Help ID This Firearm Tool
- Thread starter msmp5
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Are you sure that isn't for a bicycle or a vintage Ford?
Looks like a bicycle wrench:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Old-flat-wr...332860?hash=item590b75673c:g:PMkAAOSwPYpa1Acw
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Old-flat-wr...332860?hash=item590b75673c:g:PMkAAOSwPYpa1Acw
The Bushmaster
Member
Multi-wrench for a bicycle.
CapnMac
Member
There are a couple of MG wrenches like this. But they would be marked martially.
So bike or lawnwoer wrench is just as likely, if no more so.
So bike or lawnwoer wrench is just as likely, if no more so.
AlexanderA
Member
That's the classic Browning MG combo tool, specifically for the M1917/M1917A1 watercooled, although it can be used on others. The large hole with the two flats is for the muzzle gland, and also for the nut retaining the cradle locking screw on the tripod. (That nut is pinned in place, so the pin must be driven out before the nut can be unscrewed.) The large screwdriver on the edge of the opposite end is for the steam condensing tube. All the other wrenches are for various nuts and bolts on the gun or the tripod.
The correct nomenclature is the M6 combination tool. It's a WW2 item.
These combo tools are fairly common. Each crew was issued with one.
The correct nomenclature is the M6 combination tool. It's a WW2 item.
These combo tools are fairly common. Each crew was issued with one.
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WestKentucky
Member
RD41 was going to be my guess...a rusty doomaflotchy from about 1941
Glad it got identified. I have a few tools I haven't figured out. I recently determined that one of my RD items is a rem700 bolt disassembly tool.
Glad it got identified. I have a few tools I haven't figured out. I recently determined that one of my RD items is a rem700 bolt disassembly tool.
The Bushmaster
Member
Is a "doomaflotchy" the same as a "rachamatatchy"??
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msmp5
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I think AlexanderA nailed it.........the box next to it in my cabinet had some (unk type) MG links, so yes, I'm thinking it all goes to a Browning MG. Can't even remember where I might have gotten that stuff. Wondering how much it'd cost me to get a Browning M1917 or M1919 MG so I have something to use the tool and links with............
CapnMac
Member
@AlexanderA remembered it better than I.
With clean markings:
This is the M1919 version (not water cooled):
With clean markings:
This is the M1919 version (not water cooled):
AlexanderA
Member
Those guns are at a "sweet spot," pricewise, in the MG world. You can probably find one for less than $20,000. For some reason, belt-feds are not as popular as M16's or SMG's. (Exceptions are M60's and M2HB's, which are really up there in price.)
If the gun has a bronze trunnion, which many do, you don't want to use links. They tear up the feedway. You should use cloth belts if you don't want damage to your multi-thousand dollar gun. Even with a steel trunnion, you should use a feedway protector with links.
WestKentucky
Member
Close cousins. A doomaflotchy is closer to a thingamajig whereas a rachamatachy is more on the whatsitcalled end of the spectrum.
CapnMac
Member
A semi 1919 is in the $2-3K range. Bad news is that the tripod is about a grand all by its lonesome.
AlexanderA
Member
On the other hand, the good news is that there's a great deal of interoperability among the tripods of various nations. That's because the old Maxims established the size and spacing of the mounting pins, and the following designs, such as the Vickers and the Brownings, just carried that forward.
If you have a Browning .30 cal., you can use a U.S. M1917 or M1917A1 tripod, an M2 ("lowboy") tripod, an M74 tripod, a British Vickers tripod, a Russian Sokolov wheeled mount, or even a German Maxim sled mount. The Vickers and Sokolov mounts are more reasonably priced than the U.S. tripods.
Original M1918 belt filling machines (for loading cloth belts) are getting close to $1,000.
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CapnMac
Member
Yup. I kick myself for turning down a combo deal of an M2 tripod and a loading machine for $500. Idiot.
AlexanderA
Member
Back when I was doing WW1 reenacting, in the late 1980's, I took part in a couple of events using my watercooled Browning MG on an M1917A1 tripod. Most of the reenactors didn't know the difference, but it bothered me because that model tripod is completely incorrect for WW1. So, I traded an extra M2 tripod that I had for a Vickers tripod. (The AEF had a shortage of the M1917 tripods in France, so it used Vickers tripods with Browning guns as a substitute standard.) As luck would have it, I never got to use the Browning-Vickers combination in a reenactment, because the Great War Association lost the use of its battlefield in Shimpstown, Pennsylvania, and their new battlefield was too far away for me to travel there. That was a shame, since we had put in a lot of work building that trench system at Shimpstown.
Both the original M1917 and M1918 tripods are extremely rare and expensive today. Vickers tripods are relatively common, but you will still pay several hundred dollars for one..
CapnMac
Member
I have a bro, a horse vet in VA, former treadhead, who has taken up WWI era cavalry impressions. He's a leg up for already owning horses, and a saddle or two.
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