Steve Santini 25 May 2005
#6I have buy this thumbcuff and i have some question for you: specilist
is this french?
Have you idea of date or manufactered of this and the value?
Thank you very much for your help.
Manette
http://www.isman.it/manette/
Not to mean to disagree with Mark, but many versions of pipe clamps are meant to be applied around a pipe or section of pipes that are already joined.
And, just like the modified vice grips and other clamps he saw for pipes in the store, such a clamp usually has one "open" side so that it can be fitted over any area of the pipe and then screwed down tight.
This curious device might not work so well for such a purpose. Because it does not have an "open" side to the jaw, it would have to be slid along a length of pipe until it reached the appropriate spot.
Then, and once the reapir was made, how would one go about getting it off?
It would be trapped and held captive and thus rendered useless for future work.
If you go on ebay and seach for antique nut crackers, you can on occassion see examples show up that operate on a screw down principal.
And, of course, the nut (i.e. wallnut, etc) can be inserted from either side hence no open section to the jaws is needed.
This is just my opinion on what I think this is and why I think it.
A real mystery device to be sure!
Steve Santini
