Historical information

A dowel is a cylindrical rod, usually made of wood. In its original manufactured form, a dowel is called a dowel rod. Dowel rods are often cut into short lengths called dowel pins.These are commonly used as structural reinforcements in cabinet making and in joining large timbers together.
To make a dowel, a piece of wood is split or whittled to a size slightly bigger than desired and to place the stock into a vice then rotate past a fixed knife, or alternatively, to rotate the knife around the stock such as the subject tool was used.
Machines based on this principle emerged in the 19th century. Frequently, these are small bench-mounted tools, prior to this time dowels had to be cut by hand.

Significance

The tool is an example of early to late 19th century hand tool used to make timber dowels. It is not associated with an historical event, person or place, makers provenance is unable to be determined at this time. Many small American and British tool manufactures were taken over by Stanley tools after 1843 when the company was established and this item could have been made by one of these. However the subject item appears to be rare and would be regarded as a collector's item.

Physical description

An adjustable woodworking tool know as a Moot, used for making Trunnels or Treenails (Dowels) for fastening joints in timber.

Inscriptions & markings

None