On Sat, 21 Jan 2006 21:23:39 +0000, Dan wrote:
On Fri 20 Jan 2006 04:21:58p, "R.H." wrote in
wrote in message
543: Seems like long ago an old timer pointed to one of those and
said it was a fencing tool. You looped the wire on one of the teeth
and levered it against whatever was handy to tighten the wire, and
you hammered staples with the hammerhead.

Sounds reasonable, though this tool doesn't look like it would be very
comfortable to hold with a bare hand.

That was my exact thought too. But there's that hammerhead right there,
and if one assumes it's used the way one would normally use a hammer,
then there's either a part missing that would cover up all those teeth,
or people just put up with a lot of discomfort back then.

Or maybe both. :-)

It wouldn't make much of a hammer with that swivel. I'm guessing that the
pointy part gets pounded into a post - i.e., you whack what looks like the
hammerhead, poke the point in, and you have kind of a swivel, which maybe
then you'd loop your fence wire over what looks like teeth, and pick a
tooth based on what kind of mechanical advantage you want as you tighten
the fence wire.

Well, that's my guess. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich