• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Anyone Know What This Is For?

David Plankton

I AM HIM.
Joined
Jul 31, 2005
Messages
6,077
Someone I know has found this object whilst tidying out a drawer. I haven't seen it myself but it's about the size of a pen and the peg that looks like dowling at the bottom has a hole which might accommodate a wire.

Any ideas what might be? Possibilities toyed with so far are fake candle or tool for burning patterns onto wood. I'll add that it's likely to be pre-1960.

Screen Shot 2019-04-29 at 10.34.12jpg.jpg
 
It does not look shaped to be a tool that could do any detailed work. As the top looks like the eye of a large bodkin, I'm wondering of it's a shuttle or weight for plaiting or macramé? The screw-thread at the top suggests something is missing. :dunno:
 
Last edited:
Someone I know has found this object whilst tidying out a drawer. I haven't seen it myself but it's about the size of a pen and the peg that looks like dowling at the bottom has a hole which might accommodate a wire.

Any ideas what might be? Possibilities toyed with so far are fake candle or tool for burning patterns onto wood. I'll add that it's likely to be pre-1960.

View attachment 16622
If you post this pic on the facebook page Charity Shop Shit, I think it's highly likely someone will identify what it is .. and tell you that their Aunt used to have one etc (after the standard "It's a dildo/but plug" type comments from everyone else that is) ..
 
Think the rugmaking experts are on to something. Looks like an adjustable punch needle. Can the top bit, the tip with the hole in it be pulled out? I suspect whatever screwed on to it would clamp on to the needle and hold it at a specific length.
 
The divisions in the screw-part make me think of the clutch-top of a propelling pencil. As Tribble says, the "eye" may extend.

To be of much practical use as a rug-hook, as Iris suggests, it would need to, I think. :thought:
 
Someone I know has found this object whilst tidying out a drawer. I haven't seen it myself but it's about the size of a pen and the peg that looks like dowling at the bottom has a hole which might accommodate a wire.

Any ideas what might be? Possibilities toyed with so far are fake candle or tool for burning patterns onto wood. I'll add that it's likely to be pre-1960.

View attachment 16622
Bamboo clutch pencil?
04881-1001-2-2ww-m.jpg
 
or upchucked - I believe owls and possibly raptors throw up indigestible bits of things they eat whole. There's a medieval name for them which I forget.

Owl pellets are typically irregularly shaped and look like ragged turds.
 
Raptor it is then

I want it as a pet, beautiful vicious things
 
Bamboo clutch pencil?

I've inspected it today and no, I'm sure it isn't a clutch pencil.

The thing at the end that looks like a button you get on mechanical pencils is actually a hollow brass rod which can be removed, it has no effect on the threaded 'clutch' part at all. Simply slides in and out. Also, despite looking like it might open and close to grasp something, the threaded part doesn't move.

Screen Shot 2019-05-06 at 14.36.16jpeg.jpg Screen Shot 2019-05-06 at 14.36.31jpeg.jpg
 
I've inspected it today and no, I'm sure it isn't a clutch pencil.

The thing at the end that looks like a button you get on mechanical pencils is actually a hollow brass rod which can be removed, it has no effect on the threaded 'clutch' part at all. Simply slides in and out. Also, despite looking like it might open and close to grasp something, the threaded part doesn't move.

View attachment 16821 View attachment 16822
OK, it does now look like something for doing rug making, as somebody suggested earlier.
Or it could be the handpiece for a tjanting tool:
artist-creating-a-traditional-work-of-art-batik-spouted-tool-canting-tjanting_4vn8suscx__F0000.png
 
Also, despite looking like it might open and close to grasp something, the threaded part doesn't move.
I think there's a part missing. The threaded part must have had a collet that screwed on to tighten it up (so it would grip the brass tube).
 
..unless you ask an archaeologist. They'll tell you it's a "ritual object".

And then you ask what may be classed as a 'ritual'.

Archaeologist whispers: any deliberately repeated serious of actions with intentional meaning.

So like tossing my dog's crap over the garden fence every afternoon to show my neighbour that I hate his guts?

Loosely speaking, yes.
 
Back
Top