About Time We Had a Mystery Tool

[dedee]

When you lose something and can't find it anywhere it can only be somewhere you haven't looked.

Seems to me that with the combined knowledge of woodworkers on both side of the atlantic, and probably pacific as well, it is unlikely to be anything to do with woodwork.

Now what sort of trades do we not have represented around here?

Could it be a comb of some sort? Weaving perhaps? Or pottery? Printing?
cooking? I've googled on all of these without success so not really much help.

Andy

 

[mudman]

Dedee,

I think you could be right. I also have been googling everthing I could think of without success.

 

[MIGNAL]

Fig.9 isn't that far off looking like your tool.
Perhaps it is a windway cutter after all but it seems a little large and clumsy for that purpose. If this is the case it is almost certainly for a Tenor or Bass Recorder or perhaps some other large woodwind instrument.

www.flute-a-bec.com/taille-canalgb.html

It would also explain why there are 2 of these tools on the Dutch site - the Recorder is/was a very popular instrument in the Netherlands with quite a number of individual makers as well as at least one volume producer.
The metal would not have to be hard for it to be functional. Reamers that are used to form the complex bore shape in woodwind instruments are often left in their annealed state.
I'm still not convinced though. Those forward facing teeth are the key to this tools identity. To me that suggests that it is a cutting/scraping tool that works on the forward stroke. Why would someone go to the trouble of producing a tool with that tooth geometry if those tooth angles were not necessary?

 

[bugbear]

Fig.9 isn't that far off looking like your tool.
Perhaps it is a windway cutter after all but it seems a little large and clumsy for that purpose. If this is the case it is almost certainly for a Tenor or Bass Recorder or perhaps some other large woodwind instrument.

www.flute-a-bec.com/taille-canalgb.html

Figure 9 is a clear "float" with conventional teeth, discussed earlier in the thread.

BugBear

 

[MIGNAL]

To try and resolve the application of this mystery tool I took the liberty of sending the picture to two eminent Recorder makers to see if they could discount it's use as a windway cutter. Phillipe Bolton is a highly respected recorder maker working in France, below is his reply:

Dear Michael
It could be used as a windway cutter, but that depends on its
dimensions. It would have to have the width of the narrowest part of the
windway (the window end) and the right curvature. It does seem a little
short compared to its width however. That sort of tool could also be
used for cutting channels or grooves.
Philippe Bolton

Dr Brian Blood is head of the well known English firm Dolmetsch and is an authority on the Recorder (amongst other things). His reply:

Dear Michael,

I emailed the picture over to Robert Bigio, a flute maker, who has an
interest in early tools and he emailed the picture to Michael Wright
who is a senior curator at The Science Museum in London.

Michael Wright says this:

'The tool is a sort of rasp, called a "float"; the projecting
teeth are finished with a small degree of clearance to give them a
"cut". This type of tool might, I suppose, be used on wood; but it is
usually associated with working in horn. I have one somewhere, but
have never used it...'

I hope this is helpful.

Best regards,

Brian

Many thanks to Philippe, Brian, Robert Bigio and Michael Wright for helping resolve the 'mystery tool'.

 

[mudman]

Brian,

That's brilliant, thanks very much for taking the time. It is amazing to think that my mystery tool has reached the attention of such august persons.

So I think that we can assume that the senior curator of the Science Museum knows what he is talking about and that this is indeed a type of float.

So, I decided it was about time that I tried to see if it would cut. I had tried a few things previously but couldn't get any cutting action at all.

I had the idea that it needed to cut with a scraping action and so a burr needed to be formed on the teeth.

I had been a bit perplexed as to how to do this until I hit on the idea of using a centre punch. I took one with a 90 degree point and ran it a few times between each tooth. I then turned the resultant burr back up using a spade bit. I then put a scrap of ash in the vice and...

It cuts

It cuts lovely in fact leaving a really nice smooth clean surface.
I tried it also just running the centre punch along the teeth without turning the burr back up and it still cuts. It smooths, it shapes, it's really nice. It has the rasp action without the tearing of the fibres that you usually get.

In fact this is quite a nice tool.