Anybody Know What This Is???

[Ed Sallee]

A friend of mine, who is 53 years old - has this old tool that belonged to her grandfather. No clue what it is or what it was used for..... Anybody have any ideas?

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn88/evsallee/DSCN3045.jpg

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn88/evsallee/DSCN3041.jpg

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn88/evsallee/DSCN3038.jpg

[Sparky Norton]

Looks like a can opener to me.

[johnny means]

First thing I thought was can opener, too.

[Mike OMelia]

It's a beer can opener. Back before pull tops.

[Ken Higginbotham]

I'm not so sure about the beer can opener. Looks like something you tap on the flat part with a hammer. May an upholstering tool of some type?

[Ken Shoemaker]

Knife sharpener - Slip the blade in the grove and pull back at a slight angle to resharpen a skinning knife. The handle is made of antler. OR, can opener..:rolleyes:

[Ken Higginbotham]

My quess is the slot is to pull tacks or small nails. How would you position it to open a can??

[Joe Kieve]

:confused:Hmmm....my 2 cents....looks like a tool we used to use to adjust bicycle spokes when I was a kid...or a can opener or knife sharpener.

[Gene Howe]

Looks like a bottle opener, to me...or a bike spoke adjuster or a tack puller...etc:D

[Stephen Edwards]

I'm not so sure about the beer can opener. Looks like something you tap on the flat part with a hammer. May an upholstering tool of some type?

+1 for upholstering tool, likely custom made, probably for pulling tacks. Note the V notch; could slip under a tack head. Then, with a twist of the wrist, either the long arc back of the blade or the little "foot" on the same edge as the V notch could provide the leverage for pulling the tack.

Right or wrong, that's my hunch.

[Ken Higginbotham]

I was thinking you force a pc of fabric into a groove by placing the rounded side against the fabric and tap on the flat part on the other side?

[Myk Rian]

Is the round blade sharp? Looks like a game processing tool. Something that would cut the skin, and the breast bone of a deer.

[Harold Burrell]

I couldn't really tell by the first 2 pictures, but I can see it clearly in the third...

It is a pencil. A simple writing instrument used before the days of PC's.

[harry strasil]

LOL, Harold, a paper note pad engraving tool

[Leigh Betsch]

The spoon shape looks like it might be a fleshing tool used to scrape the fat off a hide before tanning. I don't know what the notch and tab would be good for.

[Joe Wiliams]

My first thought was a ferrier's tool:confused:

[Ken Higginbotham]

'Farrier' - I vote for that. Scrape to hoof clean with the round part, pull nails with the groove and tap them back in tight with the hammer part.

[Jim Foster]

Since it does not look like it was ever with with a hammer (any unknown tool left in the shop would be eventually...) I am going ot say clam or oyster shucker?

[Michael Wetzel]

It was their house key...

[Caleb Larru]

It was their house key...


They didn't have locks on the doors back then.

[Cody Colston]

I think it's a bottle opener. Neither beer bottles nor coke bottles came with twist-off caps back in the day. The little Vee notch would hook in the lip of the cap, press down and pop it off...just like using a church key. In fact, it looks sorta like a spoon that's been flattened and then shaped on a grinder before being inserted in the antler handle.

That antler handle doesn't show any wear and besides, it wouldn't really be very practical for a tool that was used a lot like a tack puller or a farrier tool. Even the old timers got blisters.

[george wilson]

I don't think any of the answers are correct yet. The V notch is too rounded to be a knife sharpener,plus they always use carbide blocks. It isn't shaped right to be a can or beer opener.

However,,I can't tell what it is either,just what it isn't.

[Roger Newby]

It's obviously a broken ice cream scoop.........doncha know:D

[Jim Holman]

Ed,

You have one of many varieties of a a cigar hammer. I have several in the collection.

[Roger Newby]

Jim,

Splain to me...what it is... a cigar hammer???......something you use to beat the tobacco habit????:p:D:D:D:D

[Jim Holman]

Roger,

It was usually an advertising give away, I have a Bull Durham, among others. If you bought a box of cigars, you got a "free" hammer. Early cigar boxes were held together and closed with tiny nails. The cigar hammer contains a hammer, miniature pry bar and a notch for pulling nails.

[John Keeton]

Ed,

You have one of many varieties of a a cigar hammer. I have several in the collection.Hey Ed, talk about a fitting find!! For a humidor builder like yourself, that is a natural! Glad you got a solid answer!

[Jeremy Wilcox]

armed with Jim's spot on identification i came up with this site from google search and it displays a variety of "cigar hammers" and one definately resembles the one in the picture

http://www.nationalcigarmuseum.com/Accessories/Box-openers.html

[Rod Upfold]

It was a Bowie knife - his wife used it and snapped the blade off.

[Jeff Miller]

It's a muffler bearing puller..........................a left handed one too which makes it rarer and worth a lot more. Seriously this is the truth, Snopes even said so:eek:;)



JEFF:)

[Ken Higginbotham]

I sent Tony at the cigar museum an email and ask him to verify it's a cigar hammer. :)

[Gene Howe]

Well, I'll be Doggoned!
I'm an old guy whose daddy smoked cigars and I never saw one of these before.
Neat!
Gene

[Ken Higginbotham]

Here is Tony's response when I ask if this is a cigar box hammer


ANSWER

Sure is, though the proper name is 'cigar box opener.' All cigar box openers performed three functions: the blade slices through labels and tax stamps, the notch pulls the nail that seals all nailed wood boxes, and the hammer pounds the nail back in. The first cigar box opener was patented in 1868 and looks a lot like a pocket knife with a small mallet opposite the blade. During the following fifty years, dozens of variations were patented. Most box openers have advertising from a cigar maker or wholesaler incised or embossed onto the handle, shaft or blade. They can also be found with sterling silver handles matching various place-setting patterns from the era when cigars routinely finished off a high class meal. Yours appears to be a "home model" sans advertising with a deer antler handle. Mike Schwimmer and I have identified eighteen distinctly different types of cigar box openers. You can see a display of them at
http://www.nationalcigarmuseum.com/Accessories/Box-openers.html (http://www.nationalcigarmuseum.com/Accessories/Box-openers.html). Yours is a variant of antler-handled opener recently obtained by the Museum but not as yet posted. Yours would be worth $20 to the Museum. It would be more (one recently sold on ebay for about twice that) except for the apparent poor condition of the blade which will require restoration.

[Jimmy Tallent]

It looks like a old timey saw set tool??