What is It? Game 56

By Alex in What Is It on Mar 13, 2008 at 4:55 am

Hooray! Here is this week’s collaboration with What it it? blog: can you guess what this gruesome claw-like object is for?

Place your guess in the comment section. Please post no URL, let others play … No prize this week, so you’re playing for fun and bragging rights only.

For more clues, see: What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 3/14/08 0 – the answer is:

A coal lifting device, used when adding coal to a fire, it protects the hand from flames and also from contact with the coal, patented in 1896, number 567,087.


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  1. scott mccall
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 5:49 am

    Castration evice, obviously

  2. Craig Clayton
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 6:05 am

    I believe it is a clam shell end off of a hand operated post hole digger.

  3. Mark
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 6:05 am

    Medieval pooper scooper.

  4. ian
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 6:06 am

    a prosthetic monster mouth

  5. Scotchdrnkr
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 6:24 am

    I’ve got a modern version of this made of plastic.
    Its used for scooping up leaves and other ground debris.
    Wear them like a glove and scoop up the trash.

  6. Lasse
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 6:40 am

    Medieval baseball glove

  7. Señorita Puri
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 6:54 am

    contact lenses remover for suicidals

  8. emptyminded
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 6:59 am

    Chastity belt booby trap.

  9. Algonkin
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 7:00 am

    LOL! @ Mark

    It’s a device to pick up bails of cotton

  10. Christophe
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 7:04 am

    my kid says : dinosaur mouth!

    I say : ice shoe

  11. Lady Random
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 7:06 am

    Head accessory.
    You clamp it onto your head and you’ll immediately look stunning.

  12. Felipe V. Alves
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 7:07 am

    It is used to lift a log. I don´t know the actual name of it.

  13. Steve
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 7:08 am

    It looks like a mole trap with the trip mechanism hidden or missing.

  14. drunkard
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 8:18 am

    BEAR CLAWS!

  15. LTB
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 8:19 am

    Strawberry huller

  16. dan
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 8:20 am

    man-bear-pig’s war gloves

  17. meesha
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 8:25 am

    an old device to scoop potatoes from the ROCK hard earth?

  18. Steve
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 8:39 am

    A coal scoop.

  19. nancy
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 8:41 am

    a primitive hair clip, maybe for horses.

  20. Randall
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 8:53 am

    Well, it looks pretty gruesome because all the bright paint has worn away, but this is ‘ Meeraflu’, a flower gethering device from Belgium. In the deft hands of a country girl a basket of perfect blooms can be gathered without bruising a petal, all while gently singing the Belgian national anthem. In WW2 the Nazi gathered all these (the Meerflus, not the country girls) and melted them down to make tanks. Nowadays, they just rip the flowers out of the ground and stuff ‘em in tow sacks.

  21. S'what?
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 9:18 am

    You’re all thinking too big… this is acutally a little clasp used to keep stockings up.

  22. Joe H
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 9:18 am

    It’s a staple remover!

  23. definitelyme
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 9:20 am

    i know what this is actually. it’s an industrial sized medeival device for picking up spaghetti. these days they have handles.

  24. Thespian24601
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 9:24 am

    I think it’s some sort of hole digger, like either a fencepost hole digger or if it’s smaller one used in a garden before planting flowers.

  25. Thespian24601
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 9:25 am

    Yeah, I’m going to go with my second answer. A flower hole digger.

  26. definitelyme
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 9:30 am

    Maybe. A medieval flower hole digger.

  27. Miss Cellania
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 9:41 am

    This is OBVIOUSLY an instrument of torture.

  28. Drew
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 9:42 am

    It’s a panda trap

  29. rand
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 9:54 am

    Looks like a device for carrying ice blocks.

  30. jess
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 10:05 am

    Its sugar cube tongs from the house of lord and lady bearclaws.

  31. Steve
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 10:18 am

    It’s a Governor extractor!

  32. Tanner
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 10:19 am

    It’s a venus fly trap from the future.

  33. amanderpanderer
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 10:30 am

    Sock Grips.
    Or tiny tiny steampunk bear gloves for a tiny tiny bear.

    Or Pre-cambrian salad tongs.

  34. Rotten Jimmy
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 10:36 am

    I’m pretty sure these are the “genital cuffs” that are mentioned in the movie “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”…

  35. Oscar Zoroaster
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 10:44 am

    gynecological forceps

  36. Benjamin
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 10:47 am

    I think it might be something like oven mitts to remove hot pottery from a kiln. Or perhaps a device a blacksmith would use to handle hot steel

  37. Ulysys
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 10:53 am

    They go over a pair of boots for either traveling across ice, like a glacier or something, or they are worn by lumber jacks for climbing trees.

  38. Cubro
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 11:29 am

    Apple Picker.

  39. Pat J
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 11:30 am

    Oven mitts for a bread-baking bear.

  40. Jane
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 12:11 pm

    I agree with LTB – obviously a strawberry huller, but photographed to look really big.

  41. Cassie
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    its a pooper scooper!

  42. kid_icarus
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    medieval venus fly-trap armor from the crusades

  43. PJ
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

    The invention is mine, however, I need my lawyer present to explain it’s full function.
    Thank you, that is all.

  44. jenjen
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 1:19 pm

    It is missing its paint, but it is not for picking flowers. It is a pickle picker, for daintily picking up pickles out of pickle dishes. You put it over your thumb and forefinger.

  45. VonSkippy
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

    Ye olde Nit Picker to remove head lice from those pesky kids. Back in the olden days they were a lot BIGGER (the lice, not the heads).

  46. Lu Allen
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 2:05 pm

    Its a ice claw lifter from the olden days (and still sometimes in the country) when they used to cut ice from the lake and then store it in a hut with sawdust. You’d lift a (big) cube of ice out, rinse it then put it in the ice box or cooler.

  47. gl3nk
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    I agree with steve… Coal scoop.

  48. oakling
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 2:49 pm

    No, it’s a BEAR trap. See, it confuses the bears because they think it’s just, like, a fellow bear’s hand sticking out of the ground, and when they try to pull it out it snaps shut and they get caught! It’s sad, really.

  49. ajt167
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 3:08 pm

    is it some sort or gouging apparatus?

  50. Ryan G
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

    It’s a burr / tick remover for dogs.

  51. joanne
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 3:47 pm

    A badger tickler, of course.

  52. puddleblog
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 4:11 pm

    mechanical claw from a steampunk’d version of the old arcade game where you control said claw with a joystick & try to snag a stuffed animal for yer girlfriend

  53. Aaron
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 5:33 pm

    It’s a little contraption to pick off the green tops of strawberries.

  54. kenna
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

    bear castanets. duh.

  55. yayo
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 6:21 pm

    it’s a shove to make holes for posts

  56. Sammy
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 7:45 pm

    A bear trap

    (made from real bear claws)

  57. Cori
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 8:34 pm

    That is definitely an iron venus fly trap (ferrum flyeateris). They’re native to volcanic vents and feed upon young children.

  58. Shelby
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 10:53 pm

    It’s Client No. 10.

  59. gnoble
    Mar 14th, 2008 at 12:16 am

    yup, totally a strawberry huller. used one before just like it.

  60. Geoduck
    Mar 14th, 2008 at 1:46 am

    I would have said strawberry huller as well, but according to the What Is It website, it’s six inches long, which is too big. Maybe used on some larger fruit?

  61. Stacey
    Mar 14th, 2008 at 2:20 am

    It’s to train zookeepers, park rangers, and circus performers how to get used to getting a hug from a bear.

  62. Carl from Santee
    Mar 14th, 2008 at 11:10 am

    dinosaur
    Dinosaur dentures! I saw them in a museum once.

  63. Ali S.
    Mar 14th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

    Grandfather’s angry denture teeth…when he just had enough of those darn kids.

  64. Alex
    Mar 14th, 2008 at 6:16 pm

    Oh, you guys are awesome! I <3 Neatorama readers! Congrats to Steve #21 who got it right (coal scoop), though I have to say I had wished that it was a medieval pooper scooper.

  65. bollocks
    Mar 16th, 2008 at 7:21 pm

    it’s a genital scratcher… for someone else…

  66. B3ta
    Mar 17th, 2008 at 11:19 am

    Its quite obviously a metallic Goatse device.

  67. Uncle Rico
    Mar 17th, 2008 at 12:14 pm

    Too obvious…bear hand prothesis

  68. elmer
    Dec 9th, 2008 at 10:52 am

    Not sure what it is but, I’ll give you a dollar for it.

  69. Karthik
    Feb 18th, 2009 at 2:33 am

    I Think its a Tooth brush Holder


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