Hazard A Guess: Week of June 19, 2003

Hello from Hazard!

The trouble with identifying an item from a photograph is that you can’t touch it, you can’t hold the tool in your hands and turn it over and heft it and twist it.

And so, when we have an item that two people say is one thing and two others say is another, we have to just guess that there are twin items out there that are similar in appearance, but different in use.

This is the case with Item No. 682. Last week, James Coleman of Wellsville described it as a metal wood expander bit, used to drill holes in wooden doors to install a lock. This week, another long-time Hazard reader Fred Heaberlin of New Castle, Pa., concurs, saying it’s an auger to bore holes in a tendon when building a barn.

The flip side comes from Les Howell of Beach City, Ohio, who submitted the item. He says it’s used to tighten the wiring on a corner fence brace. And in April, Jonas Troyer of Millersburg sent in an ad featuring a similar item that Troyer said is a fence wire wrapper. But both Troyer and Howell aren’t sure exactly how the tool is used or what it was originally called.

Perhaps a reader can solve the mystery (or at least let us know that, yes, there are two similar-looking tools).

This week’s item is a fun one, shared by Jay Campbell of Diamond, Ohio.

Do you know what it is? Send your answer to: Hazard a Guess, P.O. Box 38, Salem, OH 44460; or via e-mail: editorial@farmanddairy.com.