I got this in a bunch of stuff from the estate of a
jewelrymaker/craftsperson but I have no idea what it is used for.
Here is the PhotoBucket link to the image:
Can you identify it? I’m sure it’s something wonderful!
John
Indiana
Can you identify it? I'm sure it's something wonderful!
It’s a clamp of some kind?
Kelley
John,
What this looks like to me is a gadget to hold a spool of wire as it
is being fed onto a another holder to make jump rings. It is
something that I want to make for myself, so I don’t have kinks in
my wire while making jump rings.
Veva
Never seen one but my guess would be some sort of clamping device to
hold items to engrave.
Wow! What an odd tool. Looks like something someone made. My sweetie
Tim guesses that it’s a jump ring winder. He then added, “Looks like
a good place to hang my optivizor.” I can’t wait to hear what the
other hypotheses are. Have fun and make lots of jewelry.
Jo Hamer
www.timothywgreen.com
I have one just like it. It was used in my aunts gift shop. It held
big coils of gift wrap ribbon. It would hold different widths and
different types. Right now it is sitting in my basement with red
Christmas ribbon on it.
I believe it’s a vise.
It looks like a stand for holding spools of wire/thread so it can be
played out without twisting and knotting.
Nick Royall
I believe the best answer is the idea that it holds rolls of ribbon
of various widths. It does seem that it would work for that although
it would have to be clamped to the bench because it is quite light.
I guess it would work for a roll of wire the same way so that the
wire would spool off without kinking.
The shaft is too short to make any quantity of jump rings, plus I
don’t know how you’d get the saw down to the wire between those two
wooden pieces.
I think Jon Harper has solved the mystery! Many thanks to all! It
has been very interesting, seeing all the creative ideas1
John
Pentaluna Jewels
Indiana
If the opposing cones close on each other along a threaded rod and
the little handle is used to do this, my guess is that the device
was used to hold spooled wire - either binding or precious metal.
It’s very helpful yo have a friction feed when winding jump rings; or
simply to keep the wire on the spool.
Jim
A store I worked at many years ago had a couple of these. One held a
spool of package tying twine, the other, a couple spools of ribbon
for gift wrapping. They sat right next to a larger dispenser that
held the gift wrap paper. So I’ll second Jon Harpers post.
But you could use it to hold spools of just about anything you want
to “dispense”. string, ribbon, coils of wire, tape, Knitting yarn,
etc Heck, you could even just hang some of those pairs of pliers on
the thing…
And no, it’s not a vise, or engraving clamp, etc. Not sturdy enough
for that, and too large for a couple of the suggested uses people
have opined. The knob is just a clamping screw to adjust the gap
between the end pieces, not something to rotate the spindle with, so
it’s not a jump ring maker. Though Veva’s idea to use it to feed wire
to a jump ringer is a decent one.
Peter
I have one just like it. It was used in my aunts gift shop. It held big coils of gift wrap ribbon.
I agree. It’s only slightly different than the one my parents had in
their store. The one my parents used had room for multiple rows of
ribbon. The give away seems to be the knob that secures the rod. That
is almost identical.
Larry
It is to hold spools the conical shaped objects are on backwards
they supposed to fit in the holes on the spools. and can be adjusted
to fit different size holes on the spool. The thumbscrew can adjust
tension on the spool.
Greg
looks to me like it is meant to hold some kind of spool.