Gristmill What’s It
2025
What’s Its From the December 2025 Issue
201-2 This is a tally stick from Finland, it was used many years ago
to confirm that a worker had completed a day’s unpaid labor. One half
of the stick was held by the master of the house or the foreman, and
the other half by the farmhand or tenant farmer. When the day’s work
was done, these wooden sticks were placed against each other, and the
foreman would carve a notch with a knife simultaneously into both his
own and the worker’s stick. Each farmhand carefully guarded these
sticks, keeping them safely stored so that at the end of the month or
upon completion of the contract work, everyone would receive their
daily wages according to the notches made in them.
201-3 A wire twister for use when making fences, patent number 1,835,204.
What’s Its From the September 2025 Issue
200-2 These are snow goggles for use by European soldiers in the mountains to prevent snow blindness.
200-3 A watch crystal gauge, used for finding the diameter and depth, patent number 412,631 https://patents.google.com/
What’s Its From the June 2025 Issue
199-1 This is a sweep rake, similar to patent number 2,466,878
199-2 Pedal pin removers, for use on bicycles
199-3 A metal worker’s grooving stake, it is a specialized anvil-like tool used in sheet metal work to shape, form, or create grooves and seams in metal.
199-4 These are lineman’s climbing irons, patent number 1,632,688
What’s Its From the March 2025 Issue
198-1 This tool is a carriage maker’s plow plane or coach maker’s plow, for making grooves in wood.
198-2 This item is a toothbrush holder from Europe.
198-3 No answer yet for this item.
198-4 This is a vintage all-iron rabbet plane by R. Hoe & Co., Inc. number P257-1. It was designed to cut rabbets, which are rectangular recesses or grooves along the edge of a piece of wood. R. Hoe & Co. was a New York City based printing press manufacturer.
