Hooray! It's time for our collaboration with the perpetually perplexing What is it? Blog - Yes, this tool above is a tong, but can you guess its specific use?
Two prizes: First person to guess correctly and the person who submitted the funniest yet ultimately incorrect guess will win T-shirts from the Neatorama Shop. You must submit your entries before the correct answer is revealed on the What is it? Blog (duh!). Contest rules are simple: Place your guess in the comment section. One guess per comment, please. You can enter as many guesses as you'd like. Please post no URL or web links - doing so will forfeit your entry.
For more clues, don't forget to check out the What is it? Blog. Good luck!
Update 12/14/09 - the answer is: These were marked "18th Century Brass Pipe Tongs", they were hung by the fireplace and used to pick up hot coals to light the old clay smoking pipes. Congrats to canem who got it right first and Fuzz for making me ROFLMAO with the guess of "royal log" remover.
Simply grip and twist