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.
Stay connected
Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
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
A radiator key
Leo — November 27, 2018
Looks like a quoin key to lock up a chase for printing?
Jessica Spring — November 27, 2018
I think so too! A key for locking quoins!
Jonathan — November 27, 2018
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
It’s obviously a corkscrew that has opened so many bottles that its threads have been worn smooth.
Richard M. Waugaman — November 27, 2018
a clock key
Janet DW — November 28, 2018
It looks like a key for winding a clock or pocket watch.
Wendy Hawkins — November 28, 2018
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
Appears to be a hole punch, for putting holes in rubber.
Maureen E. Mulvihill, PhD / Princeton Research Forum, NJ. — November 30, 2018