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Set of 12 steel chasing stamp tools: horseshoe, pipe
These circa 1800's blacksmith or jeweler's chasing stamp tools are for punching, stamping or sinking designs into steel, gold, silver, or other metal (probably intended for softer material and pieces, watches and jewelry and such, considering the ornate detail of many of the pieces in the set these came from).
This set of twelve (12) tools are a mixed lot of designs, including a shield, large smooth bullet shape, book, zig zag line, a padded crown, Sherlock style tobacco pipe, tower of babel, chisel blade, lion, wing, shooting stars, and a horse shoe.
Tools themselves range from 2" to 3 1/8" long, design sizes range from 1/8" to 3/4".
Known history of these tools: they came from the estate of Leon Robbins, a famous Bath, Maine plane craftsman. (they might have been used for wood, too-he was a woodworker, but it's unknown whether or not he used any of these for anything or if they just sat in his basement). He apparently got them from an English belt buckle and button maker operating circa 1800's.
I found a woodblock with some stamps someone made on them in the collection:
Leon Robbins apparently got the bulk of these tools from an English belt buckle and button maker operating circa 1800's (some might be from earlier or later makers). They passed through a number of hands before he got them, as evidenced by stamps on the sides of a few of them that include things like peoples' first and last names and company names (Pickard, I. Hayes, etc.), "Cast steel," "Crucible Steel," anchor symbols often with numbers, numerals by themselves, etc. Some are stamped "W. Jessop & Sons," a name used by an English maker operating from the early 1800's to the early 1900's that, like many Sheffield makers, was famous for the quality of their steel-this seems like a likely maker, considering their place of origin and the time period in which they were crafted. (A bit of info on William Jessop & Sons can be found here: http://www.sherlock-homes.us/712.pdf)
These appear to have been made from crucible steel, with the designs individually hand filed and forged (some of the pieces have visible file marks around the designs).
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