What is it.

[tops]

Anybody ever saw anything like this. This was found in an old barn. The bit is bent in the shape of a handle and the bit shank has threads where it goes through the wood and metal plate. One older man said it was part of a jig to hold something while it was being worked on but he didn't know what was being worked on and he didn't know what the rest of the jig looked like. Larry

 

[Engineer1911]

I don't think anyone on the Forum is old enough to have a good guess.

 

[pantannojack]

It looks like some kinda thing for somethin'.

 

[Bajadoc]

The only way to know for sure is to get it lettered.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Marquis de Sade starter kit.

 

[smoothshooter]

I’ll take a WAG at it.
I would guess it is something to drill holes in a tight place where there is not enough room to operate the crank part of a complete brace and bit tool. It looks like the shank of the bit was supposed rotate freely in it’s hole before it rusted.
Drilling holes in floor or ceiling joists after they are nailed or bolted in, for example.
Or for reaching back in a tight corner to drill a hole?
There appears to be another part, possibly made of wood, missing that goes thru the square. Maybe a cross-handle?

It may very well be a one-of-a-kind and home-made.

 

[375hh1973]

Looks like a henway although not the usual type

 

[snowman]

I’ll take a WAG at it.
I would guess it is something to drill holes in a tight place where there is not enough room to operate the crank part of a complete brace and bit tool. It looks like the shank of the bit was supposed rotate freely in it’s hole before it rusted.
Drilling holes in floor or ceiling joists after they are nailed or bolted in, for example.
Or for reaching back in a tight corner to drill a hole?
There appears to be another part, possibly made of wood, missing that goes thru the square. Maybe a cross-handle?

It may very well be a one-of-a-kind and home-made.

I thought along these same lines & believe that smoothshooter is very close to the correct explanation. I have two reasons for believing this way: 1)it was found in a barn, which means it very likely was made by a farmer. Farmers(at least the farmers of yesteryear) are quite famous for devising ingenious ways of accomplishing tasks for which there is no suitable, commercially produced tool available to do the job. A heated-and-bent offset drill bit operated by a wood driving mechanism, for example. 2)my maternal great grandfather was one of the last carpenters in this area who built timber frame barns, which required drilling a lot of holes for the pegs which fastened the framework together. The hole diameter was normally larger than the bit used here, and I can't think of any situation tight enough to require the unusual driving mechanism, but this may be a possibility. I'll go with #1 however, as the more likely of the two.

Regards,
Andy

 

[Rustyt1953]

Looks like a henway although not the usual type

 

[2152hq]

Is the twist(ed) part of the tool an auger drill? with point and cutting edges on it,,
or is that end just twisted to make a better handle..

 

[Frank46]

Brace and auger. The square hole is for a piece of wood to fit the square hole and provide the power to turn the auger bit.??? Frank

 

[Greyman50]

Well made tool for assembling wooden structures, door frames, window frames ,trusses, rafters. By chance I could find the book(which box?) . Dad collected such, have a few in storage but nothing this nice.
Find some Kroil, wrap rag around the bit and handle, soak in Kroil keeping it damp for about a week. Use stiff Brass brush to remove rust.
BTW, tools like this look great hung on the wall of your den or man cave.

 

[tops]

Pictures 1 and 4 show threads on the bit shank where it goes through the wood and metal plate so turning the handle left or right would determine the length of the pointed shank end. It reminds me of a lathe that has one end fixed and the other end is adjustable for length. I don't think the auger has any significance other than just being handy when they needed to make a handle. Any metal rod would have worked. Larry

 

[SPEEDGUNNER]

Whatever it is it will look cool hanging on the wall of your shed/barn/garage/mancave/kitchen. OK, maybe not the kitchen.

 

[2152hq]

I asked about the Spiral piece being a handle or an auger bit.,
I was thinking it being just a handle and with that , the entire piece being a tailstock assembly for a very simple lathe type machine.

Turn the whole piece on it's side to view. The threaded piece w/point is the DeadCenter on the tailstock.
Handle used to tighten or loosen. Threads though the steel plate. Point on the end enters the wooden piece being turned on the lathe.

The wooden pat w/ square hole fits down into the bed of the lathe and is held in place with a square wedge or block w/wedge so it can be loosened and moved back and forth to adj for the length of what ever is being worked on.


Of course if the spiral part is in fact an Auger Bit,,then my entire idea is blown out of the water!!

 

[Llance]

This (the wood part) cannot be used as an auger bit brace because the auger must turn a full 360 degree circle for the bit to work properly. The tennen piece of wood fits into another bit of wood for it to operate properly and I'm guessing it attaches to a belt driven device for making repetitive holes in several timbers. With the square hole being the connection which holds this piece in the water or wind driven oscillation device.

The other option is someone fit these parts together and hung it in the barn stating in their mind or to someone else, "This will drive my great grandchildren mad trying to figure out what it is for." Farmers have a strange sense of humor.