The Saddle-Girth Tightener: Two Hinged Plates That Grip the Girth and Lever It Tight

Drawing a saddle-girth tight through its buckle by hand takes a hard pull, and a horseman needs a hoof pick, an awl and a nail puller besides. Ferdinand von Eulenfeld of Breslau, Germany, received US 455,745, dated 14 July 1891, for a combination tool "more particularly designed for the use of horsemen and cavalry-men and adapted to be compactly folded and constructed for use as a saddle-girth tightener, nail-extractor, punch or awl, calk-tightener, hoof-cleaner, and for other purposes". Two plates hinged together leave a slot between the knuckles for the girth's end; plate B, bevelled, rests on the girth as a fulcrum; moving plate A toward B narrows the slot to grip the girth, and then both plates act as a lever and draw it through the buckle. B carries a nail-extracting notch and a slot for tightening calks; A has a chamber with a pivoted awl under a cover whose arm is a hoof-cleaner. This rung works out the lever's pull, with a work check, then makes the plates from flat bar with a knuckle hinge and an awl, and tightens a leather strap through a buckle with it.