Forgotten design of screwdriver, or something else?

[AndyT]

I recently bought a box of old tools that had some examples I'd not seen before. I wonder if anyone has seen or used one of these:

It works well as a screwdriver for large, stubborn screws. If you hold the wooden handle in one hand, you can bear down on the screw head and use the metal bar to get plenty of torque on the business end.

It looks as if it could be user-made (quite neatly) - there are no maker's name or marks. If it's never been a commercial product, I think it ought to have been, as it's very effective. One oddity is that what I am thinking of as the screwdriver blade is slightly curved - so perhaps I've guessed the purpose quite wrong!

Any ideas?

Andy

 

[Frank Drew]

Very interesting, Andy; I've never seen anything like it. Looks homemade, as you suggest.

But for a really stubborn screw you'd think you'd want a handle that applied force directly in line with the screwdriver bit (in order to keep the bit in the screw slot), rather than out where the turned handle is. Maybe a bun handle where the nut currently is, something like on a brace.

 

[Lord Nibbo]

If it measures 5/8" on the blade I would suggest it's for digging out old pointing in brickwork.

 

[AndyT]

LN wrote:

If it measures 5/8" on the blade I would suggest it's for digging out old pointing in brickwork.

It's about 3/4" wide and does not have any of the sort of scratching and wear that I imagine mortar would produce.

Frank - that's a good point about having the handle in line. Maybe the original maker had a lot of large screws in tight corners?

Andy

 

[dunbarhamlin]

Is the wooden handled bit free to move?

Perhaps similar to one of these: