Anyone Know What This Is For?

[David Plankton]

Or it could be the handpiece for a tjanting tool:

This is unlikely given the circumstances and setting in which it was found. Rug-making is looking favourable.

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)

Yes.

 

[Spookdaddy]

Fewmet is droppings. I think the upchuck material is mentioned in The Once and Future King in the raptor chapter. I don't think pellets. But it's a very old memory. A good excuse to reread the book.

They're called pellets in ornithological circles these days, but I'm sure there's an older falconry related term (falconry seems to be something of a repository for beautiful old words). Pellets - at least the ones I see - tend to be elongated, irregular, and of much looser construction. I'm not sure I'd want to bump into a bird big enough to cough that monster up.

 

[cycleboy2]

Google image search thinks it's a rifle.

Sure that's not just Maximus Otter?!

 

[Newt]

Probably a ritual object for making rugs.

Looks like a rug prodder tool. Wool goes down hollow shaft and through hole. This is a more modern version.

https://www.perlesandco.co.uk/Embro...-Punch-Needle-Size-8-Regular-x1-p-133791.html

 

[Dr_Baltar]

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.

Castings for vomited stuff, mutes for droppings.

 

[Floyd]

Bamboo clutch pencil?

I had something very similar in the 70s which was used for holding chalk-or that's what I used it for anyway.

 

[David Plankton]

Probably a ritual object for making rugs.

Looks like a rug prodder tool. Wool goes down hollow shaft and through hole. This is a more modern version.

https://www.perlesandco.co.uk/Embro...-Punch-Needle-Size-8-Regular-x1-p-133791.html

It does look like one of those. Thank you.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

Probably a ritual object for making rugs.

Looks like a rug prodder tool. Wool goes down the hollow shaft and through the hole. This is a more modern version.l

Can we keep this thread going? I want to do a Kenneth Conner pic next.

 

[David Plankton]

Can we keep this thread going? I want to do a Kenneth Conner pic next.

Hang on while I grip the shaft and give it a tug, see if anything pops out.

 

[Newt]

Ooh, matron, prod the shaft down the rug hole, please...

 

[Naughty_Felid]

Now, Now - no cheating you have to be innocently trying to describe what the function of the tool is.

 

[Newt]

That's what I did in my first post, and look how that turned out. After that I was just Carrying On the theme.

 

[Carl Grove]

..unless you ask an archaeologist. They'll tell you it's a "ritual object".

Archaeologists have the answer to everything. Unfortunately, it's always the same answer.

 

[Frideswide]

Archaeologists have the answer to everything. Unfortunately, it's always the same answer.

well thank you so much!

 

[Carl Grove]

well thank you so much!

Oh no, you're not -- er, hinting something, are you? If you yourself are an archaeologist I am sure that you must be an exception. But you must admit that your colleagues do use the phrase a little excessively.

 

[Frideswide]

We use it as a joke, and when we believe it's an interesting possibility. It's one of the many myths that people enjoy perpetuating of course.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

Can we get back to describing David's tool please?

(It's a sad day when you have to do things for yourself)

 

[Newt]

Stretch the rug taut, lay it horizontally, thrust the shaft of the tool vigorously in and out of the hole until a satisfactory result is achieved.

 

[David Plankton]

Cor, what a palaver

Can we get back to describing David's tool, please?

That's all very well but now can anyone tell me how to use a rug prodder? The Wife's been asking for some deep shag and if I can't help her then there's loads of milkmen and window cleaners 'round here that will.

 

[Carl Grove]

We use it as a joke, and when we believe it's an interesting possibility. It's one of the many myths that people enjoy perpetuating of course.

I seem to recall that the famous Baghdad Battery was originally labelled as a "ritual object." Actually, it depends what you mean by "ritual" I suppose: if you mean "a sequence of actions associated with religious or cult behaviour" then that would be wrong. But if it means "a sequence of actions originally employed to produce certain effects by means of a technology now fallen into disuse" -- it might be right.