A friend on FaceBook post a picture of this tool asking if anyone knew what it was.   I've never seen anything quite like it before.

 

Clearly for pulling something tight, but what specifically, I could not say.

It appears to me to be some sort of a come along.  I have a very vague memory of once seeing something similar in a logging museum.  That's all I've got.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I believe it’s a tool for installing and/or removing the rim from wood center car wheels (think model t) I can’t explain how it works but I’m pretty sure that’s what it is! Hope this helps, Bill Davis 

I believe it's called a timber dog, for binding timber together in the logging industry, for transport on sleds or rail cars.

Yup - LAF has it right - its a tire split rim tool for wooden spoke automobile wheels like the Model T

You are absolutely correct, just googled "split rim tool for model T" and there it was.

It took a little looking but here's a video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYh1PVgpbjo

I watched a number of videos about changing tires on Model T  split rims. Don't spare the baby powder!

Frosty The Lucky.

Funny my Mother was talking to me this weekend about her Grandfather's car and how it had wooden spoke wheels. (And how most people don't believe it when she tells them that!)

Dad used to tell us about fixing flats on the side of the road, only folks with money could afford a spare tire. Dad and the brothers sold spare tires for gas money or groceries. They had to have a vehicle but transportation was all it was. 

Watching the videos yesterday gave me a new appreciation for patching another hole in an old inner tube on the side of the road. Seriously, it was always pitch dark, snowing hard, wind howling, 3' or more on the ground, and uphill both ways.

Frosty The Lucky.

The wooden spoked wheels on early automobiles were referred to as "artillery wheels.'  This was apparently a reference to the heavy duty wooden wheels that were used on artillery pieces (with a few heavy artillery exceptions) through World War 1.  Steel wheels for autos did not become common until the late 1920s - early 1930s and even then it was for more expensive models.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Seems like ages since I saw true wire wheels too.

I read an account of some folks working a small mine in Arizona and having trouble because it got so hot where they were at that the patches wouldn't stay on their tubes and they couldn't drive to town for supplies. They ended up making more money selling cutting stuff to a jewelry maker in Germany than the ore they shipped out for smelting.

George, I have never heard wood spoke wheels ever referred to as artillery wheels. The artillery wheels were the solid steel, or the ones with holes all around the rim.

I remember my grandfather telling about changing the tires on the Army's Ford TT trucks when he was in the Poncho Villa campaign. He said it was easier than putting the iron tires on the wagons but don't remember him describing the rim tool.

Thanks for the info guys.  The video was rather educational Frosty.  Learn something new