What is it? Set 413

2389 novelty nutcracker 2390 is a cannon tamper 2391 is a fence tensioner! 2392 standard depth hole tester 2393 keeps the sheets off a burns victim? 2394 is obviously *now* a key ring!

Guesses:

2389 Though the trigger-like thing doesn't look robust enough, I'll guess that this is one of those stapler-like paper fasteners that cuts a slit and folds a tongue of paper through the slit to fasten two sheets of paper together.

2389 As there seems to be an iron rod that latches in a retracted and extended position, I'll guess that there is a pointed piece in the upper cylinder, and this is a pike, spear, or bayonet.

2394 I'll make a wild guess that this is a safety lock for the throttle or other control of a piece of steam-age equipment.

2389: broken spray painter 2390: wwi boot camp training tool, gun simulator 2391: pry bar 2392: leather working tool 2393: more book shelf organizers 2394: ship portal lock

2389- if it looked 0.001% more like a saw handle I'd say it's a saw handle.

Dave

2389. Hair spray applicator 2390. No idea of what the name would be, but it shoots a metal and wood bolt. A crossbow without the cross or bow! 2391. A wheel or bearing removal tool. 2392. A compression tool, possibly for a spring. 2393. Line guide. For what I have no idea. 2394. Utility lockout device. Not sure of what particular service. R

2392 Tension spring installer

2390 The spontoon, with an 18" blade on a 6' shaft, was a decisive weapon in the Revolution. An American officer could signal in the noise of battle and protect his men from bayonets as they reloaded. A quarter of a century later, Lewis and Clark carried spontoons to Oregon.

Logically, spontoons should have been useful until officers had revolvers and soldiers had breech loaders. I imagine 2390 could be a spontoon with a retractable blade. That would make it safer, easier to carry in woods, and less likely to show an enemy where the officers were.

The owner described it as a 'Confederate Civil War pike', there is a 15" blade attached to the internal metal part. Not sure if there is a difference between a pike and a spontoon, as someone else suggested.

Rob

I agree that it looks like a spring tool, not sure exactly what kind though, haven't been able to find one on the web just like it.

By golly, R E Lee had a plan in 1862 to include two companies of pikemen in an infantry regiment! It never saw action.

I believe the Confederates misused the term "pike." A pike was 10 to 25 feet long to keep cavalry from getting close enough to use their lances. Firearms made pikes obsolete because their unwieldiness made troops too slow to attack or defend themselves against muskets.

Posting from rec.crafts.metalworking as always.

2389) Not enough views to allow a reasonable guess, unless you are someone who has seen one before -- and I am not. :-)

2390) At a guess, it is what the soldiers in a trench just below the targets on a military firing range use to reach up and change or patch the targets.

Being in the trench, they are safe from the bullets, and being just in front of the targets, they can call out how good the hits were -- and put up fresh target boards.

2391) At a guess -- a tool for disassembling wooden crates to allow unpacking the contents. The hinged 'C' will allow the left hand to pull up on the claw while the right hand uses the normal leverage. With just the right dimensions, the free end of the 'C' could be put on the floor to allow using it as the stable point for leverage.

2392) Perhaps a tool for removing primers from fired cartridges to allow reloading them. In particular, perhaps for the Berdan primers (more common in European military cartridges) instead of the Boxer primers more common in US cartridges.

2393) Perhaps to drape pup tent halves over for drying?

2394) I presume that the key allows the ring to be separated from the forked bottom. Perhaps something like a captive oarlock, if there is enough play in the join of the two parts.

A more than usually puzzling set this week.

Now to post this and then see what others have suggested.

Enjoy, DoN.

2391...Nail puller for the double headed nails used in concrete forms. This allows nails to be pulled with out damage to the wood forms. by having the handle rotate it can get in close on both ends of the forms if the are at a corner. WW

Nope, the patent describes a different use it.

Saw handle is a good guess, it's different from most in that it can hold a couple ounces of oil that can be slowly released with the trigger.

Still not sure about the wire item and we're lacking specifics for the pliers but the rest of the answers have been posted here:

Rob

The ring is clamped in place on the steering column and the forked part pivots to lock or unlock the steering wheel, although the patent shows it operating differently. The construction of this one seems to have been modified a lot since the patent drawings, I'd have thought they would have gotten another patent with all of the changes they made.

Rob

r.e. 2391 Huh? You mean we _finally_ have a fence _un_tensioner? ;>)}

#2393 It looks like (several of) these may link together end-to-end--for what purpose I don't know.

Werll there's room for one!

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