Search results

Another UK Car Boot find, and well worth the £1 paid for it to find out what it is. It's saw-like but not sharp at all, and it looks to me that it was never sharp. You can press your finger as hard as you like along the serrated edge without any discomfort at all. It's very primitively made...

Hi all. I saw this at an antiques fair in Lincolnshire UK, yesterday, and wondered what it was. It was a bargain at £1.50 ($1.80) and I bought it knowing that someone here would be able to tell me what it was for! I'm assuming it was some kind of handle, but it's so crudely made, I can't see...

Yesterday, I was reading the book by Edmund Gunter (1581-1626) "The description and use of the sector, crosse-staffe, and other instruments" published in 1623 in which he describes how to use his Rule, the precursor to the slide rule, which was invented a few years later. The Gunter's Rule is...

Hi everyone. I bought some forged wing dividers (?) at an antiques fair at the weekend, and the seller claimed they were very old, probably dated back to the 1820s. I'd love to believe him, and they certainly seem to have the feel and look of great age, but I've no great confidence they really...

I bought this today for 50p in Cambridgeshire, England. It's old... but what is it? The name on the side, Luke White, shows nothing online, and nor does the engraving on the side of the hook, which only appeared after a going over with wire wool for ages: "M ? LL. 4 Hay Market" Any ideas? There...

I got this at an antiques centre for a pound yesterday. I bought it because it was cheap, and also because I had no idea what it was. I assumed I'd be able to work it out, and or someone would know, or at least an internet search would give me some idea. 24 hours later I'm at a loss. What is it...

I like buying "mystery" rusty tools at car boot sales, and this was a nice find today (first picture). Once the rust was off, using white vinegar and a rotary wire brush, it showed itself to be a nice example of "The Coventry", a famous (they tell me) chain link extractor for Triumph motor bikes...

I picked this out from a bucket of rusty tools at a car boot recently. Not very pretty but a bargain at £2, weighing almost a kilogram (first 2 pictures). Leave it in a bath of white vinegar for 2 days though, take a drill to it with a rotary wire brush atttachment and it becomes...something...

Ok, to be exact, I don't know, the man who sold it to me didn't know, and nobody I ask knows...Can you help? I thought the hole at the end might be for wire, but really I haven't a clue. Iain

Clearing out my Dad's old workshop, I found this old vice ("vise" in USA I believe!). Without any knowledge or experience of restoring such things but with access to youtube, I "educated" myself and gave it a go.;) Result: not bad! Does anyone know anything about the Whitmore vice and how old...

Hi all, first post here, hope I get it right and attach photos correctly etc. I picked this up in a car boot sale today, in Cambridgeshire, UK, just out of curiosity. The first images are of it in its "raw" state but after soaking it in white vinegar for a few hours and using a rotary wire...