Dusty Diary loves digging up history, but last night her husband outdid her!DDH was digging up a patch of the backyard for bean teepees, as DD supervised from a nearby comfy chair. Lo and behold...he dug up this old and beautiful object!
Dusty D was agog. Where on earth had this old tool come from? What was it? Wow, could I really keep it?! It was so cool!
What I love about this object is that it is so simple and yet so idiosyncratic and charming. You can see in the photo at left that the "handle" part is pretty asymmetrical. The point, on the other end, is too. You get the impression that this tool was just whanged out in some farm's backyard forge somewhere by a weekend blacksmith. That, or it was a tool so humble that it didn't need to be precision made. I find it absolutely beautiful.
The "handle" part is perfectly hand-sized and feels "right" in one's hand. It really suggests that this was something that was pulled. For whatever reason--perhaps I saw an old picture somewhere?--Dusty D is wondering if this is a sort of cotter pin once used to keep the tailgate of a wooden wagon fastened in an upright position. The pin would feed through some loops at the right and left edges of the tailgate, and similar loops at the right and left rear edges of the wagon bed. Does that seem plausible? Oh, I'm dying to know what it is!
This beautiful old object has been repurposed as a clematis trellis in my garden, where I can look at and admire it every day. DD feels lucky to have stumbled upon this old hand-forged tool, thanks to the agricultural industry of her husband. What is this item? Dusty D would LOVE to know your ideas! Help me identify it!
It looks like it's made from more contemporary rod stock because it seems very uniform. Also, it isn't very corroded so it my have been galvanized. Possibly it was just bent into shape with a vice and piece of pipe. Forged iron normally has very distictive hammer marks which this item appears to lack. I'd guess it doesn't predate the house but I might be wrong. Maybe it was a garden or lot line stake to begin with?
ReplyDeleteCould be a garden or lot line stake. It is pretty crudely made (which I like) so I'm guessing it had a very pedestrian function. Those are helpful speculations; thanks Brent!
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