A glaive is a sort of spear or polearm. I’ve no idea where the concept of glaive as oversized throwing star comes from.
My first guess was that it mounts horizontally on top of something to make a coat rack.
It’s swine spreader. You use it to spread swine. Have you ever tried spreading swine with your bare hands?
From the movie Krull.
This is what I was thinking. And I can think of a possible use for the slot (and two people). Imagine back in the “old days” you had a metal bar (the thickness of the slot). And on one end of the bar you had twisted it into a screw. And now you wanted to screw the twisted end into the ground (which would be easier, would go in more straight with two people doing the work). This tool would be something you could use.
It’s a trivet. Look at the crease in the cloth it’s sitting on for an idea of scale. Also, one of the little feet looks scorched to me, as if from one too many hot pots placed slightly off centre.
I would think not, because what you’re describing is a wrench, and that’s a pretty lousy wrench. The body’s not thick enough to be sturdy, the handles aren’t long enough to give good leverage, and the upper right handle would tend to pull away and open the slot.
I would think not, because there’s no point in having a slot in it, there’s no need for the wooden knobs (all-metal trivets are common), and the knobs are counter-productive in interrupting what ideally would be a flat surface, so as to accomodate various size pots.
Have a look at some trivets. Very rarely are they slotless or completely free of holes, pierced work or whatever. I don’t know why, though I’m sure someone will tell me. As for the feet, whilst all metal ones are common, so are ones with wooden or rubber feet (see the first image in the link for an example of wood and metal together). If it’s big enough for your biggest pot, then having knobs limiting where exactly you place the pot would surely just mean that you couldn’t put it off-centre and spill the whole lot.
And I still think I’m right about the size, too.
Well, get a picture of me with it anyway!
It’s a base for something. The first thing I thought of when I looked at it was how closely it resembled the base of most generic office chairs, of which I have put together far too many.
True, but they’re symmetrical, part of a design. That one off-center slot is not part of a design, and being open at the end would compromise its strength when a smaller pot was put on it (not touching the wood).
Again true, but those feet don’t introduce curvature to the top surface.
I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying here, but here’s the thing: a small pot would nestle inside of the knobs, a large pot would rest on the knobs, and a medium pot would touch the curved surfaces of the knobs and likely slide and tip to one side. Having those rounded knobs sticking up makes for a lousy trivet.
I agree, probably so.
I like your thinking. I propose that the reason it isn’t any bigger than it is (leverage-wise), is that it’s just big enough for two people to turn with enough torque in a confined space.
Rather than twisting something into the ground, therefore, maybe it’s for use to open and close something - like a furnace door in an engine room on a ship, or in the cab of a steam engine.
Noted that people have already suggested stuff like this and others dismissed it, but it looks exactly like its intended use is to apply torsion to something flat - so maybe to twist a strip of rawhide into a cord, or maybe to drive an auger with flats on the shaft or something.
Arguments based on whether or not it would be effective in doing this or that assume that the person who made it knew exactly what they were doing.
The general consensus is that it’s some form of cord winder.
I wish there were someone who knew what it was and could name it.
I thought cord winder too. When I looked at it , I thought barbed wire, but I looked up the actual tools used for barb wire and they look nothing like this.