bullet mold?

[lowcountry]

found this at an old home site, looks like a colonial bullet mold with the cup missing?

 

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[Slingshot]

Kind of looks like blacksmith made pliars or tongs to me. How big is it?

 

[ARC]

Civil war era tooth extractor ?
Great Civil War Era Doctor's " Arnold Balt " Marked 7" Dental Tooth Extractor | eBay

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I'd go with pliers.

 

[ARC]

Agreed with Charlie P.

 

[relicmeister]

I could believe tooth extractor given the pincher-shaped jaws.

 

[BosnMate]

Looks like it might be pliers for ringing a hogs nose. You don't want your pig rooting up the yard, ring it's nose so it hurts when he tries to root.

 

[DJWEHAGE]

Definitely some sort of plyers. Anyone's guess as to what their purpose was originally used.

 

[nhbenz]

All good suggestions. I'm curious though, it almost looks like the handles and jaws are more hollow than a heavy duty application, but I could Definately just be seeing it wrong. A couple of different angles may help? And maybe size, but I guess if one were thinking they may be a bullet mold that kinda describes the size... But just to be sure?

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Bullet molds were made by first forming a hardened "cherry" that was slightly larger than the desired ball/bullet and squeezing the mold around that to form the cavity. This was invariably soft metal that would be hardened afterwards.

Later advances used bronze, brass or aluminum blocks with a sepetate handle. But until 1880 or so they were usually integral with the handles. That is - you would not find handles missing a seperatly formed mold.

 

[lowcountry]

about the size of regular pliers, but it was in the same area as the old flat buttons and black glass...