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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;wlwhittier, post: 11258528, member: 76316&quot;]~613 grams of wood an&#039; steel; the shaft is a ~5/8&quot; chamfered octagonal; the blade is ~1/4&quot; thick, an&#039; is not welded to the shaft, but tenoned into a rectangular mortise. then peened over to secure it. That joint is slightly loose, resulting in slop that amounts to ~1/8&quot; at the tip of the blade. The lack of a welded joint there suggests a reasoned choice favoring the mortise &amp; tenon...a more time-costly method...but that&#039;s conjecture; I don&#039;t know why. The wooden grip is oval, ~1 1/4&quot; by ~1 3/8&quot;, 6&quot; long, with a heavy iron ferrule 1 3/4&quot; long.</p><p><br /></p><p>I believe this tool was made to remove the inner portion of the top of a ~55 gallon oil drum...or probably lots of them; there were literally millions of those as surplus, post-WWII.</p><p><br /></p><p>It could have been started with a ~1/4 hole drilled or punched just inside the lip. The blade is sharpened both sides; that, an&#039; the notch at the shaft tip, would have allowed right or left hand operation. I&#039;ll guess those tops were ~12 gauge steel (~0.105&quot;); to use this thing all day would have been a real job of work. There is quite a bit of wear at the corner where the blade edge meets the tenon, suggesting considerable usage of this tool.</p><p>I&#039;ll be glad to hear your thoughts, comments an&#039; suggestions. Thanks for lookin&#039;!</p><p>EDIT: Google says most of those drum tops were 18 gauge, ~1.2mm thick.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]539633[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]539634[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]539635[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]539637[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]539638[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]539639[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]539640[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]539641[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]539642[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]539643[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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