Here's a nice little and old square a reader sent it. He has no information on it, says it was the most interesting piece in a ebay job lot he bought.
The profile of the brass part looks very old- to my untrained eye, maybe even 18th century? It's a try square, no inch or mm markings for measure. I'm not certain when letter/number punches appeared in history, but the letters on the "back" are interesting. They look official, S, V, maybe P or F? Of the punched initials, the B is about as ornate as you could get with a punch.
There was a Nicholls Manufacturing company in Ottumwa, Iowa that was formed in 1901 to make framing squares. I don't believe this would be one of theirs. Is there a possibility Nichols could have been an owner of the tool at some point? Information and guesses welcomed!
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| Thanks, George! |
Isn't it more likely that the dotted letters were made using a spring-loaded
ReplyDeletecenter punch ? I see those have been around since the early 1900s.
Would they need to be spring-loaded?
ReplyDeleteIt's just the way I'd go about it, single hand operation, even strikes regulated by the spring setting... Very satisfying, ingenious little tool IMHO...
ReplyDelete