Okay. So what is this? A maul/dummy/mallet?

[Steve Blackdog]

Or it could be a cosh!

So my other half was clearing her late aunt’s home and found this next to her bed. We think it was there as something to ward off intruders - she was 100!

Her late husband was a joiner and I feel it must have been some sort of mallet for wood carving.

It is has a dark wood handle, maybe ebony, or something that has been stained over decades of use.

The top part is, I think, a very close textured white stone, or possibly something like porcelain. It is very heavy, but well balanced in the hand.

It has a “7” engraved (or stamped) on the hard end.

So any ideas?

By the way, an hour of google didn’t help!

Cheers

Steve

 

[kwigly]

Half of a mortar & pestle ?

 

[D_W]

that's a billy. note the loop on the butt end of it for a lanyard.

there are stubby ones sold here for use in a room (as in, beside your bed where you might not have a lot of room to swing).

Billys and Saps are popular here as novelty items now. My grandfather kept one just longer than that under the seat of his van.

Saps are apparently still not legal in some places in the US, i suppose because they were used by criminals.

 

[Steve Blackdog]

I wondered whether it is some sort of cosh/cudgel/blackjack/billy, but can’t find one like it. Also not very easy to use for bashing heads, compared, say, with a hammer!

 

[kwigly]

Lee Valley sells this one https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/ki ... and-pestle

 

[MikeG.]

The other possibility is a fisherman's priest. But I suspect it is a pestle.

 

[dannyr]

Pestle looks good -- Except --- that fairly pointed handle end with a loop as noted - when you use a pestle and mortar you push down on the end with your palm (see Lee Valley handle end) - so I favour cosh for fish or heads - fortunately looks unused

 

[MikeG.]

.........when you use a pestle and mortar you push down on the end with your palm......

Warning: pestle technique controversy........ :lol:

No, no, you put your thumb on the top, and grip the shaft with your palm. The eye would be nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

 

[Rorschach]

100% a Pestle, you wouldn't want a stone head for any of the other items used, it would crack and chip too easily.

 

[Steve Blackdog]

It is indeed a pestle!

I found this:

https://belleandbeastemporium.com/produ ... ble-mortar

I wonder what it could have been used for. It is massive!

Many thanks for your help.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Cheshirechappie]

It's not that many decades ago that chemists used to make up many of the potions they sold, and that butchers used to grind their own spice mixes for pies and meat curing. Go back a few more years, and Victorian middle class kitchens would be catering to a large family with a household establishment of servants - Mrs Beaton's recipes often serve twelve or sixteen! Those puny little pestles and mortars they sell in posh kitchen shops these days just wouldn't cut it ... or grind it ....

 

[novocaine]

turns out it wasn't a bed pan under there either.

she was obviously in to night time grinding, of pepper and spices, one can't be to prepared you know.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

https://metro.co.uk/2015/01/15/batterie ... t-5022809/
?

 

[dannyr]

!!

 

[D_W]

100% a Pestle, you wouldn't want a stone head for any of the other items used, it would crack and chip too easily.

It looks by the loop that someone decided it would be a good night stick.

And as long as the head stayed on for just a swing or two, I'd bet it would be a very good night stick. It's almost exactly the same size as the short billies sold over here by etsy wood turners.

 

[Rorschach]

100% a Pestle, you wouldn't want a stone head for any of the other items used, it would crack and chip too easily.

It looks by the loop that someone decided it would be a good night stick.

And as long as the head stayed on for just a swing or two, I'd bet it would be a very good night stick. It's almost exactly the same size as the short billies sold over here by etsy wood turners.

Probably just to hang it up I expect, in old kitchens a lot of tools were hung rather than stored in drawers or cupboards.

 

[D_W]

Is a stone pestle a normal kitchen tool? Not a snarky question, my grandparents embraced modernity as it came along so what we had left of theirs when they died was mostly recent stuff. I could see a pestle as being useful for whole spices, etc.

 

[MikeG.]

Is a stone pestle a normal kitchen tool? .....

Yep, absolutely. I can hear our stone one being used at this very second.......

 

[Dakotapix]

Our mortar and pestle set resides in my work shop. I use it for grinding shellac flakes to make them dissolve a bit faster.

 

[Droogs]

mine is black granate and i have had on occassion even used it to grind coffee beans when the power was out