First... Lowd, please pardon me for this momentary sidetrack from discussing your find.
Breezie, I intend the following only as helpful, educational information.
An actual Caltrop (also called a "horse-crippler" and a "crow's-foot") ALWAYS has ONLY four spikes/spines, which are ALWAYS arranged in a tetrahedral pattern. (A tripod with a fourth spike/spine coming straight up from the center of the tripod.)
The "working principle" of a Caltrop: Due to the tetrahedral shape, when you drop it on the ground, one of the four spikes/spines ALWAYS points straight up, vertically, in order to be capable of piercing a horse's hoof or soldier's booted foot. To see some modernday versions of a Caltrop, go here:
Caltrop - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Historical info about caltrops is here:
Weaponry: The Caltrop
Various objects with more than four spikes have been incorrectly identified as a Caltrop. That ID is incorrect because you cannot cause the five-or-more-spikes object to sit on the ground with one spike pointing straight up. For an example, see the photo below, which shows four objects wrongly identified as a Caltrop. Because of the six points/arms, these objects will not sit on the ground with one of them pointing straight up. The objects in that photo are actually Tumbler Media, also called Tumbler Stars, which the metalcasting industry uses in a Tumbler Mill to remove burrs from raw-out-of-the mold metal castings. Unfortunately, Ebay sellers frequently list various forms of Tumbler Media/Stars as "civil war caltrops" -- which is false in two ways. They are not Caltrops/Horse-cripplers/Crows-feet, and absolutely none were used in the American Civil War. No
civil war era document (battle-report, supply list, soldier's letter, etc) has ever been found which mentions use of Caltrops in that war.
I'll also attach a photo of an actual excavated Roman iron Caltrop (size is approximately 4 inches), and two drawings showing their use in olden times and in modern war. Note that in each case, they have only four spikes/spines.