Hello from Hazard!
Richard Bader, of Middletown, New York, has been busy thinking! He’s reached back to Item No. 1100, and suspects it might be a homemade clamp to hold a canvas on a wagon. Here’s why: “As you look at the picture, the left side is cut out for a stake pocket on a wagon. It would work real easy to drop into the stake pocket, pull the canvas tight and then clamp it in place,” he writes. “That’s why the opening is very narrow.”
Hmmm. Since that was one of our mystery items, we’ll go with it!
And Bader has also been trying to figure out Item No. 1106, which was another unsolved mystery. He thinks it is part of a rope winder “that keeps the twine right as you crank the rope winder.” He has one that is a little different, but says this might work as well (the picture we received is a little deceiving, he adds).
His note included a little illustration, but he also sends this explanation: “The string is wound before it gets to the hole, and the lever puts tension on the side before it gets twisted. As it twists, it pushes this tool along the unwound string and makes an even wind. The handle stays down for weight or to hold onto it.” He said there were five strings on most old rope winders.
Thank you, Mr. Bader, for sharing some insight on both tools!
Wendell Cole, of Lisbon, Ohio, was quick to email us on Item No. 1107, which he says is used to sort round fruit, such as oranges, by size. The horizontal slots are tapered so the fruit drops out when it reaches a slot that it can pass through.
He can’t recall the item’s official name. Does anyone know it?
And so we’re moving quickly to the next item, Item No. 1108, submitted by longtime Hazard reader Lowell Reed, of Cowansville, Pennsylvania. Do you know what it is?
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