What Is It? Game 108

Posted by Alex in What Is It on August 20, 2009 at 8:42 am


Yes, this week’s collaboration with the always awesome What is it? Blog brings us … a spike – but can you guess its specific purpose? (hint: it has a VERY specific purpose)

Place your guess in the comment section – no prize this week, so you’re playing for fame and glory. Please post no URL – let others play. For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog.

Good luck!

Update 8/22/09 – it’s a device to disable cannons:

Since the head of this tool can pivot, it can’t be used as a hammer or pick. The owner of it had a Civil War book that described it as a cannon tool, he said that it was used by soldiers to disable enemy cannons or their own if they had to retreat. The spike was placed in the ignition hole and hammered until the cannon cracked or until the hole was large enough that the cannon was no longer usable.

I’ve since been informed that:

The phrase “to spike a cannon” meant to disable it by driving a tapered wrought iron plug, or spike, down the touch hole with a hammer until it was level and firmly embedded. I suppose the spike could eventually be drilled out, but tools to do this were not readily available, and the process would take some time.

Seems that nobody got it this time around!


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COMMENT

48 comments to "What Is It? Game 108"

  1. Fuzz
    August 20th, 2009 at 8:57 am

    A rock hammer for geologists.

  2. Craig
    August 20th, 2009 at 8:58 am

    And Ice hammer/pick for polar explorers.

  3. BubsFoster
    August 20th, 2009 at 9:04 am

    That's a warhammer.

  4. nolly
    August 20th, 2009 at 9:05 am

    It's a prosthetic device for a woodpecker that lost it's beak.

  5. Charlie (Colorado)
    August 20th, 2009 at 9:09 am

    Spiking hammer for building railroads. The pointy end is for making a pilot hole, then you drive the spike wih the flat end.

  6. Cody
    August 20th, 2009 at 9:18 am

    Pick for mountain climbers?

  7. John
    August 20th, 2009 at 9:23 am

    A trepanning hammer.

  8. artsnarf
    August 20th, 2009 at 9:40 am

    Why thats Bullet on a stick! The new taste sensation! try one, its the way to go!

  9. redphone
    August 20th, 2009 at 9:45 am

    charlie beat me to it.

  10. Randall
    August 20th, 2009 at 9:47 am

    This is not a hammer. It may have been used as a hammer by mistake, but it is actually a precise scientific instrument. The proper name is a Tibolicistic Chronosmithic Pistometer, but its usually called a fruit spike. These are placed beside a fruit bearing tree at the long handles length from the trunk and when a fruit falls from the tree and is impaled upon the sharp spike, precise measurments are taken of the penatration and juice color using etched markings not visible in the picture. This data is used by the National Fructose Board to determine crop yields and values and is instrumental in forfending world nutrional collapse.

    I love this game, I always know the answer.

  11. rintrah
    August 20th, 2009 at 10:04 am

    It's a game accessory from the very old and very dangerous first edition of Hasbro's "Don't Break the Ice."

  12. mapsgeek
    August 20th, 2009 at 10:10 am

    Isn't that a hammer to lay slate on roof ? You use the pointy end to make a hole in the slate and then nail it with the other end...

  13. Chris Radus
    August 20th, 2009 at 10:19 am

    That's a Log Dog for fastening log cabin logs temporarily for cabin construction

  14. Josh d
    August 20th, 2009 at 10:26 am

    You guys are totally off. It's a sex toy from the medevil times! I got this in the bag.

  15. LukeET
    August 20th, 2009 at 10:27 am

    Possibly an Anti-Trotsky ice pick, circa 1940? Being August 20 and all...

  16. MichaelDrew
    August 20th, 2009 at 10:30 am

    I'm almost sure it's a hammer....or a pick......or a bananna.

  17. Jessica
    August 20th, 2009 at 10:43 am

    So that's what's causing my headache.

  18. Heather
    August 20th, 2009 at 10:53 am

    Was this the hammer that drove the last (golden) spike in the first Transcontinental Railroad? Maybe?

  19. Johnny Cat
    August 20th, 2009 at 10:54 am

    The rotating head part is intriguing.

  20. Welmoed
    August 20th, 2009 at 10:57 am

    It's a welder's hammer.

  21. Krastina
    August 20th, 2009 at 11:13 am

    It's a tool for putting horseshoes on horses!

  22. Zanuha
    August 20th, 2009 at 11:39 am

    Its an instrument of torture!

  23. el cad
    August 20th, 2009 at 11:40 am

    Is it a hakapik? Used for seal hunting.

  24. RBD
    August 20th, 2009 at 11:41 am

    It's a peppermint-seeking ice pick, used by intrepid Yukon prospectors. You simply toss the tool into the air, allowing it impale itself in the snow. You then detect the presence of peppermint by tasting the tip containing snow or ice using your tongue.

  25. tipple
    August 20th, 2009 at 11:46 am

    Is it the ice pick used to kill Trotsky?

  26. Czach
    August 20th, 2009 at 11:55 am

    Could it be an emergency ice axe for if you fall through the ice, you use it to pull yourself out. so the swivel head will catch at any angle.

  27. Juliet Towner
    August 20th, 2009 at 12:39 pm

    It's for slaughtering animals. One whack on head... and a lot cheaper than a bullet.

  28. DancesWithPenguins
    August 20th, 2009 at 12:56 pm

    An instrument for cracking ribs during surgery or an autopsy?

  29. Jpeep1
    August 20th, 2009 at 1:31 pm

    Used for killing vampires. Spike is silver.

  30. Christophe
    August 20th, 2009 at 2:16 pm

    It's a hammer, duh.
    ;p

  31. slim22
    August 20th, 2009 at 3:18 pm

    It's a spike for smashing garden gnomes.

  32. chester mcdougan
    August 20th, 2009 at 3:30 pm

    its an ice pick thats used to help mountain climbers climb up.

  33. jaxmickey
    August 20th, 2009 at 4:24 pm

    it's a grommet hammer

  34. birdie1
    August 20th, 2009 at 4:26 pm

    its used on oyster boats to clean and break apart oysters. not sure of the name though.

  35. Suzy
    August 20th, 2009 at 4:32 pm

    Coconut cracker?

  36. Indiedude
    August 20th, 2009 at 4:50 pm

    It's a toffee-hammer, surely?

  37. IslandBlue
    August 20th, 2009 at 5:39 pm

    It's for killing cows

  38. Guest
    August 20th, 2009 at 5:40 pm

    The Hammer of Justice!!! To be used in combination with the Bell of Freedom!

  39. JamesM
    August 20th, 2009 at 5:55 pm

    "Charlie (Colorado)
    August 20th, 2009 at 9:09 am

    Spiking hammer for building railroads. The pointy end is for making a pilot hole, then you drive the spike wih the flat end."

    Ding. My dad and grandad worked railroads. Charlie's right.

  40. Balop
    August 20th, 2009 at 5:56 pm

    Its a brain hammer. Back in the day, when cows would come up for slaughter, a guy at the end of the line would "whack" the cow in the brain with the hammer and kill it.
    Brain Hammer!

  41. Breezy
    August 20th, 2009 at 8:22 pm

    Farriers tool used in shoeing horses?

  42. Stephanie
    August 20th, 2009 at 10:50 pm

    Looks like a tool I saw in a very upsetting medical illustration. (Which reassuringly hangs at the University of Delaware Student Health Center). I believe this type of hammer was used to poke holes in human skulls to relieve pressure or what have you. Clearly, I was a liberal arts major, but I think it's called trepination (sp?)

  43. gibson8or
    August 21st, 2009 at 12:14 am

    It's used for constructing fences (barbed wire, split rail, etc.)

  44. jmjrdrave
    August 21st, 2009 at 8:30 am

    Looks alot like a cobblers hammer thought I've never seen one with that pivot on the head

  45. kercules
    August 21st, 2009 at 12:48 pm

    It's what Andy Dufrain used to escape from Shawshank.

  46. james brauer
    August 22nd, 2009 at 12:54 am

    It is a blacksmiths hot punch, for drifting round holes in hot metal. If it had a rectangular point it would be a farriers pritchel chisel, but the round makes me think it is more for blacksmithing than farrier work. If it was for cold work it wouldn't need the handle, but for hot work it would get too hot to hold so the handle is attached.

  47. ghisa
    August 22nd, 2009 at 5:02 am

    Hammer for lobotomy

    Bye
    Ghisa

  48. KIDELVIS
    August 22nd, 2009 at 10:05 am

    If it were ordinary it would not be here. It has to be something unheard of. My guess is that it's a medieval medical instrument for giving labotomies.


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