MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

Gloria is closest but neither is right. Clue, usually made from Persimmon, a very hard wood.

[plaques]

The dowel pin out of a weaving shuttle?

[Stanley]

You've got it P. Called the shuttle peg. Next for shaving?

[Stanley]

All right.... Try this one.... Clue, made of very hard wood.

[David Whipp]

Wedges for adjusting height/positioning?

[Gloria]

Weights??

[Stanley]

David is sort of right but look again at the shape, it's a clue. Very specialised use in textile industry.... I'll give it one more day.

[plaques]

[quote="Stanley". Very specialised use in textile industry...[/quote]
In that case working on the theory of making thinks adjustable rather than absolutely accurate. I would guess at raising or lowering the shuttle box where the picking stick hits the shuttle?

[Stanley]

Sorry P, no. They are 'pike wedges' made specially for driving in the joint where the pike (spindle) was fixed into the end of a weaver's beam. They worked loose and were tightened up by driving these wedges in round them. That's the reason why they are bevelled on the sides. so they can be driven in tight against each other in a circle round the pike. Lovely wedges for tightening hammer heads on their shafts! Try this one....

[chinatyke]

The only time I saw something like this was when a weaver gave an old "picker stick" to our dog to chew. I think it was made out of cat gut/ cow hide or something like that. Our dog seemed to like it. I was told it was something that got hit to make the shuttle fly across the loom. It was over 50 years ago so maybe I'm totally wrong.

[plaques]

Looks a bit like Stanley's personal seal of approval machine. I daren't think what it may emboss, Steam engines, chimneys, milk churns. Could be anything.

[Stanley]

China, you're thinking of a leather picker, made of rawhide from water buffaloes and dogs loved to chew them. P has it dead right, it's for embossing letters and is for a builder at a canal wharf at Belmont Bridge Skipton. Next for shaving?

[Stanley]

[Gloria]

This might sound odd BUT is it a stamp of some sort?? it looks handy enough to hold in the hand!!
Failing that, is it a wedge?
I'm sure I've had hold of one.

[Pluggy]

Looks like an old, warped bit of packing crate, but it probably isn't.

[Stanley]

Sorry, nowhere near yet. Much more exotic.

[Wendyf]

Is it a piece of animal horn or antler? Moose?

[Tizer]

It looks like a light-coloured wood with grain running left to right. There's a bit of shadow on the right of the photo which suggests curvature, so it might be a piece of curved wood sheet or of curved section, like a chord section from a cylinder of wood (think of a slice cut from the side of a round wood pole). The lettering looks old-fashioned and seems to be OTZ (upside down in the photo). But I'm still no wiser! There's a place in Austria called Otz and an airport in Alaska that uses the code OTZ, but I can't see them being likely candidates.

[plaques]

Since the lettering is upside down it must be a piece of wood from Australia. How about some native Cypress pine? I think this is going to end up in the graveyard of guesses.

[Stanley]

I don't think so P! Wendy has got it apart from naming the animal. Look at the size and colour!

[David Whipp]

Ivory?

[Cathy]

Because of the arch shape I think it could be either ivory or a whales rib bone.

[Stanley]

Cathy and David have it, it's an off cut of elephant ivory. I got it and some other small pieces when I bought a workshop. The lettering must date back to when it was legally traded and will be part of the identification of the original tusk. Try this one.....

[David Whipp]

A specialist cold chisel?

Or, does the toothing indicate it was used for applying a decorative finish to stone?

Or, is David barking up the wrong tree entirely?

[Stanley]

In a way it is, and made of the same metal but you're over-complicating it a bit. Have another think, you're close!