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I found these in my Fathers tools and am wondering if they are a set of old pinning tweezers?
Dad was an Electrician and Millwright with a multitude of other tickets as well as an entrepreneur.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if he put on his Locksmith hat on occasion at the various places he worked over the years although he never spoke about it.
Can any one verify or correct my theory?

Not sure what those tweezers are for. But no, not pinning. They look like they are too wide to get at the pins further inside the cylinder housing.

In the photo, you can almost read the patent number.
Can you make it out?
Perhaps it would be possible to look up using that info.?

Good idea!
I cant quite make out all the numbers but it would likely help narrow it down.
Will have to give that a try!

Look more like circlip pliers to me.

Good observation.
I will have to test them out!

Like the ones with the tiny little pins on the end to go in the little holes to spread the inside/outside retaining rings?

Exactly. The little pins can often break off through long use.

I had no luck with the patent number search.
The number appears to be US Patent No. 01515 OR 015150.

Regarding the circlip pliers theory theres no signs that any pieces have broken off of these, what ever they are:)

The attached pics are simply to illustrate them in the context of pinning tweezers.
They work nicely for handling the pins but as Farmerfreak pointed out they get rather wide quickly.
The components in the pic are from a master no.3 so they are a tad small anyways and I wonder if they had cylinders with more than 4 pin stacks way back then?
Judging by the patent number these must be rather old?

On a side note, it really doesn't matter to me what these were intended for but I do think it would be cool though if they did turn out to be pinning tweezers;)

Here's a link that has a photo of a 6 pin Yale lock from 1865:

http://www.yale.co.uk/en/yale/couk/About-us/History-of-Yale/pin-tumbler-invention/

Thanks Deadlock,
That's pretty cool and answers that question:)

Could it be some sort of sleeve fitting tool.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hellerman-Sle ... 234638946e

Great find who knows what they were originally for.
But if you find out you can charge $1 to people to see a tool they have never seen before. I had an electronics instructor that would do that he had some crazy stuff.

You would play hell trying to load top pins with those. Pin tweezers do not extend over the diameter of the pin. If they did you wouldn't be able to "trap" the pin with your follower to push it in the chamber.

That would be one crazy carnival!