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metalsmith
31-01-2016, 08:21 AM
I chanced upon the following at a car boot sale and thought it was worth the chance for the 50p I paid for it as possibly being a carbide-tipped engraver / similar. My knowledge on the subject is 'zip', so if anyone can help before I continue on to try ramming a square peg into a round hole...

Anyway, it is triangular, approx 130mm long with a couple of (home-made) foam rubber grips. The 'tip' is maybe 12 or 13mm long...

Thanks for your help!

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Dennis
31-01-2016, 08:50 AM
As it's rusty it is most likely steel. It looks like a home made job from the picture, but I could be wrong.

Sharpened it could be a scraper, a reamer or a scriber. Polished it could be burnisher or used for scoring card before folding. Dennis.
metalsmith
31-01-2016, 09:28 AM
As it's rusty it is most likely steel. It looks like a home made job from the picture, but I could be wrong.

Sharpened it could be a scraper, a reamer or a scriber. Polished it could be burnisher or used for scoring card before folding. Dennis.

Thanks Dennis

The body of the tool, I agree, is probably steel, but the tip, I hoped image 1 might show looks a bit like graphite (but it isn't a pencil!) - for about13mm of the 20mm before the rubber; flat on one side, it conforms with the profile (image 2, shown from the top), fluted in on both sides.

It looks to be a(n old) pro' piece. No doubt the rubber grips are home-fashioned though.
Gemsetterchris
31-01-2016, 10:42 AM
"What was it?" Might be more apt.
Maybe you can salvage it into something of use.
china
03-02-2016, 12:47 PM
Looks to me like it is a tile cutter someone has modified for whatever reason
metalsmith
04-02-2016, 04:58 PM
I've been sat on this since last Easter and now I've asked the question (and only now!) have discovered it is a leather pricker ... the modern version:

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ps_bond
04-02-2016, 05:16 PM
A prick punch has a diamond-shaped cross section - when you're stitching with an awl the blade is diagonal to the stitch line. Single prick punches are a bit of a waste of space since the key point is to lay out stitch spacing... They aren't meant to go through the leather, just mark the top surface. You can pre-punch all your stitch holes, but it's frowned upon by those schooled in the way of saddle stitching (and only really works on flat goods anyway).
metalsmith
04-02-2016, 06:02 PM
A prick punch has a diamond-shaped cross section - when you're stitching with an awl the blade is diagonal to the stitch line. Single prick punches are a bit of a waste of space since the key point is to lay out stitch spacing... They aren't meant to go through the leather, just mark the top surface. You can pre-punch all your stitch holes, but it's frowned upon by those schooled in the way of saddle stitching (and only really works on flat goods anyway).

At least it is 50p of wasted space rather than a tenner.

I'm wondering why pre-punching is frowned upon, can you enlighten me?