Here it is, sitting on an A4 sheet of paper, to give an idea of its proportions:

Heavy (solid iron handle), with two unpainted metal panels on the sides bolted on and holding the ‘axle’, the head is shaped for a specific purpose, including levelled-off ‘feet’ to allow the tool to be sat on a flat surface a certain way up when not used.

Each of those toothed circles, and the plain circles between them move independently in either direction without resistance (the centre is actually two roundels, I just forgot to stagger them when taking the shot). The teeth in each circle aren’t the same size as you turn them around. On one circle the teeth have miniscule differences; on another they graduate from very thin through to a medium size.

The brand is Huntingdon woops, HUNTINGTON, and on the next side of the handle (which is diamond-shaped, not square) is a large ‘B1′.

The tool used to belong to the Graphic Investigation Workshop, one of the precursors to the Book Studio. GIW was a Canberra Art School department, for 20 years under the leadership of Petr Herel, a Czech artist who brought his European artist’s book sensibility to Australia long before Australians had any concept of a book being more than just something to read. GIW focussed on drawing as a philosophy, the book as a wide-ranging concept, and poetry as mandatory to creative life.

If the tool came from GIW, it could be to do with printing presses, papermaking equipment, letterpress, or just picked up by someone and kept as an interesting object. Could it have been used for calibration or measurement? Does anyone know?

POSTSCRIPT: Thanks to Norm and Foo who identified the tool as a grinder dressing tool, to keep grinding wheels buffed and rough.  We may still have the wheel it fits, if we’re lucky!

Dr Danie Mellor, former staff member of the Edition + Artist Book Studio, has an exhibition opening at the Canberra Museum and Gallery from 6 August to 22 October: Voyages of Recovery or An Ongoing Catalogue with Moments of Reason from the Cabinet.

The opening is on Friday 4 August at 6pm 5.30pm. (apologies for not reading the card properly!)
Image: True Blue and White, 2005, mixed media.