What is this thing forum?

[oldbattleaxe]

Dipper of some sort. Experts needed.

 

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[oldbattleaxe]

Dipper of some sort. Experts needed.

Ist it a watering device for a factory or a well?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Oldbattleaxe wrote:
> Dipper of some sort. Experts needed.

My specialty is Military relics. I do not consider myself an expert on Civilian antique stuff. But I think one possibility is, it's a scoop, for getting a batch of various kinds of small (and sometimes, sharp) metal objects out of a bin-full or box-full of them. Many decades ago, I saw (and used) similar scoops for customers to use in rural Hardware stores, in the nails & nuts & bolts section. At that time, those objects tended to be sold "in bulk" by the pound, rather than in small cardboard boxes. The Hardware store would have huge bins and crates full of nails, bolts, etc and a scoop was provided for your use. You would scoop what you wanted out of the bin or crate, and pour the stuff into a big hanging scale's weighing bowl. Using the scoop kept you from having to use your hand to grab a bunch of sharp nails and oily bolts out of big bin or crate full of them.

That being said, back in that same era, I also saw similar scoops at Farmers' Markets, for customers to scoop quantities of nuts (pecans and peanuts still in their shells, and dry beans like blackeyed-peas, etc) out of big boxes, and pour them in the scale's bowl to weigh however much you wanted to purchase.

But considering what appears to be a "heavy-duty" handle on your scoop, I think it was made for use with heavy stuff, like nails and bolts, rather than peanuts and dry beans.

And on the "heavy stuff" note... a second possibility comes to mind, due to your mystery-object's lightweight metal body with heavy-duty handle. It might be a "riveter's catch-cup." In the old days, when working on constructing multi-story steel frame buildings, the riveting crew would toss a red-hot rivet to the riveter out on a beam, who would catch it in a small handheld metal box, and then use tongs to place the red-hot rivet into a hole in the new beams for riveting.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I dont understand the picture. Do you have 2 items stacked on top of each other?

 

[RGINN]

Side view pic might be helpful. TheCannonballGuy may be into military relics, but he's pretty knowledgeable about the old hardware stores too. And if you can find any place that still does it, you get a better deal buying in bulk than buying a box of nails.