Mystery trigger operated shears / scissors .......

[Mike Jordan]

I'm now wondering if this is a tool used for docking lambs tails? Some of the methods used in past years were not very humane when compared to the rubber band method of today.

 

[AndyT]

I think it's too elaborately made to be an ordinary trade tool.
I know surgeon's tools were fancy, high-status objects but as far as I am aware, tools used by humble shepherds and even vets would have been much cheaper-made than this.

 

[bugbear]

Hmm. Entertainment, specifically a magician seems plausible. The style is wrong (IME) for medical.

(topic drift - the Wellcome Trust collection is fascinating, if a tad grim)

BugBear

 

[Eric The Viking]

[edit]BB you do have a good point - my theory probably doesn't explain the wear - but yours does. [/]

It must have seen a lot of use to wear as Andy describes.

But I've a bit of Googling around the idea of surgery (and even midwifery!), and there are two problems: I can't find anything with either a trigger, or a spring that closes the shears - plenty of the traditional sheep-shearing or topiary* shears, but the springs are against the cut, not helping it.

I know that medical schools love museum collections (if only for the shock given to visitors seeing some of the surgery stuff for the first time). There's a perverse delight taken by some surgeons in the profession's history as the province of barbers - it's why surgeons are correctly addressed as "Mr." or Mrs. (or Miss, presumably) and never "Dr." - Inverted snobbery.

Anyway, try sending those pictures to a few medical school museum curators. You might get a lead. They also have old catalogues of surgical instruments, as AndyT et al have with craft tools. It's possible it might even have been a surgical prototype - made to the design of one man, not successful in use but kept as a curiosity. There was a lot of that - my grandfather even made his own X-ray equipment (or some parts of it).

I'm not a betting man, but... Chyrurgery!

E.

PS: To avoid losing ones grip in operation, presumably you just hang onto just the side with the trigger on it.

*yup even Googled that too, just in case. How many other activities use clippers/shears of any sort?

 

[bugbear]

Anyway, try sending those pictures to a few medical school museum curators. You might get a lead. They also have old catalogues of surgical instruments, as AndyT et al have with craft tools. It's possible it might even have been a surgical prototype - made to the design of one man, not successful in use but kept as a curiosity. There was a lot of that - my grandfather even made his own X-ray equipment (or some parts of it).

And the Magic Circle, perhaps?

BugBear

 

[NazNomad]

I'm now wondering if this is a tool used for docking lambs tails? Some of the methods used in past years were not very humane when compared to the rubber band method of today.

I thought exactly that initially, but it's nothing like any tail-docking device I've seen used in the past.

 

[NazNomad]

try sending those pictures to a few medical school museum curators

And the Magic Circle, perhaps?

... and your local synagogue.

 

[matthewwh]

Acier = Steel in French
It is quite common to see Acier Fondu (crucible steel) stamped on tools.

 

[Eric The Viking]

try sending those pictures to a few medical school museum curators

And the Magic Circle, perhaps?

... and your local synagogue.

You, sir are evidently dangerous in confined spaces.

 

[AndyT]

Acier = Steel in French
It is quite common to see Acier Fondu (crucible steel) stamped on tools.

That was my first thought too, but the capital L is pretty clearly an L not an I. The C could be a G maybe.
Here's the best I managed on my phone

 

[Eric The Viking]

That could be "Pegler", badly stamped.

 

[toolsntat]

Bringing these to the surface again.....

I'm not sure how much can be read into this bit of information but food for thought.

Using Google lens to read the makers mark it gives a result of FECTER which may or may not be correct?
The surname FECTER is listed as meaning one who fought in duels.

https://www.houseofnames.com/fecter-family-crestThey have jokingly been referred to as "Duelling scissors" in a previous conversation,... really?

The position of the "T" might be a bit too far to the left to be correct and I think it could be a letter L

Thinking about it and with eyes to the European Continent there could be options for
FECLER
FEGLER
PEGLER
PECLER
etc, etc,.

Then again I've done some better images which I think shows remnants of a sixth letter and not just a full stop ?

Cheers Andy

 

[IWW]

I'd say extremely unlikely to be for any surgical purpose! For a start, the thing is not very clean-able - that didn't bother folks much before Lister & "Sterile" surgery", but this would be roughly contemporaneous with the beginning of that era,

Why I doubt any surgical connection is because I simply can't see any application. It would not snip through large bones (the job that was most challenging for surgeons in the pre-anaesthesia days) and far too dangerous & cumbersome for snipping off damaged fingers - it would be more likely to remove a perfectly healthy finger or two from the operator as well as the patient! Likewise useless for any soft-tissue application - scalpels have short blades for a very good reason..

I think the best line of thought is that it is meant for some one-snip task such as cutting a ceremonial ribbon. However, with no obvious & simple method of mounting it, and an action that seems to be as liable to damage the user as the object it is applied to, it doesn't seem very practical for the purpose. Your average knob launching a ship or opening a new bridge is likely to have rather soft & delicate hands.......

Cheers,

 

[Tris]

Weren't scissors usually the province of cutler's? In which case it might be worth trying the Sheffield industrial museums trust, who apparently hold a list of registered trademarks. Another possibility might be the worshipful company of Cutlers

 

[Tris]

Probably from a gentleman's club, for removing the ties of disgraced members

 

[MARK.B.]

Edward Scissor hands goes full on Rambo