so, what is it?

[kevin]

Or this...

that looks like a hanger to put a plate on the wall.

[kevin]

Ok go...

the art drawer!

we have an old maple sideboard/hutch for art supplies

[kevin]

dug this out out of the old secretary







there's nine of them. metal, but non-magnetic. probably brass.

i think it's a complete set.

what are they?

[GratefulApe]

I don?t know what those are but they are way cool! Maybe weights?

You?re right on the plate hanger. I need to find Grams old platter and a place to hang it.

The other is just my junk drawer. Nobody is allowed in it without asking.

[kevin]

I don?t know what those are but they are way cool! Maybe weights?

bingo.

those are old scale weights for a chinese balance beam. or possibly another region in southeast asia, cambodia, or laos, maybe. they look cambodian to me. i don't know how old they are, anywhere from late 19th century back, i imagine. my famile lived in asia for years when i was a kid, and antiques were cheap. i'd be surprised if these cost my mother more than five or ten dollars.

they were sold to her as "opium weights," but i imagine that was just marketing. if i erighed each of them i could cross-reference to a place and time that used that system of measurement. maybe a commodity  too, as different substances were weighed using different scales.

i knew the plate hanger because my grandmother's kitchen wall was full of them.

[GratefulApe]

got it on the first try?! at first I thought maybe some sort of royalty stamp but you didn't show the bottom of them. What made me think of weights is the round part on the larger ones and that it was a set.

[GratefulApe]

I think I know what it is. Petrified wood, but why did I find it in the crook of an old Lilac bush that I was trimming out. Anyway, it's mine now.

[kevin]

is it really hard? mineralized wood can look exactly like wooden wood, but will be as hard as glass. you won't be able to scratch it with a steel knife.

[GratefulApe]

It's not hard. I can scratch it with my fingernail. It's really light.

[kevin]

it wouldn;t be petrified, then.

i'll bet it's burl, which is super cool and not easy to find at all, harder to find than petrified wood, actually

https://elviodesign.com/products/lv-1956-california-wild-lilac-burl-wood-turned-pot-hollow-form-vase-with-natural-edge-void

[GratefulApe]

it wouldn;t be petrified, then.

i'll bet it's burl, which is super cool and not easy to find at all, harder to find than petrified wood, actually

https://elviodesign.com/products/lv-1956-california-wild-lilac-burl-wood-turned-pot-hollow-form-vase-with-natural-edge-void

I think that is it. It does have a slight pink tone to it.

[GratefulApe]

is it really hard? mineralized wood can look exactly like wooden wood, but will be as hard as glass. you won't be able to scratch it with a steel knife.

I was getting confused about petrification. This is petrified wood. Hadn't thought about petrification in so long. I was thinking that there was such a thing as petrified rock.

[GratefulApe]

What's it used for? What is it?

[kevin]

inkwell

[eyeshaveit]

Water closet for Barbie's Guest House?

[GratefulApe]

Nope and nope.

What's this?

[eyeshaveit]

Bird feeder?

[GratefulApe]

Bird feeder?

Close

[eyeshaveit]

The only thing close to my bird feeder is a thieving squirrel.

[GratefulApe]

It's a butane cigarette lighter. It was my Moms. I was at my Sisters house a couple days ago and I asked her what it was and she reminded me that it was Moms and asked if I wanted it. I said sure. I have a small cigarette lighter collection.

I can't get it to work just yet.

lol it's funny.

[kevin]

Bird feeder?

Close

suet block

[kevin]

i've had this for forty years.

[GratefulApe]

Some sort of riveting tool. Timing chain.

[GratefulApe]

Nope and nope.

What's this?

It's a hummingbird nest. I had the pleasure of watching the Mama hummingbird build the nest. I filmed a lot of it with the camera on my tripod. She built it a little too far off of the branch and in a night storm it fell. I found it in the morning on the ground with 2 eggs. They looked like tic tacs. I left it there for a couple days and then I went and got it. I've had it for a few years. The little dots you see on it were at one time iridescent. As the hummingbird uses lots of lichen to panel the nest. It's white inside but I didn't photograph the middle. They also use a lot of spiderweb.

[kevin]

that is a poultry punch, a tool used to punch holes in the combs of chickens so you can tell them apart.

i used it (and lots of others, they wear out quick) to punch little holes in the ears of mice and rats so i could identify them. this was back when i was doing mark/recapture studies on mice in the mountains of arizona. combined with clipping a single toe on the front or rear foot, i could separately number up to 600 or so individual animals.

think i was working with 237 at the time, records kept individually.

[GratefulApe]

Here's what it looks like in the sun. I don't know if you can see it but I can. The little feathers are neon green.

[GratefulApe]

What are these?

[Dexter]

Pests?

[GratefulApe]

Pests?

They're metal. Either silver, silver plate one might be brass or copper plated.

[Dexter]

I guess pests was a little silly, mortar and pestle?