It looks like an Ideal #1 Lubricator-Sizer that someone has replaced the operating lever and the lube feed screw replaced with beefier home-built components.

It was mentioned I can use current Lyman dies and nose punches.

I am confused, I thought the current crop of Lyman re-sizing dies used a threaded nut to hold them into the die opening?  I had this sizer apart when I first got and cleaned out lubricant that had been in it for 50 years.   

There is a flat cut on the die that uses the thumb screw on the front to hold it in place.

I know for years after Lyman bought out Ideal after WW I a lot of the products Lyman sold still had Ideal in the name.  Today Lyman still sells Ideal Bullet Lube (which I think is the "original" Barlow's Bullet Lube formulation).

So is this a lubrisizer that was made by the "original" Ideal manufacturing company?

It doesn't show well in the picture, the grease resevoir is a machined steel cylinder with threads cut on the inside and threads on the outside to thread into the brass cast base.

It's definitely not sheet metal grease resevoir which Green_Frog said was used on the Ideal #1.

My Grandfather (Alfred Louis Stebbins) was a skilled machinist and gunsmith, but, I don't know if he made this lubrisizer.  He was also one of the better marksman in Connecticut in the 1920's and 30's.

A letter in my Grandfather's scrap book from Harry Pope (May 1930) mentions this lube pump and the die that is in it. Harry did call it an Ideal in the letter.  Harry complained that he did not feel the die properly lubricated a bullet (perhaps leaving too much grease on one side of the bullet).  Harry also felt that bullets should NOT be sized if they are correctly designed and ONLY greased.  Naturally Harry said only his pump did the job right.

I cannot detect any uneven lubricating on the bullets greased with this pump.  So far I have only used Lyman Black Powder Gold lubricant in it.  I have some Lyman Ideal Bullet Lube which I have not tried yet.

Whomever made it they took the time to make sure it was rugged and can handle the abuse of lubricating cast bullets.

Hi Froggie,

I did some checking on the Cornell Pubs site and found a 1908 Ideal catalog.  So I ordered it for reference.  The table of contents mentions a Lubrisizer Model #1 and Model #2.  Another forum member found the original patent date for the Model #1 was 1892.

My Grandfather (lived in Norwich, CT) was friends with a Hopkins & Allen gunbuilder (Alvah Grimes 1851-1933).  So I am sure Grimes would have had access to the forge and casting room at H&A.

But, I don't believe they would have only made one of these.  There may be others.

The other possibility is my Grandfather bought this rifle from Jake Huntzinger in Hartford, CT in 1928.  Perhaps that is where the lube pump came from. My Grandfather already had at least one other Pope and possibly two at the time.

My Grandfather and Harry Pope shot together on several occasions at the Germania Schuetzen Verein in Lisbon/Taftville, Connecticut.  The club existed from 1892-1982 and is mentioned in Charlie Dell's "The Modern Schuetzen Rifle" 1999 edition.

Gary Stebbins
Fort Wayne, Indiana
ASSRA # 10396

Right you are, oh .38 one!  That thumbscrew in front holds the die in by horizontal pressure, which of course would lead to alignment/centering problems if the die were the least bit undersized.  Not a very strong installation, either, I would think.  I'm going to save mine for lubing a bullet that will be very lightly sized (if at all) and make sure that I get it centered in the tool body.

Froggie

Hello, That is one VERY interesting tool!  I still use mine to lube(only) .22 & .6mm bullets.  It's still tight and precise after all these years.  Just a thought, I know the Ideal line almost went under during and after WW1, Marlin manufactured some tools for a time before Lyman stepped in.  I wonder if Modern Bond could have made this?  They had a LARGE nut-cracker too out that was brass.  Just a thought.