Cross-over tools
Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2019 8:50 pm
I picked up a tool from a shelf to use in the woodshop recently and it reminded me of how many times over the years I have used one or more tools of one trade/craft for another trade/craft.
This tool comes from the shoe repair trade. It's used to drive special nails down inside of a boot (commonly western boots) to make a stronger attachment of a heel block by nailing through the boot from the inside down into the block. I now have two very fast electric nailing machines plus three machines that will do it that are a first cousin to an arbor press, that will do that job very quickly and easily but in the early days (1970's) they were priced well beyond my means so I had acquired this simple tool to do the job. You have to be pretty tiny to stand down inside of a boot and swing a hammer.
The first pic is the tool and the second, it pulled apart showing the very simple workings. It was pretty well designed and made so that you could replace any of the parts. You drop a nail into the side tube and lift the knob so the nail drops into the lower center tube and then you use the solid cast iron knob to drive the nail home. It is adjustable as to how deep it sets the nail. Super simple yet highly functional.
I have a list of other cross-over tools but I'll stop here tonight.
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This tool comes from the shoe repair trade. It's used to drive special nails down inside of a boot (commonly western boots) to make a stronger attachment of a heel block by nailing through the boot from the inside down into the block. I now have two very fast electric nailing machines plus three machines that will do it that are a first cousin to an arbor press, that will do that job very quickly and easily but in the early days (1970's) they were priced well beyond my means so I had acquired this simple tool to do the job. You have to be pretty tiny to stand down inside of a boot and swing a hammer.
The first pic is the tool and the second, it pulled apart showing the very simple workings. It was pretty well designed and made so that you could replace any of the parts. You drop a nail into the side tube and lift the knob so the nail drops into the lower center tube and then you use the solid cast iron knob to drive the nail home. It is adjustable as to how deep it sets the nail. Super simple yet highly functional.
- Shoe repair - Boot nailer 1.jpg (134.53 KiB) Viewed 6768 times
- Shoe Repair - Boot nailer 2.jpg (100.19 KiB) Viewed 6768 times
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