Mystery (?) Tool

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

I'm hoping someone can confirm what this is. I bought the remaining leather machinery and inventory from an estate. The sewing machines and some other good stuff were already gone, but I did get some goodies.  This tool was stuffed in a drawer with a bunch of other misc stuff. The man had done shoe repair, saddle repair, tarp and canvas work, and some harness repair.  I figured it was a shoe tool of some sort when I first found it, but upon getting home and unpacking, I started to look at it more carefully. The two tubes are connected inside the aluminum casting, in other words, if you sprinkle some sand in the shorter tube, it will come out the end of the longer tube, providing the handle connected to the long ram is pulled out past the part where the two tubes join. I don't know how to say it better than that, although I don't feel like I'm accurately describing it.  IF it is what I think it is, I'm one happy camper, as I've been looking to find this tool my entire adult life, as well as half my childhood. Google images brings up nothing. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2016 by Big Sioux Saddlery

[dirtclod]

Pull the knob part back, drop a nail / lace tack in the short tube and drive the nail with the knob part in a hard to get at spot like inside a boot.

Edited May 28, 2016 by dirtclod

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

So it is a shoe tool?

 

[dirtclod]

  Yes it's a shoe tool.That's what i used one for and that's what i was told it is used for. Like if you need to put a nail in a boot heel or any hard to get at spot.

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

Yep that makes perfect sense. Well not what I thought it might be, so the search will continue. Nevertheless, it might come in handy some day. I've never done any shoe/boot repair and don't intend to start, but I guess I'll keep it around.

 

[MikeRock]

Hi Big Sioux,

I was born on the 'Ridge' in 1947.  Are you near the rez?

Were you thinking crupper stuffer when you look at that tool?  That was my first impression.  Not so after reading correct use.

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

Hi Mike, that WAS what I was thinking and hoping!  A good old friend of mine had figured out how to make one for me, but got sick with cancer and passed away before he got the chance.  It would have had a hopper and been made more for a production-type situation than a simple hand tool. This fella was pretty inventive and made a lot of things for himself and others and I really miss him.

I live in the eastern part of SD, near Sioux Falls, but last week I drove across the state from the HIlls on Hwy 18, so we went through Pine Ridge and Rosebud. It was a nice change from the Interstate. The Rally was going on and the traffic on the more travelled highways was terrible and we wanted to avoid that. Quite a few others had the same idea, as we visited at stops along the way. It was very scenic and very GREEN all along that route. There's been plenty of rain this year by the looks of things. The cows are fat and they still have grass:-)