An unusual clamp - what is it for?

Seems like the intent is to grab this and push on that. I bet it could come in handy sooner or later if you can find it when you need it ( or even remember that you have it). <grin>

-- Fine Custom Woodwork since 1978

Slide it along a workbench and clamp it where you you need it.

-- Every step of any project should be considered your masterpiece if you want the finished product to reflect the quality of your work. http://www.FineArtBoxes.com

Could it possibly be a “wood stretcher”??? Lol.

-- Randy-- I may not be good...but I am slow!

It looks like something that might be used to pull a tenon out of a mortise.

-- Failure does not stop me, it makes me try harder..... because I'm crazy.

Got a pair of them!

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive

If you clamp this fixture onto the end of a 2×4 and nail a block onto the the opposite end of the 2×4 (at just a bit more than the width of the boards you wish to clamp) you have a wooden “bar clamp” of sorts.

Least ways, that’s my guess.

Cheers!

-- Dave; Lansing, Kansas

There’s always a chance that the famous carpenter Xavier used it to sign his work.

I’ve never seen one but it would work very well in carvel boat building to clamp on to a rib and force a piece of planking down tight. We used another method involving wedges but this or something similar may have been it’s purpose.

-- Paul M ..............If God wanted us to have fiberglass boats he would have given us fiberglass trees. http://prmdesigns.com/

The crank handle looks exactly like the ones on my E.C. Sterns clamps from the 1800s. They also made a lot of other styles and after long searching I did one time find one of their clamp catalogs online. They were from Syracuse, NY to help with the search process.

-- --Rev. Russ in NY-- A posse ad esse

It looks like it was made to clamp onto a joist and push a warped floor board into line for nailing or screwing
down. I could have used it when I was putting the deck boards down last week. Anyone working alone
would really appreciate it. The mark in the joist would not matter or show, and the mark on the side of the
board would be covered by the next board.

-- As ever, Gus-the 74 yr young apprentice carpenter