What is it? XCV

Thanks for the link.

Rob

It is an Ice Crusher / Ice-Pick. You put a few ice cubes in a 1-pint pyrex measuring cup and smash them into crushed ice. The impact when the handle slams down to its limit breaks the ice.

It works, but has a flaw... Tends to chip off ground glass from the bottom of the cup.

You're right about it being new, but I'm not sure if it's from Wal-Mart. This one was priced $65 at the antique mall and was sold yesterday for that amount minus 10%, so if it is a cheap one, somebody made a nice profit.

Rob

I think this is the most likely answer, I thought that it was an ice chipper when I first saw it but still don't see what the value of the spring is, seems as though it would work just as well without it.

A few minutes ago I found a similar tool here:

Rob

My grandmother, who still had an icebox with great blocks of ice delivered twice a week, used something very like this to chip off ice for cold drinks and the like.

I don't recall whether it slid up into the handle in the way you describe, but it has been over 60 years since I last saw it.

Note that they put a question mark after the description, so they are also just guessing. There is still no definite answer. The ice-pick doesn't wash. It would be a possibility if there was no spring ...but there is.

For a little more detail...Yes it is a pedometer but it was one of those gimmicks the old radio shows used to entice listeners. In this case Jack Armstrong (the All-American Boy) was a long running radio serial before the days of TV. He sold Wheaties well at least the sponsor was Wheaties.

Other programs of the time had their magic decoding rings, badges, etc.. E.g. the Orphan Annie show had a decoding badge and at the end of each program those who had bought their Ovaltine and sent in the seal could decode a secret message with the badge key that gave a clue about the next program.

I had one of those pedometers as a youngster but suspect it was thrown out long ago.

You guys are all too young.

Try this. Its not the same, but very similar:

--humunculus

According to Unknown :

O.K.

Yes -- there were those (with the "secret message" often pushing the sponsor's product.

Also -- the "Sky King" radio show had a "television ring" (or was it a bracelet) which had a magnifier in it, and it came with some cut-to-size pieces of proof paper, which could be used with sunlight to contact-print negatives. I used some negatives of my own in addition to the ones which came with the product.

I never had one -- but I recognized it at least.

I don't know -- I would rather like to be some twenty or forty years younger than I am at present. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Thanks, that's a good link, I agree that ice chopper is the probable answer.

Rob

Then there's this one:

--riverman

Wow, I think somebody got scammed. Those are furniture tacks being used to hold on the naugahyde, and the tip is definately from a hose fitting: see .

The bellows is similar to this one but not as well made. I don't think there's any way that the original is an antique.

--humunculus

Well, that seems to be the general concensus. I'd still like to know how much ice it would chop with the spring absorbing much of the energy. Also, why 5 points, and not just one. If I wanted that sort of ice, I'd use an ice crusher, also available at the time.

It fills the niche of making enough crushed ice for one drink (at a time).

It works fairly easily, with the impact when the handle bottoms-out doing the cracking.

The spring gives a more positive and rapid return than relying on gravity.

The multiple points result in a fast action. The are hard steel.

As I said earlier, I stopped using mine when I realized that, along with the ice, I was drinking small chips of ground-glass chipped off of the bottom of the container.

I now use a hand-squeeze cast-aluminum single-cube ice crusher. I keep it in the freezer, so it doesn't melt too much ice when I use it.

It's a carver's screw. Check the Rockler catalog.

According to CW :

I don't know Rockler. May I guess that you are posting from rec.woodworking? I'm posting from rec.crafts.metalworking instead, and we tend to use a different set of catalogs. :-)

I might have come up with a better guess if it had been clear that the sharp end was threaded.

I just went and re-downloaded it, and I see that even when I zoom into the image, the jpeg compression loses too much detail for me to see the threads. The photos in one of the sites pointed to by others did show the threads, which changed my perception of it.

It really needed a closeup of the sharp end, as well as the end with the square.

Enjoy, DoN.

Damn, DoN. I would suggest getting the eyes checked, but it's clear that the problem is the rest of your cranium. Smack it once or twice with a 2x and see if you can force a reset. Right between the eyes might do the trick. Lemme know if you want some help.