MYSTERY OBJECTS

[PanBiker]

I still reckon it's some kind of hat.

[Cathy]

Marilyn you've cracked it again, clever girl, yes its a protective kneepad for skateboarding, skating etc.
A leftover from my daughters teenage years.

Next.

[Marilyn]

Two out of two?

Heehee...I am smmmmmmmoking! ( doing a wee victory dance with big circular hip movements and stirring an imaginary cauldron)

[Stanley]

It had me completely baffled.....

[Stanley]

Try this one.....

[Marilyn]

Could it be magnetised and used to keep screws from rolling off your bench? And if you lay the tip of your screwdriver on it from time to time it keeps it magnetised too?

[Pluggy]

I knew them as joiner's pencils. Its a big pencil of rectangular section and usually with a soft lead. Supplied without a point and typically sharpened with a wood chisel.

[Marilyn]

We know them as " Carpenter's" pencils...and likely you are right, Pluggy...now that I think about it...

[PanBiker]

My Uncle Bob's promotional ones were triangular for the same reason.

[Tizer]

Am I right in thinking that sometimes the wide, soft `lead' (graphite) of these carpenters' pencils was used to rub graphite on metal to improve its electrical conductivity? I seem to remember a railway modeller using one on his rails for that purpose.

[PanBiker]

Can also be used as a lubricant.

[Big Kev]

I knew them as joiner's pencils. Its a big pencil of rectangular section and usually with a soft lead. Supplied without a point and typically sharpened with a wood chisel.

I have a purpose built sharpener for mine, I'll put a pic on later.

[Stanley]

Pluggy is dead right and yes, I was always taught to sharpen them like a chisel point (using a chisel) so you had the capability of either a fine or a broad line.
Next?

[plaques]

An easy one so as much detail as you can. Roughly 4.5" x 2.5".

[PanBiker]

Mobile phone with the back off.

Unfortunately the barcode scanner on my mobile will not read the code from the screen image.

[Marilyn]

Mobile internet 'hotspot', with back removed.

[Stanley]

Haven't got a clue beyond the fact it's a clever bit of electronic gear......

[plaques]

I think I'll give 8/10 to PanBiker and 5/10 to Marilyn. Its a mobile phone with the front off. Actually an Iphone that suffered some road kill event where it had been dropped, split into two and the front sent to the promised land where all smart phones belong. I'm just one big lovable luddite!.

P5110073AD.jpg

P5110075AC.jpg

[PanBiker]

I wondered where the battery was Thanks for the enhanced barcode, my current smartphone, thankfully not yet in the promised land still wont read it though, the screen image is not as sharp as a normally printed code. Unusual view though and I'll take the 8/10

[Marilyn]

What an amusing scoring system, Plaques.
I scored just 3 points below Panbiker, though my guess was totally incorrect.
Not that I am complaining...

[Stanley]

Try this one....

[Marilyn]

The coffee machine from Bletchley Park?

[Stanley]

No but almost the same vintage Maz.....

[PanBiker]

Epicyclic gear train thingy from Johnny's cog making lathe, not sure I spelt it right though.

[Tizer]

The coffee machine from Bletchley Park?

How did you guess, Maz? When it failed to produce a good cup of coffee they fiddled with it to no avail but then found it made a good computer able to decode German messages!