Have you ever seen...

[jrmartin1964]

...an Ideal Bullet Sizer? This tool first appeared in Ideal Handbook No.1 (1891), survived the changing of ownership of the Ideal company to Marlin in 1910, to Phineas Talcott in 1916, and to Lyman in 1926, and was last seen in Handbook No.34 (1940).
180623 180624
180625 180626
The description from the Ideal Handbooks: "The value of this tool will be appreciated by those who have arms of different calibers, or those who may desire bullets of a special diameter [emphasis in the original]. It is made so that dies of any caliber can be used in it. It will be noticed that the die swings upon centers, which are located near the top of the die, the presser punch is also swung upon a pivot which, while forcing the bullet through the die will keep it in perfect alignment with the pressure. This construction also permits the placing of the die near the joint, thereby giving the required power with shorter levers, which makes the tool a handy and convenient length. The tool will be the same for all calibers. The die only being made for the caliber desired, and for all standard sizes, from .22 to .50 caliber."

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Very nice. I think I may have seen a couple pass through e-bay over the past few years, but didn't know what they were for.

[dtknowles]

I have a plier type tool that has a hole for bullet sizing.

Tim

[Pavogrande]

That is a great find!
While I have a couple handles with a bullet sizer built in I have never seen handles dedicated to sizing.
In fact yours is the first I ever heard of ---
Are the dies similar to 45/450 dies?
Thanks for sharing!

[Bent Ramrod]

Wow, lucky, lucky! The ones I've seen have only the die in the handles; extra dies, (if any) were long since separated and lost.

There were complaints (Elmer Keith's the most vocal) that the hole in the handles of the ordinary tong tools would mangle and even bend the boolit as it was being squeezed through. The pivoting punch in the other handle was supposed to alleviate this problem, but evidently it didn't in all cases. Pivoting the punch and swiveling the die at the same time would result in a more "straight-line" sizing operation, as well as allowing the shooter the exact diameter he wanted.

[jrmartin1964]

180716

For those who may be interested, I've here's a close-up of one of the dies that I have (marked .312 on the face that's not shown). The dies (as you may have gathered from the earlier photos) are cylindrical, measuring 0.679" in length and 0.648" in diameter. The hole that passes through the center measures 0.005" larger than indicated for the first 0.500", and then steps down to the indicated size for the remaining 0.179". The entrance to the die is chamfered at about 82 degrees to a diameter of 0.500". The blind hole that shows in the side of the die is where one of the pivot screws enters.

I actually got this tool from my Dad about 10 or 12 years ago, and he got it from his uncle a few years before I was born (I'm 52 now). I have used the tool, and while my micrometers tell me the boolits come out of the dies at the specified sizes - and perfectly round - if you're not careful about how your hand is placed on the handles you can get a painful 'pinch' - and even the occasional blood blister! :shock:

[Mk42gunner]

Looks like it would be useful, but slow.

I somehow doubt that Ideal/Lyman sold very many of these, or else they got thrown away when nobody knew just what they were for.

Robert

[jrmartin1964]

Looks like it would be useful, but slow.

I somehow doubt that Ideal/Lyman sold very many of these, or else they got thrown away when nobody knew just what they were for.

Robert

Yes, using one of these is quite slow. They do show up - few and far between - on internet auction sites, but no one these days seems to know just what they are. More often than not, they are misidentified as being an early Ideal priming/de-priming tool, which looks like this:
180977