Help to identify this old Press?

[5iron]

We found this press on a wilderness Island that had an old camp on it. There are blueberries on the Island.  
The grey part of the press is Stainless steel, the rest is iron, even the slider bars. There are parts missing. It looks like it wouldhave been bolted to a table. Any help greatly appreciated.      

[CuriousCollector]

Can you give us another pic from the side?  I'm trying to see what happens when you pull the handle down -- does it press, scrape, push, etc?

[5iron]

I'm sorry, I only took the one picture, but when you pull the handle down, there is a part that gets forced to the left in the picture and pressed whatever into another part that is missing but would have been held in place by the nuts you see on the far left,  The stainless base that whatever gets forced along is square shaped (on end) and so is the part that gets pushed along the bars.

Hope that helps a bit.

Harry

[talesofthesevenseas]

I think it may be a can smasher, that bolts upright to the wall.

[fancypants]

I'd give a wild guess that it may be a portion of :

A. A french-fry cutter .

or.....

B. A bearing/race press .
C. A suet/pemmican press .

It does seem like it would have been mounted vertically , as talesof suggested .

[talesofthesevenseas]

Here's a picture of a similar, but much newer can smasher, so you can see if it might work in the same way:

[waywardangler]

The handle appears to be offset (to one side rail and not centered, but that may be the camera angle), the stainless steel part appears to be in a 'V' (stainless is easily sanitized); so with that in mind, I believe it was used in some sort of food prep.  Maybe blueberry juice making - whoever heard of that except to make wine?  Was this an old wilderness winery?  Maybe sausage stuffing.  Maybe just left there for future inquisitive souls to ponder.  Maybe a primitive atom smasher rather than a can smasher (why smash cans when you can just toss them into the wilderness?). 

[5iron]

Oh that last post was too funny, . All good suggestions though, and maybe it was French fry cutter, or suet press. I think too fancy for a can smasher, but maybe. The old camp was mainly for fishing we think and not too many blue berries around. Enough to attract a bear though, who had visited the site a few days before we did.

Thanks to all and keep the ideas coming.

Harry

[cogar]

It is a wall mounted press, too old to be a can crusher, required a lot of force to do whatever its purpose was because the handle broke twice and only brazed once. That suggest it was used for pressing, crimping, forming, etc. something metallic.
   
Is, was there any nut trees on/near that wilderness Island that had the old camp on it, or do you know. I wasa thinking that if there were then maybe someone carried that “now defunct press” there in hopes of using it for cracking walnuts or hickory nuts with.

[5iron]

I am quite positive now that it was a French Fry cutter.
I found an image of a commercial machine that is almost identical. 

Thanks to all for the help.

Harry

[fancypants]

Glad you found the answer , Siron !

Are you going to go get it & restore it ?

More importantly , if you do , are you going to invite us to your tater/fish fry party ?

[5iron]

No, we left it on the island we found it on.  It was so badly rusted that it would have been quite the chore to restore it. Where we were was near the town of Killarney in Ontario and they boast the best fish and chips in the land, using fresh Perch for the fish. After our canoe trip we of course had to go and try them, and can attest to how good they are.  A must if you are in the area.

Cheers

5iron