My Mum has been clearing out some of my Dad’s stuff after he passed away and gave me this today, assuming it was a penknife but as you can see it’s not. The “blades” on each arm are quite sharp and the three arms fold into the body. I’m thinking it’s a special tool for something but can’t fathom what. It’s possible it belonged to my great grandfather who was a carpenter in Portsmouth Dockyard pre war or it’s possible that my Dad had it stashed for years. any thoughts?
Funny how these types of things can linger in the mind. Whilst munching on a chicken drumstick for ma tea a few mins ago I got to thinking about your thing. It looks home made. What did the old boy do for a living, that might be a good starter for ten...
Here's a whole lot of (did I say??) Blood letting tools, incl. a few Scarificators (spring loaded blood letting devices)
These are also known as Fleams apparently who knew… the puzzle is where it came from, one possible is that my Dad’s father was a medical orderly in Plymouth and Portsmouth Dockyards in the late 1920’s but I’d have thought this is much older?
Your's has to be (probably) early Victorian, so no longer in use in the '20s. Who knows why he had it? Maybe it was just a redundant tool that he/your Grandfather came across and kept? ..... perhaps for leatherwork? My Dad was a Carpenter and he used to find special (often one-off) uses for all sorts of non-carpentry tools.
