Vintage Rachet

[Mark]

Can't remember where this came from, possibly a relative. Interested to find out how old this is. Looks primitive to me. No screws, just hammered over pins. Still works with a nice action. Any ideas?  I've not been able to find anything similar on google.

[Nick Jones]

Probably made for a specific task by the looks?

Bit like a scaffolding spanner....

[thebrookster]

I'm not used to them having a blunt handle, but they are fairly common tools.

Often used by guys working on pipelines/valves etc were bolts etc are the same size, so you have one or two sizes covered by the ratchet, and then the handle is normally pointed which allows you to use it as a spike to line up the bolt holes.

I'm wondering if that is a handmade item, it's the kind of thing you set apprentices to prove their skills. I had to make a 1/2" ratchet as my workshop project in my cadetship.

Phil

[Kev_tr6]

I think it’s called a Podger.

[Nick Jones]

The podger is the spike for lining up the bolt holes.

[JohnD]

"Dolly Perkins"!

Would that be the original owner, one Perkins, known as 'Dolly' after the late high street chain of ladies garment shops, Dorothy Perkins?     There were so mnay, it could have been in any part of the UK!   But no more.

[Mark]

Thanks for your thoughts.  More than likely as suggested some sort of trade tool. A Podger, first time i've heard that word, looks like a possibility, but it dosen't have the spike on the end. Could have been modified, but does look original. One side turns clockwise, the other anti clockwise, both sides are the same size. Looks hand made. Hard to read in the photo but it reads  POLLY/ PERKINS, may have been a nickname, or possibly the maker. 

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Says Polly Perkins. Polly Perkins was the heroine of an old song

"I am a broken-hearted milkman, in grief I'm arrayed
Through keeping of the company of a young servant maid
Who lived on board and wages, the house to keep clean
In a gentleman's family near Paddington Green

She was as beautiful as a butterfly and proud as a Queen
Was pretty little Polly Perkins of Paddington Green

She'd an ankle like an antelope and a step like a deer
A voice like a blackbird, so mellow and clear
Her hair hung in ringlets so beautiful and long
I thought that she loved me but I found I was wrong

etc...."

Polly Perkins was also the name of the Gwyneth Paltrow character in the film Skycaptain and the World of Tomorrow.

Why it is on a ratchet spanner is anyone's guess unless it was added by a PO with a hankering for the lass in the song. Too early for the film version and can't imagine why anyone would have a hankering for Ms Paltrow, a woman who is mad as a box of frogs.

It isn't a podger as it doesn't have the taper and as a result would be difficult to use for lining up holes unless they were pretty much already lined up. That's just the handle.

This is a podger with a ring spanner attached.

And with a ratchet spanner

 

[JohnD]

Very much 'music hall'!  

 

So much so that the original owner, Mr.Perkins, was inevitably 'Polly' to his mates.