirt under heavy tension. This caused the metal to flow out from under the narrow wheel and thus slightly expanded the skirt. This permitted reuse of a loose piston when they were in short supply.

Don Young

This answer is correct. You must have a good memory, it is indeed a piston expander.

Other answers for this week:

818. I'll give a hint for this one, it's a display for use in a particular type of store for a specific product.

819. Fencing mask close-up

820. Glass insulator bracket that mounts onto a pole or building

821. Hay harpoon, for lifting large bales of hay into a loft

822. Don't yet know about this item, some type of bumper sounds like it might be the right answer. Could be for boats but it seems like it would be a little small for that. I'm still asking around about this piece.

It has been a busy week and I haven't had time to make an answer page, I should have it finished tomorrow.

Rob

Cheese. Wedges of Brie perhaps.

-- Dave Baker Puma Race Engines

Camp USA engineer minces about for high performance specialist (4,4,7)

According to R.H. :

Posting from rec.crafts.metalworking as usual.

817) Looks like a hand-held miniature version of a tool known as an "English wheel" -- used for forming three-dimensional curves into sheet metal. 818) A lazy Susan for something like mail at a guess. 819) Hmm ... a fencer's face guard? It looks a bit too complex to be a flour sifter, and too empty to be a windscreen for a microphone. 820) A framework to support a pair of glass insulators for running low-voltage power wiring along the side of a row of poles. I'm not sure why it has been painted red -- I somehow doubt that was the original color. 821) Some sort of gaff for large fish?

822) A bumper of some sort. Not likely to be for boats, with the leather exterior. Perhaps for where the bumper of a delivery truck hits the concrete of a loading dock?

Now to see what all the other answers already posted say.

Enjoy, DoN.

Hmm. It strongly resembles a rack for skeins of embroidery floss, so I'll broaden the subject just a bit and say yarn or floss skeins?

It wasn't for either yarn or cheese. I'll give another hint, it was used in a hardware store.

Rob

Rotating axe head display? I'm lost on this one.

That's it! Good guess on that. It was marked "axe display for a hardware store", there were scratches on the wood in the compartments as you would expect to see on something that would hold a sharp axe.

I'll have the answer page complete later on today.

Rob

Another good guess, turns out this is correct, verified by three different antique boat experts.

Just posted the answer page, it has a couple of new photos, some links and a little more info:

Rob

According to R.H. :

In which case various sizes of bolts or screws seems rather likely.

Enjoy, DoN.

Hmm, that seems strange, with a leather exterior. A leather boat fender would dry out and crack very quickly. How big is this thing? For some reason, I was thinking it was fist-sized.

--riverman

That's a beautiful boat. Karl

R.H. wrote:

I was also skeptical about it being a fender for a boat, it's only 6" long and 4-1/2" wide. Here are the responses that I got from three different antique boat experts:

"We have similar items in the collection and, although I have not done any specific research on these pieces, I am told they are fenders or bumpers used to prevent damage to a boat while it is tied up to a dock."

"Yes that is an easy one. It is a canoe bumper or fender. It is hung over the side of the canoe when rafted out to keep it from rubbing against objects."

"It's a fender for a small boat such as a St. Lawrence skiff--we have a couple in our collection."

Two of these quotes are from an antique boat museum and the other from a nautical antique dealer. I haven't been able to find any others like it on the web, but I'm going to go with this answer until I see evidence otherwise.

Rob

I'd ask the guy who claimed to have some in his collection to post you a picture. I have some extensive canoeing experience (15+ years as a guide) and never saw one for a canoe, new or antique. Most older canoes would not use one anyway, as the gunwhales would rub against each other instead of the sides bumping anyway.

Also, being cork filled means that it would deform with lots of compressions. Most bumpers are cotton batten filled, or made of woven rope, for that purpose.

I'll keep searching on this one..the proposed answer doesn't sit right.

--riverman

I'll go ahead and ask them if they can get me a photo. The antique dealer said that one of his was filled with saw dust.

Rob

I had a friend who crafted old-fashioned canoes whose maximum beam was well below the gunwales. It's called tumblehome and dates back at least to the time cannons were first put aboard ships. To carry cannons well above the waterline they needed a wide beam for stability against tipping over. But a wide beam means more tipping from waves, so the guns would be swinging up and down too fast to aim.

The tumblehome provided stability against capsizing and stability against waves. That's also why it was traditionally popular in canoes. Even if waves are not a concern, the tumblehome's narrow gunwales can make paddling easier.

I imagine my friend would have wanted such a bumper in case he tied alongside something instead of pulling his canoe out of the water. As he carried his canoe and gear through the woods, he would not have wanted a bumper of waterlogged cotton.

Rob, may I email you some pics of a handtool someone presented to me recently. I have no idea what it is, nor what it may have been used for.

Sonny

It does seem strange. There are many reasons that it is a bad design for a boat bumper. Of course that doesn't mean that it wasn't a boat bumper as there are tons of crappy designs being marketed everywhere - still... Even treated leather would not react well to the sun and water. It's too small and too thin to stand the boat off of a dock or another boat enough to make a difference. The cork would float, true, but the leather would tend to absorb water and get mildewed. If there were other examples in more typical boat materials, say canvas and cork, then there'd be some traceable evolution. Maybe it was for some of the upper crusty Adirondack lodge mahogany-rowboats-that-cost-more-than-a-car type of boating. That's something I am not familiar with!

R

Yes, anyone is welcome to send photos to me of their unidentified tools.

Rob