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The Collation

“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: December 2018

For this month’s Crocodile mystery, we ask you to identify this object:

And yes, the lack of scale in the photograph is deliberate. We don’t want to make it too easy.

Comments

It looks like a tuning ‘hammer’ for a keyboard instrument, a harpsichord, a virginals or a fortepiano but is perhaps too late for the Elizabethan period.

John Drackley — November 27, 2018

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A radiator key

Leo — November 27, 2018

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Looks like a quoin key to lock up a chase for printing?

Jessica Spring — November 27, 2018

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I think so too! A key for locking quoins!

Jonathan — November 27, 2018

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Prior to about 1850, quoins were just wood wedges tapped in place with a hammer. There is also a bit missing if that is a quoin key.

Jeffrey Meade — November 27, 2018

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It’s obviously a corkscrew that has opened so many bottles that its threads have been worn smooth.

Richard M. Waugaman — November 27, 2018

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a clock key

Janet DW — November 28, 2018

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It looks like a key for winding a clock or pocket watch.

Wendy Hawkins — November 28, 2018

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It’s a cutting tool for putting a clean hole in leather, rubber or similar material. Notice how the cutting edge is worn. Also, the discoloration about a third of the way up from the cutting edge. Most likely caused by debris from the materials the cutting punch cut through. Do I win a crocodile?

Daniel R Harris — November 29, 2018

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Appears to be a hole punch, for putting holes in rubber.

Maureen E. Mulvihill, PhD / Princeton Research Forum, NJ. — November 30, 2018

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