What Is It? Game 61 - Neatorama

Yay! It's time for this week's collaboration with What is it? Blog: can you guess what this strange spiky tool is for?

Place your guess in the comment section. Please post no URL (let others play). You're playing for fun and bragging rights only today, folks!

For more clues, check out What is it? blog. Oh, and Miss C, it's NOT an instrument of torture, mmkay? ;)

Update 5/9/08 - the answer is: A combination carving fork and meat holder, similar to the one in patent number 2,496,062, which states:

One of the particular uses for the improved holder herein is its use to hold meats, fowl, and other foods from slipping or twisting or oscillating while being carved either at the table or in the kitchen or at the restaurant counter or elsewhere.

Congratulations to Sherman Warren who guessed right!

Comments (38)

Newest 5

Newest 5 Comments

Looks like an old handle to an stone for ice curling.

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It is a tool that is used by a person who works with leather to make saddles and such.

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It's an Ice house tool used to move bricks of ice, or break them up

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Looks like a tool for lifting something, like pieces of meat or fish.

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Oh my god! It's a shoe horn! The kind with teeth! (because you know there's no such thing)

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i remember that issue! the article stated that after he sat on the pool of Hg he had to turn his pockets inside/out to get the Hg out.

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I bet he died a week later.

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That can't have been good for his long term health...

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Liquid mercury is relatively safe. It's the gaseous form that is dangerous because it can be inhaled directly into the bloodstream. If you break a mercury thermometer, scoop up the droplets. Vacuuming will just disperse the mercury as a fine mist into the room where it can be inhaled.

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Quicksilver (liquid mercury) doesn't get absorbed readily through the skin. I think the poison is in the form of mercury vapor.

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Can you imagine how fun that would be if it wasn't toxic?

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Mercury will not just swoop inside your skin. Only spider do that.

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I just bought that issue from ebay just to read the article that went with that photo...great article about mercury circa 1972...

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I remember playing with mercury as a child... and now look at me, posting on Neatorama.

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Mercury is about as toxic as lead. Avoid eating it or breathing its vapor for long periods, and it's sensible to wear gloves handling it and wash afterward, but there's no need for panic - casual handling of mercury metal is not going to hurt you.

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Damn, all through my childhood I avoided touching mercury because adults told me how deadly it was.

I'm off to the mercury shop right now!

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What if he stood on it so his weight was less distributed? Would he sink? What if he jumped up and down?

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I still wanna know if something like a basketball could roll on the surface or if it would just float

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@dgaicun

I think he would have a high chance of slipping and get a concussion if he did that.

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I bet he was living in Minamata...

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