Re: What is it? XC

I did a search on ice spud and most references that I found mentioned that it was used as a chisel.

Another possibility is that it could be a sand rammer, used for compacting a sand base by a stone paver. But those usually weigh 25 pounds or more and this one isn't near that heavy, but still it looks like it was used for tamping or compacting.

Rob

If that worries you, don't fly in a small plane. Particularly not in mountainous areas. The pilot plotting his course on charts spread out on the right-hand front seat might disturb you.

How about a tamping tool for fence posts? When we put in wooden posts using an auger-type post hole digger, there was about 1/2 to 1" of space around the post into which the fill had to be packed. In our case, we used the steering rod from an old Model T, but I suspect that there aren't a whole lot of those around anymore :-) It may be that what you have was a custom home-made tool for such a purpose.

It looks like some sort of tamping tool to me, too. But I also wonder if its some sort of metalworking tool....for some reason, I get this mental image of this being used to reach into narrow spaces to provide a backing to hammer rivets against or something. Possibly in a gutter?

How heavy is the head?

Or maybe this is a tool to turn a switch on an overhead fan, like that mystery item from a few months back? ;-)

--humunculus

The head of this tool probably weighs between four and five pounds.

Here is a photo of a couple of sand rammers:

Rob