My oldest 'What's-it?" yet...

[JessEm]

My last 'What's-it" was a bit of a test (which the forum passed with flying colors). But this one... I have no idea. A little background on it, I bought this from someone at an auction tonight. It was contained in a lot of items he won, but it wasn't the item he was primarily after, so he sold it to me.

It measure's approx 23.5" long. The business end is 5.25" wide. It say's 1869 on one side, and DOD on the other.

I have 2 guesses. My first thought is that it's some kind of tool for cleaning out a stove or fireplace. However, it was with a couple of food-cutting tools so I suppose it's possibly some kind of food chopper. Any thoughts?

[Billman49]

Never seen one like this before, but its handle, shape, style, decoration etc all say to me a kitchen (or domestic) tool - unusual shape to be used as a chopper, but could be a form of sugar axe to break up cone sugar....

[Branson]

Spatula.  Since there doesn't seem to be a bend in the handle, probably for use with a flat griddle.

[JessEm]

Thanks, fellas. The handle = food tool makes a lot of sense.

[amertrac]

pasta cutter?   bob w.

[Lump]

I'm no expert on such things, but I know that they used to have a tool about like this for shaving fat and meat off of hides, when an animal was butchered. They just scraped it along against a stretched hide, and shaved away all meat, fat, etc, so that the hide would not rot too quickly.

I have no idea if that is what your specific item is. It just looks "right" to me.

[Neals]

Lump may have something there. I saw one similar in use for fleshing. Only real difference was it had a T on the end of the handle.

[Branson]

The metal looks too thin, too apt to bend for fleshing hides to me.  I still think it's a spatula, good for flipping hoe cakes and such.

[Lump]

Mmmmm. Ho Cakes. Mmmmmm!

[Batz]

I'm no expert on such things, but I know that they used to have a tool about like this for shaving fat and meat off of hides, when an animal was butchered. They just scraped it along against a stretched hide, and shaved away all meat, fat, etc, so that the hide would not rot too quickly.

I have no idea if that is what your specific item is. It just looks "right" to me.

I'll go with something like this as well, it looks like a butchers tool with the ring, I remember as a kid all sorts on things hanging in the butchers store. It also has a long handle that looks too me as you would have used two hands, so perhaps it took a bit of force to use this thing. Removing the hair from a hog perhaps, not a nice job but someone had to do it.

[Lump]

I'm thinking you're right, Batz. But I would rather have some Hoe Cakes. MMMmmmmm... LOL

[Branson]

We need to think about a different sort of kitchen.   This is the kitchen at Sutter's Fort that I helped design around 25 years ago.  It is correct for a large kitchen of 1845 and prior:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17903031@N00/6307938892/#/photos/17903031@N00/6307938892/lightbox/

The attached photo is of an even earlier kitchen.

All the longer kitchen tools are hung near the open fireplace, where much of the cooking was done.  It's a workshop, and tools must be handy.

[Branson]

I'm going to nix the hide scraper as a possibility.  Hides were a major source of income in California before the Gold Rush.  The hide trade was the major part of the California economy.  There are tanner's scrapers, which look  a lot like drawknives, and there are scrapers used in the preparation of fresh hides.  These latter have the working end of the tool at right angles, sometimes more than a right angle,  for removing bits and pieces of stuff, connective tissue, fat, scraps of meat, etc.  Scrapers are pulled across the hide, hence the angle of the blade.  Some are lightly toothed, others are not.

Working at an open hearth kitchen fireplace means differences in even common tools like spatulas.  The photos show a variety of spatulas.  These are all blacksmith made, as is jess m's piece.  They are all made to hang, as they would in this kind of kitchen. 

Actually, I believe that the last photo is not a spatula as identified, but another forgotten kitchen tool, the salamander.   Salamanders were heated very hot in the fire, and used to sear large pieces of meat (think large roasts) so that the juices would be sealed inside while the meat was cooked over an open fire on a spit.

[JessEm]

I was leaning torward hyde scraper, until Branson's last post and a little research. Now I'm leaning torward "salamander." I found THIS picture. It looks like they could serve the same purpose:



Above: Cooking - Cast iron cookpots, salamander, coffee pot, firkin, masher, skillet, tyg, wooden spoon.

On a side note, a cast iron cookpot like the one pictured would be really cool.

[Branson]

LOL!  Still going for spatula.  That's based on the thickness of your blade mostly.   A salamander had to have enough mass to hold the temperature necessary to sear the meat. 

Yours is a very prettily made piece, much prettier than most.  So probably from a big kitchen, where style was as important as function.  In fact, yours is about the prettiest I've ever seen!