This antique veterinary tool consists of three steel blades in a brass case One of the blades is stamped "BAM +", this was the mark of Jonathan Sutton, a cutlery maker registered in Sheffield in the late 18th Century.
A fleam was used to cut into a horse's jugular vein to "let blood", which was believed to be therapeutic until the mid-nineteenth century. Apparently the actual process involved hitting the fleam with a wooden club to cut into the vein quickly
