"Dan" wrote in message
...
I was wondering if the pointy end of it might be some sort of dead
centre...


In that case it would be a conical point to avoid damaging the work,
would it not?

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

the "pointy end" does have a 60 degree point exactly like a dead center -
originally I thought it went in a head/tail stock of a measuring instrument,
but I don't think the precision of the point is what one would expect
there - the only precision ground part is the cylinder - and the taper of
the flat part is intriguing, to say the least. My friend, who handed me
this thing, has another one that someone has sharpened into a boring tool,
but that clearly was not its original usage - this one appears to be as P&W
intended it.

By the way, for those interested in such things, the P&W measuring tool
company (not the engine company of the same name) has a very nice 1~50 page
history of the company with lots of photos and stuff on-line as a set of PDF
files - it's on their main site. (and no, I couldn't find a hint as to what
this was in there either....)