On Mar 26, 5:43 pm, "humunculus" wrote:
On Mar 26, 7:28 am, "R.H." wrote:





Hey Rob. I don't think that the tool pictured in 938 has anything to
do with elephants, though similar looking tools are used in that
application. Here's a link that shows various types of elephant
hooks. http://www.upali.ch/hook_en.htmlThesecond tool picture,
938a, has Chinese or Japanese writing on the butt of the handle, and
Asian elephants are predominantly from areas where Chinese writing
would be unusual to find. http://www.upali.ch/asian_en.html

My main reason for believing the tool had another origin and purpose
is because I owned one that was identical to the tool pictured in 938,
except for the cross-hatching on the handle. It's pretty weird to see
a tool you own pop up in one of your "What Is it?" quizzes! I'd
picked it up when I bought an estate tool collection. The collection
has tools that I'm still trying to figure out, but all of them are of
American or English origin. The hook had a tag that said it was a
pickaroon, used for handling smaller logs - maybe as in firewood as
someone else suggested. Here's Lee Valley's

version:http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...08&cat=1,41131

I demonstrated some antique tools at a local country fair a couple of
years back, and the pickaroon was a favorite. It was _fun_ to give a
quick flick and have it stick into the end of a log. Made manhandling
a log a breeze. I really don't think you could design a better tool
for that application.

Anyway, thought you'd like another opinion. Take it for what it's
worth.

R

Thanks, I've added your comments to the answer page.

I've gotten a further translation. In Chinese, the inscription says
"Zi Cai Bu".

Chinese does not directly translate into English, but roughly; Zi is
related to words meaning 'capital' or 'information'; Cai is related to
'materials', and 'Bu' means 'department'. "Zi Cai Bu" probably means
the tool belonged to an official materials and maintenance department,
possibly at a large organization like a construction firm or
university.

This makes it highly unlikely to be an elephant stick. I'm even more
comfortable with the idea that it is a wood handling tool.

--riverman

And thanks for the translation, it has also been posted on the answer page,
along with an email from someone who used an identical tool to move large
fish, I've also got a link to a video where similar hooks are used at a
Japaneese fish market. If I had to put money on it, I'd bet on fish moving
tool or log pickeroon over elephant trainer's hook.

http://pzphotosan161z.blogspot.com/

Rob- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I'm going to retract my assumption that its a wood-moving tool, and
put all my chips on a fish picaroon. Check out this picture from a
frozen tuna processing plant in Japan:http://jordan.husney.com/archives/ph...12/000219.html

Although you cannot see the handle, the top of this tool is precisely
like the item you are showing us. The big bulb on the handle would be
a necessary thing to keep a grip on a slimy handle.

In this picture (strangely enough, from the same processing plant in
Japan) you can see a similar tool, but with the bulbous handle clearly
visible.http://tinyurl.com/2xgq6z

I'm quite confident that its a fish handling tool from Japan.

--riverman- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

http://perpublisher.com/Japan05/page...%20auction.htm

And here, you can see the entire tool in the hands of the man on the
left.

--riverman