Wood and brass apothecary's cork borer (or cutter) used by apothecaries, doctors and pharmacists when medicines were mixed for specific patients, in the days before screw cap bottles, Apothecaries, pharmacists, and doctors would make their own cork stoppers to fit into the bottles in which their medicines were supplied. They made their own cork stoppers to size by pressing a cork cutter into a sheet of bark from the cork oak tree. The solid brass cone has a hinged steel blade in a slot; mounted in a hardwood handle.