I've run into a dating problem for a cooper's tool -- the chamfer knife.
Seen as one of the definitive cooper's tools, I  have to determine if it
was in common use before 1846, and I suspect it was not.  In fact, it
makes no appearance among cooper's tools other than British and 
American.

The tool in question can be seen in the first two rows of photos here:

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=cooper%27s+chamfer+knife&qpvt=coope
r%27s+chamfer+knife&FORM=IGRE#a">http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=cooper%27s+
chamfer+knife&qpvt=cooper%27s+chamfer+knife&FORM=IGRE#a

The second photo in the top row (left handed, you'll notice) is, I 
believe,
not a chamfer knife, but a "flincher" in English parlance, a tool found 
in
collections of Italian cooper's tools and also in use by Dutch coopers, 
who
use it to, in fact, chamfer the stave ends on herring barrels.  The 
chamfer
knife is a massive thing, weighing three pounds and more.

While not having the distinctive handling -- one handle at 90 degrees to 
the
blade, and the other handle parallel to the blade -- the mass of the 
tool sold
by Horst auctions (number 88) could be a forerunner of the chamfer 
knife:

http://www.horstauction.com/
tool13octlist

It is used for cutting the chime on barrel staves by British and 
American coopers,
instead of the cooper's adzes used by French, Spanish, and German 
coopers.

Sutter's Fort has three of these in the cooper's shop.  All show the 
D.R. Barton
mark in the post 1870 oval.  If these were not available in 1846, they 
need to
go to the State Museums collections for the appropriate time period.

So far, they don't show up in Timmins (Tools for the Trades and Crafts, 
Kenneth
Roberts edition) or in Smith's Key to Sheffield's Manufacturies. 
(Jiggers or
Jigging Knives show up, but definitely not the same tool at all.)

Mike in Sacto