What is it? Game 113

This week's collaboration with the What is it? Blog brings us this strange looking device - can you guess what it is for?

Place your guess in the comment section. One guess per comment, however, you can guess as many times as you'd like. Post no URL or links - let others play.

No prize this week - you're playing for bragging rights only. For more clues, check out that What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 10/30/09 - the answer: A policeman's blackjack or sap, for striking miscreants on the head, this was on display with a pair of handcuffs and a different type of blackjack that looked like a small club. Congrats to Tim Giachetti who got it right first!

It´s a "Boleadora". A throwing weapon made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords, designed to capture animals by entangling their legs.
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It's a simple old fashioned "Black jack".
For bashing someone un-concious in the commission of a robbery, or more often, shang hi. This one looks rather old so I would say for knocking out sailors and endenturing them to ship duties.
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It is a pocket knocker/sap/kosh/blackjack or whatever it is called in your part of the world. It is a pocket sized "tool" used to knock an opponent out cold with one smack to the head (if done correctly, results may vary).
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Yep, it's a sap or blackjack. The leather ball at the end is filled with lead. The strap goes around the wrist, it's held by the thin handle, and used to whack an unsuspecting person on the back of the head to knock them out.
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Cooder74 is right. It's definitely a native American war hammer. These were made by various tribes from the mid Atlantic indian nations to plains nations and even the nations of the american southwest and Mexico. I can't tell which this is, but it is definitely a war hammer.

It is not a bolo or a throwing device. The strap off the handle towards the left is to secure it on the wrist (like a wii mote)
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It's... I forget the actual name of it, but it's a Scottish Weapon.

It was shown on the "Deadliest Warrior" episode "William Wallace VS Shaka Zulu"; Williams Ball and Chain.
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It's a Black Jack. The ball is metal, the handle would have had a piece of spring steel or sometimes a coiled spring. The broken end probably used to be a wrist strap. My Great Grandfather was a harness maker, and made these illegal little devils on the side for cash in the 20's and 30's. And yes, it's a head smasher.
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A club shaped like a musical note that rings its tone out when struck against a human head. Used by music teacher of early 20th century boarding schools.
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I can't quite tell from the angle, but I think it might be an ancient type of ladle. The handle has a tube running through it and there are holes on the bottom.

You dip the ball into water, let it fill up, then plug the tube with your thumb. Pressure keeps the water inside the ball, and you can then pour the water out as you will.
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If I had ancestors that were Pinkerton thugs, I would be too ashamed to mention it in public. Too unskilled to have real jobs, or even be mercenaries, so they just went around beating and shooting people that the rich told them to attack. Good people.
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This is a Bolanga, a device for controlling staliions, used on ranches in Bolivia.

When a mare goes into heat the neighboring stallions will jump fences to get at her, so to stop this they attach the bolanga to the testicles of the stallion. One experience of jumping a fence will train a stallion for life.

Oddly enough, In Bolivia 'Bolanga' is slang for 'divorce lawyer.'
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