Is there any markings on the back? From what I know most of the major brands engraved their strainers. Either with the company name or a model number. Heck even the MIJ's said Japan on them. It looks like a few strainers I've seen, but the hole in the lever has me perplexed. I can see a little metal piece on the front indicating it was drilled from the back. I'm leaning towards this may have been machined by someone.

Here's the back. The bolt is modern, obviously. It does look like the hole in the lever was drilled by a previous owner. No markings though...

With the bolts the way they are and lack of markings I'm really thinking machined. I've seen strainers that look similar, but they don't have any holes in the lever, and they certainly don't have bolts holding things together. It was more like a rivet with the back end flattened out.

Looks to me like someone did a good job of making their own strainer from what looks to be steel, or even aluminum.

All the basic frame pieces are flat stock that has been cut and bent, but nothing that couldn't be done by someone with basic tools, and some good skills.

Are you positive it is nickel plated? It really doesn't look like it is plated at all from the photos.

I put the bolt in actually. I would have liked to use a vintage one to match, but couldn't find the correct thread. And I don't know what the hole in the lever is about but I agree it's not factory.

I guess I'm not sure that it's nickel. I got it in a big lot of vintage snare parts, all of which were from the 20's through 50's and nickel.

Well then, I'll probably try this part out on a snare drum and see how it works! It looks cool, and seems to work very well. It even has a detente on the lever that hopefully will hold it in the on position.

Gotcha. Few of the other things that strike me as a home made are these - when looking from the top ( aside the obvious hole drilled out on the lever ) on the left side towards the bottom there is an imperfection, again looks like a uneven cut ( when looking from the back you can see the indent ) One the bottom of the Oval hole it looks as though there is a crack in the metal, and ( I'm not 100% on this ) but the holes on the bottom for snare cord look off. I'm not used to seeing the same number of holes top & bottom. Usually the top has one more so it would be 7 to 6. Those are just my observations and would like to hear what others think.

That throw off is a Rogers from the early 1950s. It can be found in print in their catalogs from that era and on the drums 1950-53:

YES! So happy to be proven wrong about it. Thanks for that.

I, too, was thinking someone did an excellent job building their own strainer! Glad to know someone out there had a picture of the same strainer on a Rogers snare drum.

Excellent job, Gary N!

-Mark