# another trivial tool



## firefighteremt153 (Jan 25, 2008)

Ok, so I got this thingy-ma-jig yesterday from my grandfathers old tool box and I don't have a single clue as to what it is. It has stamped on the side (No.428 K-D MFG. CO. Lancaster, PA) A little history about my Grandfather, He worked in the copper mines of Tennessee for nearly 30 years before he retired. Maybe this was some sort of tool for the mines?? Anybody got any ideas, I sure would like to know...


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## smitty1967 (Feb 24, 2008)

Jeremy: here's my idea....on the job here in Peoria we have a couple 'repair kits' that the Batt. Chiefs bring around upon request. One is an axe and pike pole kit...wedges, cross peen hammer, pins and dowels for pike poles, etc. You've seen it. 

Another is a punch and stamp for repairing the snaps on our turn-out gear. You know how, occasionally, when you yank your coat open, the 'female' side of the snap on the right side of the placket will pull through the fabric? Well, this repair kit has a hole puncher with different sized dies set about a wheel (picture an old cowboy's spurs affixed to one jaw of a set of pliers). 

The other part of this repair kit is what your tool pictures look like....there's a crimper tool used for setting the two halves of a new snap together into the fabric. One half of the new snap seats in one jaw of this crimper, and one in the other. You then sandwich the coat material between them, and squeeze down on the jaws to seat the two halves together. 

I'm guessing your grandfather's tool is that family of tools, some sort of crimper to squeeze two of something together firmly and accurately. 

that's my $.02
regards,
smitty


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## leejb (Feb 16, 2008)

Hi my guess is that tool was used for making lead balls for cap & ball rifles. I have also seen a tool similar to that one for making lead sinkers for fishing.


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## firefighteremt153 (Jan 25, 2008)

Smitty, I know exactly what you're talking about. I actually keep that repair kit in my locker b/c I m notorius for ripping the snaps out of my turnouts when getting dressed. Logistics got tired of coming to repair them and just gave me the kit. Of course since then I haven't busted the first snap. leejb, you could be correct as well, my grandfather was an avid shooter but I don't recall him ever making his own rounds or even owning a black powder gun. He did do alot of fishing but I don't think he ever made his own lead weights. My guess was that it was some sort of tool for making blasting caps for dynamite when they were blowing up the rock in the copper mines. Id love to figure this one out.


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## Davet (Nov 16, 2007)

Looks like an old pair of spring clamp removal pliers to me.


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## Handyman (Jan 2, 2008)

I thought at first it was a pair hog ring pliers. But the more I look at it, it looks like a pair my grandfather had in his tool box. He was an auto mechanic. I have a lot of his tools like those with the same handles, but not that pair.

Leejd That was a good guess as well but judging fron the size of the handles, the other end is of the tool is to small for musket balls. I shoot a musket pistal with a .44 ball. It is big.


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## Rehabber (Nov 19, 2007)

Davet is correct. Years ago, auto radiator and heater hoses were clamped with 'spring clamps' that tool was used to open and remove and reinstall those clamps:shifty:


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## Davet (Nov 16, 2007)

The clamps were the old Corbin clamps made of heavy spring wire.
I remember them on radiator and heater hoses on cars and tractors 
back in the sixties.


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## Handyman (Jan 2, 2008)

Well I was right then. That would explain why my grandpa had one. What did I win?


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