Help identifying... thing that smoked? (not a saw set)

[DetailSeeker]

This showed up in the donations box at the tool library, and everyone is stumped.


It is a small metal box attached to a wooden handle. The top of the box has a grill that slides off, held in place by grime and grooves. Holes are punched in the back of the box, around the handle. A larger hole is punched in the front (the end opposite the handle. The sides of the box are solid, although the bottom and one side have a groove running the length of them, from front to back. The inside of the box has little raised bumps, the outside has orange smears that look like burnt grease, and the wooden handle has some fire damage on the end nearest the box.

I cannot find any markings or stamps.

I look at this and I think "you put something that'll burn slowly or smoulder in the metal box, you stick a match in through the big hole at the front, and then you wave the smoke around." But I have no idea why. I have looked up censers, I have looked up bee-keeping tools, I have looked up fumed wood finishes (and learnt they don't involve smoke), and I am at a loss.

Help?

 

[Rusted Nut]

It’s for waxing old cross country skis. It burned these little white tablets to get hot, then you could smooth the wax on the ski. I used to have one back in the day!

 

[loganb]

It’s for waxing old cross country skis. It burned these little white tablets to get hot, then you could smooth the wax on the ski. I used to have one back in the day!

Yup, here is a bit more detail:

Antique Ski Wax Iron

Vintage Ski Wax Iron

antiqueskishop.com

 

[DetailSeeker]

I cannot believe it took literally ten minutes to get an answer this site is fantastic.

 

[Roberts210]

I tell ya, the guys here are DAMM GOOD at identifying old tools.

 

[DetailSeeker]

Now, I seek help identifying a thing that is strung.

It is not a bow drill or part of it - there is no slack in this. The body seems to be forged from wrought iron; the string is multiple strands of wire making up one thicker strand, attached into two little cylindrical ends.

Folks, WTF?

 

[RTM]

Cheese cutter? Not sure how thin the wire is. I assume the bow requires flexing to change the wire.

Playing a musical saw? Thinks that's more like a violin bow.

Mind isn't very creative right now.

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

Not sure that's what it is or was but if I wanted to make a crossbow I would like to start by finding something like that in a junk pile. Especially if it's "springy".

 

[DetailSeeker]

Cheese cutter? Not sure how thin the wire is. I assume the bow requires flexing to change the wire.

The wire's bigger than 1/32" and smaller than 1/16"; call it a millimetre diameter.

The bow would require flexing, yeah, and the general consensus was "we couldn't do that without at least one clamp" - the bow is hefty. (Maybe 1/8" thick?)

Playing a musical saw? Thinks that's more like a violin bow.

Mind isn't very creative right now.

I have now learnt about musical saws, and my day is better for it.

Not sure that's what it is or was but if I wanted to make a crossbow I would like to start by finding something like that in a junk pile. Especially if it's "springy".

It's more "tenser than I'd get before an unscheduled meeting with HR" than "springy"; no one could actually flex it by hand. (I realize a crossbow would usually use a lever or something, right?)

It's possible that whoever made it used a heavier wire to store it bent to an extremity, but I'm not sure why anyone would do that. (Also possible that it's normally stored unstrung and it was about to be put into use when it was set down, forgotten about, and made its way to us.)

I started to wonder if it might be half of a wagon seat spring, or a homemade attempt at something similar. ("What if the important part is the bent metal, not the wire?", basically.) But those usually come with two bent sides and don't often seem to have a wire in the middle.

Frances

 

[no704]

No idea, but I bet you could cut PVC with it.

 

[Beerhippie]

Sure looks like a crossbow lathe (prod or bow). Cross bows are often far too stiff to pull by hand and would use a lever, crank, or block-and-tackle to set. Even ones that can be set by hand usually have a stirrup at the front to allow use of both hands.

 

[four.cycle]

Cross bows are often far too stiff to pull by hand and would use a lever, crank, or block-and-tackle to set. Even ones that can be set by hand usually have a stirrup at the front to allow use of both hands.

One factor involving the English longbowmens' defeat of the French at the Battle of Crécy (Aug 26 1346) was that Phillip IV underestimated the English longbowman's ability to deliver twelve bodkin-tipped projectiles accurately at 200 yards in two minutes, while his own Genoese mercinaries could only launch two bolts in the same time - not as accurately and to a shorter distance.

A trained crossbowman could shoot his weapon approximately twice a minute[74] to a shorter effective range than a ongbowman[75] of about 200 metres (220 yd).

wow... I did not know this before.. but if you click on that citation (74) you can d/l a paper on "numerical analysis of english longbows at battle of crecy"....I'm going to have to start clicking more of those little citation thingies...

 

[Beerhippie]

One factor involving the English longbowmens' defeat of the French at the Battle of Crécy (Aug 26 1346) was that Phillip IV underestimated the English longbowman's ability to deliver twelve bodkin-tipped projectiles accurately at 200 yards in two minutes, while his own Genoese mercinaries could only launch two bolts in the same time - not as accurately and to a shorter distance.

[quote["wikipedia"]A trained crossbowman could shoot his weapon approximately twice a minute[74] to a shorter effective range than a longbowman[75] of about 200 metres (220 yd).

wow... I did not know this before.. but if you click on that citation (74) you can d/l a paper on "numerical analysis of english longbows at battle of crecy"....I'm going to have to start clicking more of those little citation thingies...
[/QUOTE]

Competition speed shooting demo and short tutorial.

Tod's Workshop has plenty of stuff on English (Welsh) longbows. Many were of ridiculous pull weights! A lighter bow would be 100lb! Them old-timey longbowmen were some tough hombres! Surprisingly, the bows were self-bows--they were made from one piece of wood.

 

[driftpin]

This reminds me of what Kay said about the women longbow archers and what they did to be more proficient with their archery skills.

 

[Beerhippie]

What were we talking about again?

 

[four.cycle]

ski wax.
not to be confused with ski mohawk.

 

[Beerhippie]

Oh, yeah. Surprised I didn't recognize that--thought I'd seen every ski waxing device made.

So it used hexamine tablets for heat?

Ski mohawk? Plank?

 

[four.cycle]

no... I think they warmed those things up on a stove or a hot plate... I'm not sure... I tried to find it on the hikers site but couldn't come up with anything. I know I've seen them mentioned on there before.

"ski mohawk" is an alter ego - an old cartoon character of mine. (at upper right in that image.)(Don Qui Hatty is the guy with the paper cup on his head.)

 

[Beerhippie]

And I meant Plake, not Plank--as in Glen Plake



the best known Mohawk in skiing.

 

[DetailSeeker]

Not sure that's what it is or was but if I wanted to make a crossbow I would like to start by finding something like that in a junk pile. Especially if it's "springy".

Sure looks like a crossbow lathe (prod or bow). Cross bows are often far too stiff to pull by hand and would use a lever, crank, or block-and-tackle to set. Even ones that can be set by hand usually have a stirrup at the front to allow use of both hands.

I kept thinking "but if it's a hand-forged crossbow part, why would it be strung with a steel wire?" I could see someone putting in the effort to make one, sure, but it looked (poking amateurishly around archery discussions) like steel wire strings largely fell out of favour decades ago.

And then I remembered that the SCA has been around in this part of Ontario for, yes, decades.

I'm going to touch base with one of the locals, see if they can point me towards anyone who can pick the thing up and confirm, but the crossbow part is making a lot of sense.

no... I think they warmed those things up on a stove or a hot plate... I'm not sure... I tried to find it on the hikers site but couldn't come up with anything. I know I've seen them mentioned on there before.

This one they used the little fuel tablets, actually. It's like this model, designed so it can be used on the go. You could even unscrew the handle and screw it back in to a socket on the inside of the box, so that most of the length of the handle was contained inside the box and the whole thing was more compact.

 

[Cruzan80]

And then I remembered that the SCA has been around in this part of Ontario for, yes, decades.

For the others who may not get this reference, the SCA is the "Society for Creative Anachronism". Somehwere less than historical re-enactment, but more historically based than LARP (Live Action Role Play). Rough guidelines are "Pre-Elizabethan Europe, and cultures who had contact with those, all the way back to Greco-Roman".

 

[Private Lugnutz]

...steel wire strings largely fell out of favour decades ago.

What makes you conclude it's not decades old?

Mainly I'm just replynig so I can re-post my High School Shop Class crossbow story!

I know I've told two stories about my HS shop teacher before, but I will tell them again, only shorter this time.

He was a Korean War vet with a flat top, a short temper, an even shorter tolerance for tomfoolery, which should go without saying, and a reputation for being physical, if necessary. All the teachers in my graduation yearbook were lampooned in their photo captions. In my shop teacher's, he was standing in a position where he was probably just innocently looking down at a piece of work, but the caption read: "You can get up off the floor now, bub."

In my senior year I built a crossbow. It was a kit. The barrel, limbs, flight groove, and latch and trigger mechanism were steel. The string was a cable. A rectangular piece of wood had to be notched for those components and shaped into a stock. Even though it was the early 70's, a HS way out in the country, and in a state where the first day of deer season is a non-school day, I had to fight to get permission from the board, which thought it was too dangerous. When it was done, my shop teacher wanted to test it. We went out back, we all stood well behind him, he cocked it and aimed it at a 45* angle toward a barren field on the other side of a student parking lot. The arrow cleared the PL, cleared the barren field, and buried itself in the side of an old wooden equipment shed near the football stadium. We all whooped it up like crazy, of course, but he was mortally embarrassed and had a hard time living that one down for a long time.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

^ Addendum: On this day, a day for sharing tears of joy, laughter, and melancholy remembrances of those no longer with us with family, I will epilog that story with this >
When I was on regular duty in the US Army my mother and father spent some time toodling around the inland waterways on the eastern seaboard in our sailboat. My father grew up on Lake Erie, was a Merchant Mariner before WWII, in the pilothouse of a Destroyer ****** in the Navy during the war, and an expert and consummate sailor afterwards. I was told he had stowed the crossbow onboard for security. When I got out of the Army, I inquired about getting it back. My father said it was lost. My mother said she didn't know what became of it. In private, outside my mother's presence, my father always swore she threw it overboard because she was afraid he would unintentionally hurt himself with it.

 

[DetailSeeker]

What makes you conclude it's not decades old?

Absolutely nothing except my own preconceptions.

When I see a handmade tool, I tend to think one of two things - pre-atomic-bomb old, or modern work from enthusiastic crafter. (Yes, WWII was decades ago, but when I said decades old I meant three or four decades, not eight.)

And I thought modern work would either go all-out on a period string, or else forego that and use a modern string. The notion of an enthusiastic crafter from the 70s or 80s just did not occur to me.

Mainly I'm just replynig so I can re-post my High School Shop Class crossbow story!

Goddamn that is a neat one.