I was cleaning out a drawer in one of my leather working tool boxes and found this thing.
I've never found a use for it. The tines are somewhat equally spaced but they are not the same (some thinner, some at different angles) so it wouldn't make any kind of decorative impressions. Maybe it was used for book binding or printing in centuries past. Years ago I had found it in a box of old stuff in my father's shop and grabbed it to maybe use for leather working. It's been taking up drawer space ever since.
Many times I've considered getting an embossing wheel to make a border on a holster but just didn't want to spend the money for one. So I ordered an embossing wheel from ebay hoping it could be made to fit in it. I could have also bought the handle for it but it wasn't worth the additional $40 Tandy wants for the thing. I rummaged around in my used and maybe-someday-wanted aircraft hardware.
The search netted an AN3 button head machine screw the right length, an AN close tolerance nut and two brass washers.
To remove the wheel, I ground off the ends of the pivot shaft and removed it. Then I ground the end down to be smaller so it wouldn't drag on the leather when rolling the wheel. A little Birchwood Casey Super Blue and the ends looked like the rest of it.
Assembled it made a crude-looking but usable tool. Now I guess I'll have to think of something to use it on to make the $10 and the half hour's time worthwhile.