Museum Artifact Id Needed

[DKinYORKpa]

This old handmade device appears to be for folding something (leather?) around a round form. The "blade" does not cut; it is quite blunt. The slot between the two halves is adjustable. Harness making? Who knows the answer?

[Art]

This may indeed be a stick for playing IJscolf in the Netherlands in the 15 century. The wooden block may be a device used to straighten the stick after particularly rough play. These games sort of migrated to Scotland where they might have received much rougher use making the straightener block more of a necessity. The possible origins may have been in fighting implements where they would of course be sharpened, maybe even stropped (every post should have some leather content). A blow up the kilt of an opposing clansman (not approved in current hockey rules) could be quite devastating, and may account for some of the high notes in some Scottish tunes. Of course this could be a later implement used in the game Bandie Ball, where they used a leather ball (more leather content) on solid ground. As Bandie Ball was played in other countries a few centuries later, you may want to Carbon date the handle of the stick and the "holder, straightener, base" to get a better idea of the date.

Of course, it is valid to ask how sure are we that the 2 items either started life together or ended it that way. Then again, the foregoing hypothesis may have nothing to do with the actual use of the objects.

Art

[bruce johnson]

I am guessing a crimping tool for boot making. I am basing that on seeing a more modern version in some boot making tools in pictures I was recently sent. Lisa Sorrell would be the person to ask.

[Art]

Here is what a modern boot crimper looks like.

Still can't imagine how the stick thingy was used.

Art

[bruce johnson]

Art,

This is one of the pictures I was sent to look at as part of a set of boot making tools along with a bunch of other stuff. It came from a boot making school program. This and a few other big things were out of my bailiwick and I passed on them.

[DKinYORKpa]

Hi Bruce.......your pic looks like just like my pic. So it's a boot crimp, correct? Just how does it work? (BTW, I'm the same fellow that sent you pics of all of the leather tools at my museum.)

[DKinYORKpa]

The pic at the end of this thread is also very similar.

http://www.customcowboybootsandshoesforum.com/discus/messages/16/10473.html?1257297292

[DKinYORKpa]

And another one:

http://www.customcowboybootsandshoesforum.com/discus/messages/22/15133.html?1319236467

So these things are common?.....LOL....DENNIS

[Art]

Hi Bruce,

After looking at the pics, especially those in the customcowboy threads, I think I get it. It essentially works backwards from the breaks we use today. The "hockey stick" is actually the form and on some of them they use crimps and on others the stand that the "hockey stick" goes into clamps or crimps around the form. I have seen one of those that have the steel frame and it worked quite well. My original post was rather a light hearted take, a product of reading the board at a late hour. There is also a picture of a device much like the one in the original post with the clamps on the "hockey stick". The purpose of the device is to "break" the flat form of the leather into the form of the toe, arch, and for boots, the transition into the tops. It also helps to eliminate wrinkles that would be inherent in using a flat piece of leather to make those transitions.

Art