Is it a kitchen tool? Something more exciting to me?

[Chillylulu]

 

[john k]

It looks to me like a home brew tool to take the corn off the cob, but then its 4am, and I might be imagining all this!

[Billman49]

Butter curler, or if of very large size, a fish scaler...

[Chillylulu]

It is 10 or 11 inches - so a fair size.  The curve would fit around corn. It is very rigid.

Chilly

[bear_man]

Hide scraper?  Any maker's mark/s or numbers?

[Billman49]

Possibly it's too big for a butter curler (they are almost the same shape) so I'd go for a fish scaler (écailleur à poisson) - this version often found in France - here's a modern one...

[Branson]

I don't know if it will make it more exciting to you, but it's a ceramics tool, kinda industrial grade.  I have a set of three that I got to work on some terra cotta architectural murals some years back.  I don't have this particular shape, but this is the same pattern, toothed on one side, flat on the other.  The usual size is much smaller, and an even smaller size is made for really tiny details.  Regular sized versions of this are listed as "ribbon tools."

If that doesn't make it interesting to you, it is interesting to me.

[rusty]

Now do you suppose....some ceramics fellow swiped a fish scaler out of the kitchen because it looked about right for the job...and it evolved into a set of trade tools?

PS: I find *all* tools interesting, but then, I'm kinda weird...

[Billman49]

If Branson has a range of sizes I guess the ceramicists stole the butter curlers as well....

[Branson]

If Branson has a range of sizes I guess the ceramicists stole the butter curlers as well....

Is that what that is?  Heh.  Been using one in ceramics for about 25 years or so.  Folks, ceramicists are both shameless and notorious for swiping tools from other uses and putting them to work in the studio.  Very few kitchen tools escape.  Some you can't buy as kitchen tools any more, so if you want one, you have to go to ceramics tool companies, who now make them as ceramics tools.  The kitchen tool boys aren't innocent either.  That butter curler is a take of from a spoon carving knife -- a pattern documented from at least the 12th Century.  And your electrician's pliers?  In 1842  these pliers were manufactured and sold as bottler's pliers (think of the wire baskets on champagne bottles).

[Chillylulu]

If Branson has a range of sizes I guess the ceramicists stole the butter curlers as well....

Is that what that is?  Heh.  Been using one in ceramics for about 25 years or so.  Folks, ceramicists are both shameless and notorious for swiping tools from other uses and putting them to work in the studio.  Very few kitchen tools escape.  Some you can't buy as kitchen tools any more, so if you want one, you have to go to ceramics tool companies, who now make them as ceramics tools.  The kitchen tool boys aren't innocent either.  That butter curler is a take of from a spoon carving knife -- a pattern documented from at least the 12th Century.  And your electrician's pliers?  In 1842  these pliers were manufactured and sold as bottler's pliers (think of the wire baskets on champagne bottles).

Shocking!

I live too far inland to need a scaler...

And, yes, this got more interesting. Most likely use for me will be ceramics. I have 5 kilns, mostly used for glasswork.  I use clay to make slumping forms or molds for glass forming. It goes in with the ceramic tools, and is easily the largest tool inbthe bunch.

Chilly

[Branson]

It goes in with the deramic tools, and is easily the largest tool in the bunch.
Chilly

Largest gets real interesting when you're carving the clay for a project that includes a 28 foot mural...

[Chillylulu]

My largest kilnn is only 50" wide.

Chilly

[Billman49]

Which use came first?? Butter curler, fish scale remover or clay shave??? Was it a case of simultaneous development as the need arose, or did one tool get 'poached' for another use??

http://www.google.com/patents/USD29031 is a butter curler...



The handle on Chillylulu's tool would say to me kitchen tool, rather than workshop tool, and closely matches the image on Haworth's (British)patent drawing...

P.S. fish from inland lakes and rivers may also need de-scaling....

[Billman49]

As regards clay shaving tools, those used by spoon carvers (bent, curved or crooked knives and scorps), clog makers (currette de sabotier in French) and box makers (curette de boiselier) would be an equally good tools to copy/use...