Mystery tools

[Stephen Newell]

I have these tools and wondered what they are and what they are used for. They are stamped Heller which I have learned has something to do with Farriers

 

[DH in Carolina]

Metal spinning tools?
 

[souNdguy]

i can't see the pic clearly.. but are there file grooves on the undersides?
 

[Stephen Newell]

There's no file grooves. It's just pointed rods.
 

[Chip812]

Think dentist's set of picks for your teeth. These are what farriers use to pick foreign objects out of hooves.
 

[DiyDave]

Wooden handles are babbitt bearing scrapers, you usta use them to scrape the bearings, after casting them, it involved painting with prussian blue, bolting caps on, turn shaft a little, then unbolting and removing same, and scraping the babbitt till all was uniform.
 

[DiyDave]

Now that I got a second look, they may all be babbitt scraper tools. Remember that most farriers were blacksmiths, and blacksmiths would use the same tools, as they did for horses. Babbitt bearings are still used, and similar scrapers are still made.
 

[BIG RUH]

Wood lathe tools
 

[Old Bob]

Those are not wood lathe tools
 

[Stephen Newell]

Agreed. I have 40 years experience as a custom woodworker and I've never seen anything like these tools.
 

[NCWayne]

Got to be farrier tools. In the time I spent in the Navy I watched the guys in the shipyards scrap several of the BIG babbited bearings on our main shafts. The whole process was amazing to watch, espeically when it was being done to bearings that carried a shaft that was better than 24 inches in diameter. Then, on our shaft (#4 main engine on the USS America), it was even more of an adventure because the shaft was tweeked a bit and didn't turn exactly true. So, they had to scrap it so the shaft was supported and didn't bind even with the bend. That said they don't look like any of the babbit scraping tools I have ever seen, and those guys had a wide variety of shapes and sizes as their disposal.
 

[TimV]

Do you have an old plumber in the family? I have a couple of similar ones that I got in a package deal from a fellow whose grandfather did plumbing work in NYC at the turn of the (last) century. He said they were used for working with lead pipe in the days when joints and unions (particularly ones at odd angles that didn't lend themselves to off-the-shelf unions) were made by piercing and scraping the pipes to fit roughly together with similar tools to these, then patching with oakum and pouring molten lead around them to complete the seal. For obvious reasons there's not much call for that type of work or the tools that did it nowadays!
 

[JRSutton]

that was my guess too.
 

[mrpete]

These ARE bearing scrapers--end of discussion.
 

[Stephen Newell]

Agreed they look like bearing scrapers however the points on these have been rounded smooth. I went to google images and all the bearing scrapers I could find had sharper points. For several days now I've been searching the net and can't find anything that matches these tools. The thing that bugs me is the Heller Brothers Company specialized in making equestrian related products.