What is it? Set 463

Am 18.10.2012 22:59, schrieb Rob H.:

Looks like writing of elves in lord of the rings.

cheers Gunther

What better wedding gift than a letter opener that will arouse the curiosity of visitors?

Gunther got me to searching. Not elvish, though:

Could be, the owner said it came from Scandinavia, I would be interested to hear its age but the owner didn't know.

They've all been correctly identified this week, along with the answers there is a video of the hay wrapper in action posted here:

Wow! I don't see how you found it!

Mostly luck. Did image searches for lord of the rings writing no luck klingon writing no luck alien writing scrolled down, there it was! Kerry

It seems to me that round holes would work very well for a pencil or a scribe. Wouldn't it be a lot easier to bore round holes than to cut square ones? That's why I ruled out a marking device.

A glass-cutting tip would probably have to be aligned perpendicular to the radius, so round holes wouldn't do. A pane of glass doesn't fit snugly in a frame; so the craftsman would have a little leeway. If the cutting edge was centered on the square shaft, he could cut circles in increments of about 1/2". If it was offset about 1/8", he could rotate the square shank to produce glass disks in increments of about 1/4".

Glass disks may have been used for clocks, reflector lamps, and viewing. When one broke, you'd need a craftsman who knew how to cut glass circles. The device must have been made before metal screws were readily available because clamping the cutting head would have been a lot easier than cutting all those square holes.

The maximum size might be another clue to its age. Panes as big as 28" must have been available, but hardware stores didn't sell screws.

On 10/19/12 5:40 PM, J Burns wrote: [...]

Rats! It would be offset 1/16". Rotating the square shank would increment the radius by 1/8" and the diameter 1/4".

Dating: The lack of a screw could be a clue. It wouldn't have been made after the 1860s, when good screws became cheaply available. They were available in the 1840s, but they may not have been available locally, and some craftsmen didn't trust their quality.

If it was to cut glass disks, you'd want polished glass. In the 18th Century, that was a luxury for the rich, and panes were small.

In 1834, a German process made larger sheets available. Demand grew rapidly in the 1840s as steam power made polishing cheaper.

If it was for cutting glass, it may have been made in the middle of the

Bill scribbled:

Thank you. Well, that takes all of the charm out of that!

Stained glass windows! They have lots of arcs. They predated manufactured screws by centuries. Cutting the pieces required a lot of skilled labor. They would use a grozer to nibble pieces of glass up to a scored line. How did they score glass?

In the 1860s, a couple of tools using diamonds to score glass were patented. In 1871, a man patented a pocket knife with a revolving glass cutter. He said glass was normally scored with a diamond, but few had access to those instruments.

Before the 1860s, I don't know if it was possible to make an instrument that cut with a diamond. Before diamond cutters, I wonder if they scored glass by tapping with a tool similar to a flathead screwdriver with a hard, sharp edge.

The mystery item looks right to keep such a tool lined up as a craftsman tapped his way through an arc on glass in the days before diamond cutters and revolving cutters.

Great job! I'll pass the link along to the person who sent the item in.

Thanks, Rob

Thanks for the link, I'll also send it on to the owner of the artifact.

Well, you make a good case for it being a glass cutter but it seems like it will be difficult to prove one way or the other. Someone had it on display at a tool collector's meeting, I don't know the person's name but I'll see if I can contact him to find out if he has any further information. I appreciate your interest in trying to figure out these tools, some weeks I need all of the help that I can get.

If it was made before the 19th Century, the symbol beside the initials would designate EJS's guild. It looks like an X with a nail in one quadrant.

The carpenters' guild symbol I found looks like a hatchet.

Here's the symbol for the glaziers' guild in London:

Here is a larger image of the initials:

Looks to me that the initials and the X were carved by different people, and I would say that the X was carved at a later date, but these are just guesses. Not sure that I would say the carving in the lower X quadrant is a nail, looks like an upward pointing cone, no idea what it is supposed to represent.

Here is the reply from the owner when I asked for further information on the tool:

"...the compass came with many other tools from Sweden and most likely is from there. Each hole is of a slightly different size, is square and was chiseled through the stock...(none of the holes were drilled). It most likely was used for woodworking and would date to the later 1700s or the early 1800s. the small 'mark' by the owner's initials would likely be a masonic symbol."

Looks like for now there is no proof one way or the other, too bad we can't find a reference on the web to nail this one down.