What Is It???

[KCStudly]

What is it? May or may not be camping related (I doubt it is). Mom and Bill had this antique device at our Easter dinner and no one knows for sure what it is. It is engraved with some fairly ornate flower motifs, and has little hatch marks that are filled with colored paint (enamel?). It seems too light duty to be a serious tool. Bill thought that it might be a fancy lid lifter. I think the tapered edge between the hook and spike indicates that it is a fancy letter opener. The metal part appears to be bronze, or maybe bronze plated.




Can anyone say for sure what it is and its intended purpose?

[Redneck Teepee]

Just a swag here .. could be a letter opener or possibly because of it's size it could be a tool for gutting animals for butcher. They make a similar modern version type of knife just for that.

[mikerueve]

if it's on a longer pole, I would vote for it being something to open a transom window possibly?

[Zollinger]

Might be a fancy log turner for a fireplace? Just a guess.

[working on it]

:thinking: Might be a fancy log turner for a fireplace? Just a guess.

or a "combination peavey & pike pole", used for either logging or ice-fishing. Amazing things can be researched on Wiki

[KCStudly]

I should have put something in the pictures for scale. It is resting on an 8-1/2 x 11 piece of paper.

The handle a bit longer than my hand (plus the finial on the bottom), and to my eye it is a bit delicate for logs or lid lifting. It looks more like something decorative you would buy as a souvenir in India back in the old days. Pier One -ish, except genuinely old.

I'm sticking with letter opener as the best guess right now; hoping someone can prove or refute it.

[Corwin C]

I don't think it's a letter opener ... the blade isn't long enough and it's too thick. Too ornate for fireplace/hearth/wood stove work. Perhaps a tool to move chunks of ice around in an ice box?

[KCStudly]

I was thinking letter opener because the area in between the spike and the hook, the "crotch" if you will, has a sharper tapered wedge. Sort of like a stitch ripper.

[tony.latham]

I was thinking letter opener because the area in between the spike and the hook, the "crotch" if you will, has a sharper tapered wedge. Sort of like a stitch ripper.

Good hypothesis. Have you tested it?

I'm guessing, based on it's decorations, it is from the Middle East. The flower engraving may be a clue. Horticulture? Who ever made it had too much time on his hands so he wasn't a farmer.

TL

[tony.latham]

Duh! It's an ankus hook. Sometimes called a goad. What kind of teardroppers are you guys?

You can pick one up on eBay right now: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-Elephant-An ... 1c3fb2dc6f

You guys need to get outta the man-cave and go camp once in a while.

Tony

[KCStudly]

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that we have a winner!

I wish it was something a little more PC among the animal rights activists, but it is what it is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_goad

[tony.latham]

I'm gonna throw one in my tongue box in case a rogue bull wants to have its way in camp. Ya never know.

That thing just looked "Indian" to me. And I'm not talking Northern Cheyenne.

Speaking of rogue bulls, here's a video I took one spring of a cow elk at the Mammoth campground in Yellowstone that got a bit out of hand or I should say a camper getting out of hand. She'd dropped a calf a few feet below my teardrop and some occupants in the campground thought it'd be good to console momma.

https://drive.google.com/?authuser=0#my-drive

And running off an SUV: https://drive.google.com/?authuser=0#my-drive

Let me know if the links work.

Tony

[wagondude]

Any circus performers in the family or was this something picked up at a sale somewhere?

[KCStudly]

I forget where mom said she and Bill got it. Maybe an antique shop. They live in an old 1780's house with central chimney and have various hearth cooking implements, so I am assuming that's what attracted them to it.

Yes, very Indian looking was my thought, too.

Links to vid's did not work for me. Asked for a log in.

[Corwin C]

Darn ... should have guessed a medieval hot-shot.