Name that Tool

[CrealCritter]

OK... It's time to play

NAME THAT TOOL

Hint #1 - its OLD, 12 1/2" long, very heavy and used for wood working.

 

[CrealCritter]

Is it for stump blasting?

Winner Winner chicken dinner.

It's called a Black Powder Wedge and indeed used to blast out stumps. If you have a nasty old stump you want to pull up. You find a good place in the stump like a crack and drive the Black Powder Wedge into the crack with a sledgehammer. Then you place a good length of fuse into the hole on the side of the Black Powder Wedge and fill the wedge with black powder. You light the fuse and run for cover. When the black powder explodes it drives the wedge further into the crack with a tremendous amount of force and.splits the stump so you can move it with a tractor or something.

I searched a long time and finally found one at a old antique shop buried in a trailer out back of the shop. They don't make Black Powder Wedges anymore... I guess they are dangerous but man are the a hoot to use - you know use guys like danger and the louder the boom the better.

So if you got a nasty ole sweet gum stump you want to rid yourself of - I got the tool to do it

 

[Wannabefree]

Husband tamer.

 

[Farmer Connie]

It applies the glue to the subfloor for installation of floor covering. Has to be warm to keep the glue from clogging it. That's my final answer lol

Ok a carpet seam thingy for joining the seams of carpet.

Close enough.. I say so, so I can post another subject.
The keywords you said made me give in.

• carpet seam
• joining seams

For the life of me, I can't find a digital photo (easy to find) of it in service so bare with me. The photos must be on 35mm print and boxed up. I'll add it later if I stumble upon one or 2.
ANY-HOOT....
Hot glue tape holds carpet together. Little by little the tape is heated by an iron. A very HOT iron. As the iron is advanced fwd, the carpet backing is pressed into the melted glue and a bonding transfer is established. By pressing weight down, firmly and evenly, it helps the glue cool off nice and flat and even. Just like when you iron a pair of slacks or shirt to remove wrinkles.
Traditionally speaking, all flooring mechanics use either there toolbox or the top tray of a tool box to weight down a hot seam.
Like in this photo....

My husband was an independent journeyman for 23 yrs. Work vans get dirty. Tool boxes get dirty. You sometimes get the carpet dirty by dragging dirty tools on light colored carpeting.
Now picture this.. That masher he made (in my original post) holds the bottom of the nasty and hot bottom tray of the iron that collects puddles of hot glue and ruins carpet fibers.
As you are heating the seam down the line with your iron, the masher holds the super hot tray and a hot glue gun for the seam ends. When you get to the end of a 27' seam, your tray is right in front of you.
See all that glue all over the masher tool? That is sloppy glue that could have got onto the carpet fiber.

When the seams are done, flip off the switch and the power is shut of the the iron and gun without unplugging.
Also another added benefit.. yrs ago while on an install, another person walked thru and tripped over his extension cord to his iron. It wrapped their foot and they pulled the hot iron out of the seam and dragged it across the carpet. Burnt the bejeebus of hubby's leg. DH was ready to bury the fool who tripped that wasn't supposed to be in there anyway (that's another story), but with the heavy masher plugged in to the cord, when somebody trips over the cord, it is so heavy that the cord just unplugs from super heavy weight.
He made about 50 bucks a pop on them on consignment. But lots of guys made their own after seeing his.
This was back in 1990-91'? Close enough. He still has it in the garage with his tools. Used it again last summer at a relative's home doing some bedrooms.

CHECK OUT THIS GUY! My hubby would freak out if this guy worked for him. Dragging a rusty tool box on virgin carpet fiber and putting his ragging hot seaming iron tray on the carpet as well. I can hear him yelling right now!

 

[NH Homesteader]

My husband has a bunch of really weird random old tools like that. I've never paid much attention to them. Guess I should go see what else he has! Here's my zombie weapon, sorry kind of blurry, my phone is annoying.

 

[perchie.girl]

Same deal but on sand....

They had an old plank road crossing the desert in Imperial vally heading up to the Stage trail that crossed the mountains....

it seems the sand dunes covered it up and uncovers it now and then... Now most of it is lost.

Part of the Butterfield stage rout went past where I live... There are old rock buildings here and there that mark stage stops ....

deb

 

[NH Homesteader]

Yeah he actually didn't know! He said he thought it was for splitting wood too, but that it would make a good chisel for ice fishing season!

 

[Wannabefree]

Goliaths toothpick.

 

[CrealCritter]

Woohoo! That's cool. I'd be askeered of it myself, lol!!

It's a hoot for sure... I would advise against using in town or where windows can be broken. It holds about a stick and a 1/2 worth of dynamite equivalent in black powder when filled to the brim and puts off a big bang, lots of smoke and sends chunks of stump flying off in all directions... In today's day and age it's sure to draw law enforcement in from all directions.

There were several manufacturers of these around the turn of the century. Some we're made for splitting logs others for removing stumps. Mine is the stump removal kind. Here's the only directions I could find on how to use one - but it's for logs and not stumps

 

[sumi]

Great thread idea and really cool tool!