Just picked this up at an estate sale. Asked one guy there, and he said he thought it was a wire cutter. It doesn’t work very well as a wire cutter, and it seems like a convoluted way to make a wire cutter.  It says Sargent & Company New Haven, Connecticut made in USA

It is a wire cutter. Try it on some thicker, soft wire, like the one steel suppliers uses to package material. Its not made for thin wire.

They're called twin jaw double wire cutters

Pnut

I have a Sargent tool that looks just like that, and it is emphatically an aircraft lockwire spinning tool. Sargent is still manufacturing high end hydraulic components and systems for Aerospace and the military.

Robert Taylor

16 hours ago, Delani said:

It doesn’t work very well as a wire cutter,

 

Doesn't look anything like the safety wire spinning pliers I used on the flight-line in the Air Force.

Though there is about 50 years of evolution between when I used them and now, this is what we used "back then".

 

Google twin jaw double wire cutter and you will see the tool in the op pic. This is what they're listed as in the Sargent and company catalog. I can't download the catalog on PDF for some reason or I'd post it but here's a pic of the result when googled. This is from an ad for them. 

Pnut

The catalog I took the picture from is from the Bernard Tool catalog here:

https://archive.org/details/BernardToolsCatalog29/page/n17/mode/2up

Bernard Tools where acquired by Sargent Tools:

Quote

The Sargent Manufacturing Company acquired the Wm. Schollhorn Co., and became known as the Hand Tool Division of Sargent Manufacturing.

[Commercial link removed]

15 hours ago, pnut said:

I can't download the catalog on PDF for some reason or I'd post it

I guess you are talking about this catalog:

https://archive.org/details/SargentToolBook1911Catalog/mode/2up

My guess is that the cutter is made from Sargent after they acquired Bernard and kept the pattern in production with the new Trademark.

Notice on the Bernard Picture "Patent pending"

Lodi was one of the trademarks from Bernard (Trademarks are listed in BernardToolsCatalog29, page 4)

Okay, I guess I have to locate mine - definitely a lockwire tool, mine was...

Robert Taylor

I tried it on some thicker soft wire, and it still doesn’t work very well. It kind of mushes and bends it. It does work well for a very stiff wire like a safety pin. But it works amazingly well, as Anachronist58 suggests, as a Lockwire spinning tool!! SEE PIC

Thanks guys!

I will definitely be using this site again!

What happened to the OP photo? this is a big reason we frown on off site hosting kills the thread when someone deletes information

I was given one of those tools by The Dallas Times Herald when I got my first newspaper delivery route.  It was used to cut the wires holding the bundles of papers together.  If yours has loosened up to the point it won't cut wire, a couple of good taps on the hinge rivet might be in order.

back when hay bales were tied with wire, we had those to cut the wire. used them on many bales.

We just used the hay hook to break the wire, slip it under and twist it, rarely more than 3 turns and it was broke. We fed 3 wire alfalfa so you only had to break two wires, the third either pulled the bale open you you gave it a push and it opened like a book.

I didn't know anybody with a fancy hay wire cutter, hoity toity folk used dikes. (Diagonal Side Cutters for you kids) 

Frosty The Lucky.

I have no idea what happened to the original pictures. I was under the impression when I got on this site that I had to use an offsite hosting. My last comment I was able to just download it straight off my phone which was way more convenient ;-) Here they are again.

Lockwire tool, safety wire, we called it lacing wire when i was in the Army and it was a lacing tool. 

For lockwires, and lodkwire tools check out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_wire ,

for a visual picture.

SLAG.