Get the gears turning and tell me what this is from.

[TomPA]

I found this brass gear today at a site that dates back to the mid 1700's, but the nearby area has been inhabited since that time. Also found were several musket balls, a King George copper and a few other goodies. The gear is about as thick as a .50 cent piece and the teeth on the backside do not radiate out/in as on the side shown in the picture.
Large clock??

 

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[taz42o]

Pastry cutting wheel?

 

[Breezie]

Pastry cutting wheel?

BINGO! Breezie

 

[TomPA]

Thanks for the input. That was my very first thought as well. But... This piece is extremely thick/heavy, weighing similarly to a US box plate. To bend it, it would take placing it in a vice and whacking it with a large hammer. Other things that don't seem right are that the teeth are different on the backside, the design grooves are so tight together that it would 'clog' and leave no design, and the center hole is much larger than any pastry cutter that I've ever seen. But I was wrong once before!

 

[creskol]

I think it may be a pattern marker for leather. (aka: pattern trace wheel)

 

[TomPA]

You might be on with that. The site was a trading post in the mid 1700's - 1790's and was later occupied by early German immigrants.

 

[DCMatt]

I think it may be a pattern marker for leather. (aka: pattern trace wheel)

Agree. Pattern tracing wheel.




DCMatt

 

[nhbenz]

I'm thinking maybe from a coffee mill or large pepper mill? Note that the edge on one side has a larger working surface than the other (the top I'm guessing), which would involve a bit more work to make than needed for something that just rolls around to perforate something.

 

[reale bill]

would be a little out of place,but it reminds me of a key cutting blade

 

[nhbenz]

Yeah Bill, that seems very close! The only difference being the angled vs straight teeth... Maybe this cut something softer and didn't need the aggressive teeth as for cutting metal? Or maybe that's just the difference between the old and the new improved version?
I just looked at my coffee mill and pepper mill and realized the grinding surface is much too large for my above idea.

 

[TomPA]

Remember too that it's made of heavy brass, so if it were used for cutting, the item would have to be of softer material.

 

[nhbenz]

I vote it gets cleaned up and checked for makers marks. Before it was used and abused it was well enough made to deserve a marking of some sort.
I did find some images of straight toothed key cutting discs (made by Curtis), Which I can imagine would look like this after much use... But of course cutting a brass key with a brass disc wouldn't be ideal, as you mentioned.

 

[Breezie]

What is the exact measurement across the cog? What is the measurement of the hole? Breezie

 

[TomPA]

Breezie,
3" across with a hole diameter of 1/2"

 

[Breezie]

I'm retracting my pasty wheel opinion because there were very few 'brass' pastry wheels. I'm thinking it may be a gear for a larger clock; eg. grandfather clock or either a wheel/blade as Bill said for key cutting. Breezie

 

[Paleopilot]

You may want to investigate the possibility of it being a part for a "seed broadcaster". They were a hand-crank device that you operated with a large bag of grain-seed
on your back. It looks consistent with something of this nature to me. The gear would have been driven with a pinion gear attached to the crank.
Just my guess.
Thomas

 

[DCMatt]

It occurs to me that we may be trying to put function before form. I don't think the relic is made percise enough to be used in a clock. It could simply be an escutcheon backplate from a dresser drawer. The one pictured is more ornate, but of similar size:



DCMatt

 

[TomPA]

I showed it to an archeologist friend of mine today at lunch and he was unsure of its use as well. He did feel that it looked to him as if the teeth were "hand-filed" and presumed it was pretty old based on this construction.

 

[cudamark]

I would agree with those that think it came from a clock or some other mechanism where a soft metal is used or where there might be a moisture problem. Cutting tools are not often made of copper or brass. I have seen some egg beater gears that look like that but they have much coarser gears and are made of steel or at least pot metal.

 

[nhbenz]

Last wild guess -- cutting disc from a pencil sharpener, before the cylindrical blades came into use?