Ideal Bullet Sizer, 1891 Barlow Patent
This is a pretty straight forward little tool. You just push the bullet through the die to round it up or size it. Very simple. You could order dies and change them out as needed. The bullet could be sized either before or after it was lubricated.
A powerful sizing tool would be a good when used with the first No. 1 Ideal Bullet Lubricator. The No. 1 was great for pushing lubricant into the grooves of a bullet. It did not have enough power to squeeze a bullet down a lot. If your bullet mold was a little oversize you could push the bullet through this tool first. Then the lubricating process could go much easier.
When I was a kid, the "Old Guys" told me to put the bullets in a pan point up. Fill the pan with melted Bullet Lube. Allow the lubricant to cool, or chill it. Then push out the bullets.
This did not work well and it was really messy. I bought an Ideal Bullet lubricator and have been happy ever since.
Originally Ideal called this "The Separate Bullet Sizer". You can see some earlier tools in "Reloading Tools" by Rowe and Curtis, Volume 1, page 182. If you do not have copies of these two fine books, there is no hope for you!
The images here are of a late model tool, made after Lyman took over. Later, the tools were not as pretty. I am starting with this because it has a great box and is in fine condition. The tools did not change much over the years.
The Patent Drawing tells the story. You could buy different sizes of dies to get the diameter of lead bullet you wanted. The dies would swivel on two screws so you could be certain to push eveb a long bullet straight through.
The quality of this tool is easy to see. During this time the tools were finished really well. The boxes with the folded ends were sturdy.