Can anybody identify this “tool”?
My grandfather was a letterpressman, a true printer. He said they are all smudgers when they went to offset. Anyway, I found this in his stuff & actually tracked down the company a few years ago to ask them what it was. Their response was that it was obsolete! I still don’t know what it is for. It is enlarged in the picture. It is actually 4 5/8 long x 1 3/8 wide. It says ” The Printing Machinery Co Cincinnati - 2- Ohio Precision Metal Base Magnesium Semi-Steel It has 90 degree notches as well as 10 degree & 20 degree notches. Can anybody enlighten me? Thanks, Jay
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This looks not unlike a similar guage we had for checking the angle we used to file onto the edges of the aluminium base plates that then were clipped to the honeycombe base . Ours however were not as gadget like and certainly were not marked with makers name etc.
PMC made both Sterling honeycomb base and Warnock grooved base, which used different bevel angles. The conical tip may be a plate shifter, the other end could be for cleaning?
Reasonable guess the chisel like end for lifting dst adhered print dies?
No one ever said you were reasonable Peter, i think you are right, i guess my idea about it being a tool for opening beer bottles wasn’t right.
I wonder how you would manage to open a bottle with it when you can just brace the bottle cap on the lip of the stone and give the top a punt with the heel of your hand!
Not from personal practise i must add but i have seen it done!
As long as this is in the hand when opening the bottle it could be considered a helper.
I thank you for most of the responses to my question. That is what I thought it was for but not knowing all the procedures in doing it I was guessing. Later, Jay
I saved this image from an ebay listing because I didn’t know how to use this guage either.
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@littleacorn Very cool!
Thank you Little Acorn for the confirmation. It has been many years in getting this identified. Later, Jay