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Whats its use?

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2019 3:11 pm
by Dallas Landers
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It has " Heaton Peninsular Button Fastener Co." Cast into it.
What type of button? I thought buttons were sewn on.

Re: Whats its use?

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2019 3:50 pm
by Rich Bingham
Maybe this kind of button ?

Re: Whats its use?

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2019 4:18 pm
by Dallas Landers
The head has the two prongs with a spring load on top. The bottom has a 1/2 moon notch that the prongs land on each side of.

Re: Whats its use?

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2019 4:40 pm
by Rich Eagle
I'm no help as often happens. I'll bet it came in a box like this though.
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I will think on it.
Rich

Re: Whats its use?

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2019 10:43 pm
by perry kete
A Happy Sally bottle cap remover! :roll:

Re: Whats its use?

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 8:20 am
by Rich Eagle
This one on Ebay is described as a Boston Leather Worker Button Setter ca 1880.
https://www.bing.com/aclk?ld=e3_-Hp-XHh ... dlt=strict
"Button-Fastener had patents on machines for fastening buttons to high-button shoes with staples" (Wikipedia).
Setter.jpg
Setter.jpg (21.27 KiB) Viewed 4137 times

Re: Whats its use?

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 8:31 am
by Rich Eagle
Not quite the same but perhaps related.
"Whereby said instrument is adapted to set buttons having two, three, four or more penetrating prongs through desired material"
Sette2r.jpg

Re: Whats its use?

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 8:31 am
by Dallas Landers
Thanks Rich, I have had it for years hanging on the wall in my home office. Never knew what it was for I just like old tools. The design and detail on some are great to just look at. Much more apealing than chrome and plastic of today.

Re: Whats its use?

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 8:42 am
by Rich Eagle
I know exactly what you mean Dallas. I had to buy this thing before I figured out what it was. Sometimes they are even more intriguing before we know.
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Re: Whats its use?

Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 6:49 am
by Kaiser
That must be a 'hair splitter' fairly common here on the forum :lol:

Re: Whats its use?

Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 7:24 am
by John E. Guitar

Re: Whats its use?

Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 11:11 am
by Burger in Spokane
The wifeperson and I share a cynical humor for the way our media and society self-
flagulate each other on what she and I see as meaningless landmarks and achievements
making news.The above comment about cheap plastic and chrome tools is right on par
with that. I often muse (with some sadness) that my idea of a "celebrity" is Jimmy Stewart
or Lucille Ball, as I read the checkstand magazone covers or internet news, that Amanda
Reckonwith is pregnant, or was seen at some nightspot with Harry Organs. Who the hell
are these people, and why the #@! does anyone care ? Oh, you say they are in the new
Batman 47 movie ! Is that right ? Well, since I missed the first 46, I guess I have become
the old man telling the neighborhood kids to stay off my lawn !

An "exciting" headline this morning is that iPods are now considered "retro-technology".
I suppose I can now expect to see more news and auction action about hipster collectors
snapping these up at "record prices". .... of course, to accentuate their already hip and
cool collections of old school celfones.

As I sat in my shop this morning, surrounded by all the old and cool, I was just soaking it
all in, like one might brew tea or marinate a steak. I am currently repairing a table that a
client tells me has been in her family since 1840. The all-wood expanding mechanism for
adding leaves has loosened to a terminal level and I am tasked with surgically breaking the
parts down, filling wallered-out holes in the black walnut, and putting it back together in a
way that does not alter the piece from its 150 history of manufacture and early repairs. My
also-150-year-old fruit jars, full of ancient screws and other fastening widgets have been key
in being able to do a faithful repair that preserves the 19th century look and feel of the old
table, and it just feels wonderful to putter about amongst it all, doing work like this.

I have a very hard time imagining an oldtimer in the year 2112 doing the same thing with
an iPod, as he sits amongst his collection of electronic this-n-thats and dreams of long-gone
days of "phone apps" that allowed internet shopping or directory type browsing. Yeah, ....
I am not sure what happens after the last of us that remember "old guys" with oily shops and
things with spoked wheels are gone, and the longer I ponder it, the more hopeless it seems
that anyone will care. But I guess I am wasting what little time I have left even thinking
about it. I won't be here to worry about it. I will just enjoy sitting in the middle of it all
and mill up a new white oak glide strip for a 150-year-old table, carefully glue it in place,
and give it a nice rub down in wax like was done in 1890.