What kind of tool is this and how old?

Looks like some kind of crimping tool - 20/30's

 

Yes, crimping pliers ...older than me....

 

Older than everyone posting, I have a feeling.

 

Often used to make the crimps in one end of a section of steel stovepipe so it fits inside the uncrimped end of the next section.

No doubt used for other things, but generally called a 'stovepipe crimping pliers' around here.

A bit of wire-brushing may raise a maker's mark. That'd help date it.

 

Is it just me, or does anyone else see a Mesosoic fish every time they look at that photo? It looks like something that would have been dinosaur food.

 

Nothing to do with stovepipe

 

I could believe either electrical or stovepipe crimping, never having done either.
I do like this Mesozoic crimper, presumably electrical:



But it does seem like Kingjoker's could work like this:



Though I'd guess that an electrical crimper might well be flat on one side of the jaw, as KJ's seems to be, while I'd think a stovepipe crimper should have a V-groove to match the raised V on the other side.

 

Oops.