What is it? CLVI

896. Pen gun missing it's barrel. 897. Guess> Set number 156 has just been posted:

901: razor blade sharpener

This is a long shot, but I believe 896 IS a pen-style blank pistol. I had one similar in the 60's that shot rimfire blanks.

LLoyd

896: Teacher's round chalk holder missing end piece - weldors use a flat chalk or soapstone

901: Chopstick rest or holder

Only... I think I remember that it was the propellant section for a tiny "emergency flare" kit that shot, like, little 10mm aerial comets.

LLoyd

"R.H." wrote in news:45caed98$0$24773 $ snipped-for-privacy@roadrunner.com:

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".

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.

896- Blank starting 'pistol' with the barrel removed Alternate- sets off an initiator on a length of primacord 901- pipe rest

Dave

On the Alternate: trust me, no. That would blow your hand and face off. It could be used to initiate "NonEl" shock cord, but that's a whole different puppy -- it doesn't "explode" in the conventional sense. Primacord can be used as-is for explosive cutting.

I think it's the teargas gun mentioned earlier, now that I remember my wasted youth.

LLoyd

Indeed. There are a number of fuze ignitors using something similar, but they tend to be military in origin, and generally made out of plastic.

And similar

As well made as this one is, Id go with pen gun, likely one for a live round, but a tear gas round is more common in this type.

"Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western civilization as it commits suicide"

- James Burnham

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

Sold for boat use. I still have mine somewhere.

Kevin Gallimore

896: penlight, missing the light 897: Strap-cutter 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

900 looks like it would be usefull if one was making metal hooped wooden barrels.

Wes S

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.

Most of them were answered correctly this week, please see the answer page for more details:

Rob

That looks like an old style emergency marine flare gun.

John

According to R.H. :

I'm getting at it late, but I'll take my guesses before reading 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.