Found this tool (it's solid brass) with huge Dandy buttons and an 1802 large cent & 1747 colonial coin , no moving parts on the tool. Any help on what it is ?
I don't think it's a tool, rather a part to some mechanical device. They did have taps and dies then for screw making but there were no standardized sizes.
Brass is usually used for parts that come in contact with water, so my guess would be some sort of water pump part. I doubt if it's really old, though. The threads look to be machine made to me.
It looks like the shaft that goes through an old hand grinder, sometimes called burr mills.(the grinding plates are metal with burrs on both.) This would be for a small mill, like a kitchen mounted coffee, small corn mill grinder. Not a feed grinder. The handle would go on the threaded end, the "T" would go into the rotating bur and the setting would be on the end. Around mid 1800's. I have several mills and they are all different, but close. Just my thoughts. Tony