What's this?

[Roboframer]

Came in with a set of WW1 medals - some sort of clasp as there's what I think is a pivot and a lug that would fit in a hole, maybe from a belt/strap; it's about 40mm long. I'll post phots of the medals later - awesome set.

clasp 2.JPG

clasp1.JPG

[Merlin]

Strange.
The only thing I can think of is HM Torpedo Boat 23.

[prospero]

I thought HM Torpedo Boat.

The A S could be Able Seaman and the 5/8 could be the cap size. (???)

Unless it means 5 of 8 in which case he could be from the Borg collective.

[Roboframer]

I'm sure the customer would know what the abbreviation is, it's the function of the thing we don't know. But they did come in in a (once I'm sure) very nice glass topped hinged box which the customer took away, maybe it's the clasp off that.

Ask me how I mounted it; tell me how you would've too.

[stcstc]

Ask me how I mounted it; tell me how you would've too.

silicone,

[Roboframer]

Nah - too much precision required, not to mention drying time and a ton of other stuff.

I pressed it against the mounting board and the lugs made two faint marks. Poked holes through the board at those points with an awl, the small lug fitted through OK; the large lug had to be forced through, this made a burr on the back of the board and I pushed all that back under the flange of the lug. Gave it a few good knocks and it didn't budge, but, to be safe, I tightly wound some thread around it (the lug) too.

[Not your average framer]

The early torpedo boats were not named, but numbered. I've got some old wood cut engravings of some of them together with an amusing little ditty mentioning them by numbers and how they kept on getting sunk in training accidents. These engravings would be from the Victorian era.

They had absolutely no superstructure above deck apart from two air intakes and a funnel for the boiler. One man would have his head poking up out of a small hatch to see where the boat was heading and if there were others below deck, I would assume that they had little chance of getting out if the boat sunk.

I don't think that the Victorian torpedo boats were ever successfully used in action.

[johnwphotography]

There is a picture of HMTB 23 here http://www.worldnavalships.com/torpedo_boats.htm
AS could be the company who cast the clasp, would 5/8 relate to the spacings of the studs? An idea of size would be useful.

[Roboframer]

it's about 40mm long.

.... and on my screen it measures 5x1" - therefore the width goes in to the legth 5 times - so, 8mm wide