Hello from Hazard!
It appears our most recent Hazard A Guess? item may have been may have been more difficult to identify than I originally anticipated.
Item No. 1274 is clearly a wrench, but determining its specific use has proven to be quite a challenge. Fortunately, dear readers, you’ve provided a lot of detailed feedback that has both provided answers and raised questions about the potential uses of Item No. 1274.
Recap. Before I present last week’s new guesses, I’d like to recap the responses we’ve received. Five readers thought Item No. 1274 might be a wagon wheel wrench, and one reader pointed out that this particular wrench may not be large enough to have been used to tighten the bolts on wagon axles at 16 inches long with a 1 1/4-inch square opening on the end. A couple of readers guessed fire hydrant wrench after its first week in print. We’ve also received a couple of guesses for cinder shaker wrench since the item first appeared. Other guesses we’ve received include: it may have been used to open a water valve; it may have been a plow wrench; it could have been a lug wrench to tighten train rails to wood ties; it might be an old crank to start a tractor; and it may have been a fence stretcher wrench.
More thoughts. Two more readers added their own unique takes on Item No. 1274 this past week.
William McKinney believes this could have been an an old tool used to turn on large cylinders of acetylene and propane.
Richard Hill, of Medina, Ohio, commented on this post at farmanddairy.com/columns/help-us-identify-the-moore-familys-mystery-tool/835709.html, providing further insight into what this tool is likely not to be. He wrote: “The wrench to tighten railroad bolts was about 7 feet long as I saw the guy doing that as a kid. He was called a ‘Gandy Danser.’ Not a hydrant wrench as they are five-sided. Most wrenches to empty furnace grates that I have seen were cranks, which leaves the most obvious buggy/wagon nut wrench.”
Drawing a conclusion. Due to the variety of detailed responses, I reached out to Farm and Dairy’s expert on old tools and machinery, Paul Locher. Many of you may enjoy his biweekly column, “An American Tale,” detailing the trials of settlers living in Ohio Country in the early 1800s. Paul wasn’t able to identify item No. 1274 definitively, but he gave us further insight to consider.
Incidentally, Item No. 1274 doesn’t look like any wrench he’s ever seen, but he wrote, “that doesn’t mean much because over the centuries there have been innumerable wrenches created for innumerable kinds of vehicles, machinery and etc.”
He added that he’s pretty sure it’s not a wagon wheel wrench and that this wrench struck him as being of a proprietary nature, being manufactured to be used with a specific product.
The closest guess we received to what Paul is suggesting was Pam Malik’s from last week in which she detailed a similar tool her father had to crank start his Leader tractor.
While I’m not sure we have completely solved the mystery of the tool that has been in the Moore family for close to 100 years — Moe Moore, of Greenwich, Ohio, submitted Item No. 1274 — it’s time to try our hand at identifying Item No. 1275.
•••
Item No. 1275 comes to us with an interesting backstory. Linda McDowell found it half buried in the bean field behind her house, which used to be the location of a one-room schoolhouse in the early 1900s. Visible scratches on the backside of the item suggest the plow scratched it several times over the years.
Item No. 1275 is cast iron and measures 12 inches by 18 inches. One side is smooth and the other contains nine 4-inch-by-6-inch sections. There are some letters and numbers in one of the sections, but they are very hard to read.
Do you recognize Item No. 1275? Email us at editorial@farmanddairy.com, comment on this Hazard A Guess? post or send mail to Hazard a Guess?, in care of Farm and Dairy, P.O. Box 38, Salem, OH 44460.
•••
We can always use more items to keep this column going. Please submit items you would like identified to editorial@farmanddairy.com.
Could it have been used to make bricks?