What is it? CLVI

[R.H.]

Set number 156 has just been posted:

[Jordan]

901: razor blade sharpener

[Smaug Ichorfang]

"R.H." wrote in news:45caed98$0$24773 $ [e-mail]:

896. Looks like a "tear-gas pen gun" advertised in the backs of old comics.

901. A knife rest for a fancy dinner set. I have some that are "dog bones".

[DT]

Yep, in fact it appears to be a Bon-Her sharpener, they are usually marked with a paper label on the back. I have samples in the original boxes.

[bremen68]

896 Looks like a firing pin for demolitions work. you'd screw the device onto the igniter, set it, then trip it to fire the primer/ igniter

[Christian Stü]

896 ignition mechanism for some kind of gun? hmmm, the needle inside looks not sharp enough for this.

897 funny thing used for itchy and scratchy moovies

898 a "keyhole protector" to prevent the key from beeing inserted (so inhibits opening the lock and the door)

899 a tool for marking swiss property (ehm, just joking)

900 funny thing, not known to be used in itchy and scratchi moovies

901 a bottle holder?

greetings from germany chris

[Matthew T. Russotto]

898: It's a key! No, it's a valve! No, it's a key! 899: Hammer used to make plus-shaped indentations in wood 900: Bucket spreader, for re-forming buckets which have been partly crushed. 901: Decorative border tile

[Denominator]

It looks like a guide for forming something around a hole.

Dropping a 6" piece of 2" pipe over the fingers would keep it from it from collapsing while in use. The ring is not for a rope but a handle that the pipe can be slid over.

The ring around the top would hold a weight such as a 50-pound concrete slab to keep the form from bring moved.

It could be for a mason who has to stack bricks around a circular hole.

It think it's for casting a concrete slab with a hole. This device would serve to brace curved plates or a ring. With plates, concrete poured 10" deep in one pour might exert 600 pounds on each of the three metal arms.

A continuous ring might better stand the pressure of the concrete, transmitting less force to the brace. I wonder if it's for use inside a plastic bucket. Being tapered, the bucket could be withdrawn easily after the brace was removed. Bottomless, the bucket could be left in the concrete as a liner.

[DoN. Nichols]

According to R.H. :

the answer page.

posting from rec.crafts.metalworking as usual.

896) I've seen two items like this. One was older and was a "pen gun". The sliding spring-loaded weight fired a 22LR cartridge. The back of the cartridge (which was in a screw-in holder) rested against a steel pin across the center, and the firing pin was offset to one side. (I saw this in the early 1960s in Ecuador.)

This one is obviously not what we are dealing with here, because the firing pin is on center, and there ia a machined and screw in breech-plate to support base of the cartridge.

The other one is a tear-gas gun. It either has a screw-in cartridge containing a tear-gas charge, or it has a screw-in sleeve which holds a .38 caliber tear gas cartridge.

897) This one is purely a guess. I think that it is for cutting leather belting square to be laced or glued into a loop for driving machine tools. 898) The "key" part is purely decorative or intended to confuse the viewer.

I think that it is designed for starting fires by the fire piston technique. Tender is put inside, the plunger is depressed quickly, heating the air and lighting the tender. Then the end plug is quickly unscrewed and the embers are blown to life and used to light a serious fire.

899) I think that it is some form of stone dressing hammer. 900) This looks as though it is used to remove mud at the bottom of a well. You drop it, and the three blades dig in, then you pull up on a rope attached to the eye, and the blades angle to join at their tips, and hold the mud (or rubble), and it is lifted by the rope.

Perhaps it is for something a bit less tough -- perhaps for withdrawing grain from a deep bin?

901) This I thinks supports a cylindrical stone or ceramic object which turns in water, carrying some up to wet the glue on paper sealing tape. It is part of a device for dispensing the tape.

Now to see what others have guessed -- and what the answers were.

Enjoy, DoN.