Tool From Japan??

[808beginnerdigger]

Found this at a Swap Meet here in Hawaii. It's 3-1/2" long by 1-5/8" wide. It has a spring-loaded action and acts like a clamp. I have also seen one with "rubber-type" inserts at the end to facilitate in gripping or to keep from scratching the surface it is being clamped to. Very interesting piece. Any Ideas? Mahalo! & Aloha from Hawaii...

 

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[GreyGhost]

The hiragana characters on the lower portion of the stem should be pretty easy to read if you google a hiragana chart on the internet. Then google the syllables together and you should be able to find an English translation for the word. If I still remembered how to read Japanese I could be much more helpful...
The character inside the circle is "Ya" in katakana. Katakana is supposed to sound out English words so that doesn't make much sense tho. I'm sure as soon as someone who speaks Japanese jumps on here they can tell you right away what it says.
I have no idea what the complex kanji say at the top, those ones were always hard.
Oh heck here's some charts-

Hiragana

Katakana

 

[Kenosha Kid]

I've run across links that the clamp could be used for a lot of different purposes, from making kites or balsa wood airplanes, for use in sewing, to an artist's use (holding paper, cloth, etc). Hopefully the translation of the letters/words will shed some light on this?

 

[GreyGhost]

Yes you'll probably only be able to translate the last four characters on the stem, which are hiragana.
All the other more complex kanji characters would be hard to translate unless you knew exactly what page in the dictionary to look up
And like I said the character in the circle is just "Ya".

 

[bigfish]

You can download various programs for smartphones that you use your finger to draw the characters then it will give you the meaning...just a thought.

 

[Kevo_DFX]

I have a new friend who knows about a fourth of the kanji Alphabet. We were able to ID this item.

It is a kakehari. That is what the bottom four vertical symbols say. And Kenosha had it right:

One of the peculiar Japanese tailoring techniques is hand-sewing. For safety and ease of hand-sewing, the use of a thimble or yubinuki, is highly recommended. Made of metal, leather or plastic, the thimble is used to push the needle through the fabric as the finger guides the needle to its course. The "third hand," or kakehari in Japanese, is another recommended tool for hand-sewing. The "third hand" secures the fabric keeping your hand free to do stitching. Running stitch, reinforcement stitch, parallel stitch, back stitch, French seam, holding stitch, blind stitch and slipstitch are the common stitches used in Japanese hand-sewing.[/color]

Japanese Tailoring Techniques | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_8587312_japanese-tailoring-techniques.html#ixzz1QlfFcBkV

The symbols horizontally across the top he believes are a name.

The top Vertical symbol is a makers mark. It is "Ya", the first syllable in a company's name, such as Yamaha. (this was not made by Yamaha, I'm just giving an example.

The very ornate 2nd vertical symbol is Roku, but could have a different pronounciation because it would be combined with the "Ya." We are still puzzling that one out.

Check out half way down on this link:

http://www.immortalgeisha.com/ig_bb/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=8073

- Kevo

 

[DCMatt]

Nice ID.

Here is one in use.

DCMatt

 

[worldtalker]

Sure looks like a bugger picker to me!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

...and someone thought metal detectorists were dumb....