3 hours ago, HandyDan said:

I like your collection.

I wish...just grabbed that off the web because of how they look.   Was going through a tool catalog and saw one and that's what brought it to mind.

No further pictures were obtained for this item, I shot an email requesting more images but none were provided, none were available. Sorry guys.

Well, bring on the next one.maybe we will get LUCKY.

HERB

    I'm not blaming you for the lack of enough info John. My thought was to play hardball. When you get a pic like that with no additional info tell them you must decline the contest this month. They are not providing enough for your members to properly identify the items. They expect us to provide concrete evidence of what the items are, but they can't even bother to supply simple measurements or a second view. Declining one month may make them be more particular about what entries they accept for identification. They are being lazy. They should have rejected that photo if that was all that was supplied to them. They know that the more info supplied, the better chance of identifying the item.

    For example, I'm a jeweler. If someone says to me "I want a chain". I don't say OK. How about this one? I tell them I need more specifics (gold, silver, type of chain, length, price range, etc.) or I can't help them out. That is what they should be doing. They should have gotten more views, dimensions, etc. or said "Sorry, can't help you out with the limited info you provided." Sorry if I'm ranting, but it is just very frustrating to look and think: I wonder what the other side looks like or I wonder how big that is, etc. 

2 hours ago, ChuckJ said:

When you get a pic like that with no additional info tell them you must decline the contest this month.

Ya I get it Chuck, but the reality is, they are doing us a favor for letting us sanction this event here, we are honored and privileged to have this going on here. So it's kind of hard to play hard ball when we are the recipient of something good. The images are picked by me, yours truly, they don't supply them to us. The images are sent in to them from the MWTCA membership, and they are also images from their tool meets around the nation, then I go through the images and I pick them out for us to use here, and I then post them here for us to have fun with, and that is all it is, just fun.

All that being said, I can drop a little hint to perhaps have some more information to go on, but I would not have my hopes up, they've been doing it this way for years, it's their organization, we are only guests.

Thanks Chuck,

 

Do I wish we had more info?  Of course I do.  Will we get it?  Isn't about to happen.  What we get to see are the "What's it" from their magazine/site that weren't solved.  I personally enjoy this every month.  We see some creative thinking, some outlandish guesses that has to put a smile on every ones face and every once in a while we do solve it.  I sit and think of possibilities and search for hours every month just because it may happen.  What more can we ask for when it comes to entertainment?  It is just good clean fun IMHO.  

Speaking of which, I know we are behind on getting a winner chosen, been burning the candle at the day job this week folks, working overtime today (Friday typically off for a 10/40 work schedule), the money is too good to pass up with one kid in college and two more running up the rear for more college fun! But as soon as I can, probably tonight or tomorrow, I'll get a winner chosen, and a new MWTCA up and running for March. Thanks so much for everyone's participation, and thanks a ton @ChuckJ for your valuable input, it is taken to heart!

 

Oh, you're too kind John. I didn't know you chose the pics. But that still doesn't change the fact that they should not accept pics with so little info. (If they actually do want help identify these items.) I agree with you Dan that it is a fun challenge to figure these things out. But, I guess I am just a goal oriented person. I like a challenge when there is a possibility of success. With some of these challenges I don't think there is really a fair chance for success. But, that's just me.

1 hour ago, ChuckJ said:

But that still doesn't change the fact that they should not accept pics with so little info.

Little info meaning scale and size and a few more pics right Chuck? That would be nice. Typically if there are markings or text on the tools items, they will state what it reads, or the image will have a close up of the text, not all the time, but most of the time.

But hey, in this months What's It, you got a rubber band wrapped around the shank of the tools, and a tag, that offers some scale right! Just razing ya Chuck, your points are well taken.

 

They have figured out hundreds of these tools with little to no information already, the tools you see here are the hard ones, there is a reason they have not been figured out yet, but someday we'll get lucky!

@schnewj answer has been submitted to the MWTCA this morning, hopefully we'll hear back from them today. Which brings me to our next point, the whole entire reason we started this project was to support the MWTCA, I wanted to support them by purchasing MWTCA memberships for our own members here on TPW, to try to spread the word, and in hope that some of you may enjoy your first year membership, and then when the second year rolls around, you'll sign up again on your own and continue the support for one of the few if not the only organizations that focuses on the preservation of tools and implements and their history. The main focus here is not so much figuring out what the tool is, the main focus is growing their membership, and supporting a great organization for what they do.

 

Chuck, I promise, I will communicate your concerns to MWTCA, and we'll see if anything sticks, they have weekends off, but I'll shoot em a very polite email today and see if we can't at least drop a seed in their minds to encourage the membership to provide more pictures and scale.

 

 

@schnewj,

Your answer was submitted to the "What's It" committee for review. Please see the following email from us, to them.

 

Quote

Dear folks, one of our members at The Patriot Woodworker woodworking community has provided a possible answer to item number 760 at this link https://mwtca.org/whats-its/national-meeting-whats-its/louisville-ky-fall-2016/

He has directly spoken to caning and upholstery professionals and they thought they could be tools for caning and or upholstery. And one professional stated he did not think they were for this purpose.

He has not acquired any patent information or verifiable documentation other than some links to tools of similarity and those links are as follows:

http://www.diyupholsterysupply.com/424-S.html

http://www.diyupholsterysupply.com/424-B/CaningTools.html

http://www.diyupholsterysupply.com/405-18/CaningTools.html

Can you please advise if we are able to declare this mystery solved, or not?
Thanks folks, and have a wonderful weekend!

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworkers

 

5 minutes ago, John Morris said:

@schnewj,

Your answer was submitted to the "What's It" committee for review. Please see the following email from us, to them.

 

 

Thanks, John. My goal was to really try and have at least one win for the members as a group. I know you tried to get more info/better photos, and for that I thank you for the effort.

 

I do have to agree with some of the other members, more info wouldn't hurt or give us an advantage. Knowledge is power and in this case we have no knowledge. I understand that the "experts" are giving us ones that THEY can't solve and are throwing out a challenge. However, they couldn't solve it and they have the objects to examine, measure, and compare...but we don't. Frustrating!

 

Another thing that might soften our frustration is for them to supply THEIR best guesses and research results after we have had a shot at it. I would dearly like to know what they guessed for last month tool. Were we close, or out in the weeds?

Bill, we are all just going to have to accept the fact, that more than likely nothing will change. The soonest we can all accept that, the better. 

 

Also, the experts aren't giving us anything, I am picking these tools myself. Please remember folks, we were not invited by MWTCA to do this project. I approached them and asked (begged) if I could fire this project up. And they agreed with zero conditions. 

It is what it is guys! 

 

On that note, I have seen many great suggestions to what these items could be, and I have encouraged you all to go the extra step and contact a professional in the industry of your suggestion, and see if you can get confirmation or some kind of verification on the item, and 8 times out of 10 with these projects, the fellas are just not willing to go that extra step. You guys could very well have nailed a couple of these, I had very high hopes on a few of them, but that extra verification was never done. If you will, peruse the items in our past What's It's, and see the great suggestions, and see how many of you actually went the extra step to verify.

 

You all doing a great job, but that extra step, as @schnewj did, by at least contacting some pros in his suggested industry, most of our participants just don't go that extra step. I was finally able to submit an answer to MWTCA today because of Bill's extra research he performed, this is the first answer I have been able to submit in months, if not over a year because I was able to accompany it with some research.

Kind of like a slot machine,pull the handle no cherries,,........................

Herb

1 hour ago, Dadio said:

Kind of like a slot machine,pull the handle no cherries,,........................

Herb

But there are Cherries Herb, you all are getting free memberships to the MWTCA Organization just for participating compliments of The Patriot Woodworking Community budget.

1 hour ago, John Morris said:

Bill, we are all just going to have to accept the fact, that more than likely nothing will change. The soonest we can all accept that, the better. 

 

Also, the experts aren't giving us anything, I am picking these tools myself. Please remember folks, we were not invited by MWTCA to do this project. I approached them and asked (begged) if I could fire this project up. And they agreed with zero conditions. 

It is what it is guys! 

 

On that note, I have seen many great suggestions to what these items could be, and I have encouraged you all to go the extra step and contact a professional in the industry of your suggestion, and see if you can get confirmation or some kind of verification on the item, and 8 times out of 10 with these projects, the fellas are just not willing to go that extra step. You guys could very well have nailed a couple of these, I had very high hopes on a few of them, but that extra verification was never done. If you will, peruse the items in our past What's It's, and see the great suggestions, and see how many of you actually went the extra step to verify.

 

You all doing a great job, but that extra step, as @schnewj did, by at least contacting some pros in his suggested industry, most of our participants just don't go that extra step. I was finally able to submit an answer to MWTCA today because of Bill's extra research he performed, this is the first answer I have been able to submit in months, if not over a year because I was able to accompany it with some research.

OK, now I have the full picture. I guess it just went over my head as I thought they (MWTCA) were choosing the items. As much as I complain about others reading comprehension, I see that I failed miserably and missed that bit of information.

 

So, you are the culprit (LOL!) of our dilemma!  Bad, bad, John!

 

So, I have to ask this, does the MWTCA give you any indications as to what these things may be? It would go a long way in satisfying my (and I'm sure others) curiosity to see how close we may have been to an answer. I feel that we as a group were pretty close to identifying the tool as a wire stretcher or some such item. Inquiring minds would like to know!

2 minutes ago, schnewj said:

So, you are the culprit (LOL!) of our dilemma!  Bad, bad, John

Yes, blame me!

2 minutes ago, schnewj said:

So, I have to ask this, does the MWTCA give you any indications as to what these things may be? It would go a long way in satisfying my (and I'm sure others) curiosity to see how close we may have been to an answer. I feel that we as a group were pretty close to identifying the tool as a wire stretcher or some such item. Inquiring minds would like to know!

No indications Bill, because they have no idea either.

Going back to many of the items we have here are at the MWTCA website, there still is no answer. If there is an answer, I will track down the item topic and update it and put out a bulletin that the item mystery was solved, that is fair Bill, thanks.

1 hour ago, John Morris said:

But there are Cherries Herb, you all are getting free memberships to the MWTCA Organization just for participating compliments of The Patriot Woodworking Community budget.

I won the pot that month, and renewed in Dec., It is a fun thing ,John, we appreciate all that you do,and I am sure I can speak for everyone. In fact I don't know how you do all the things you do on a daily basis, a big Thanks.

Herb

18 minutes ago, Dadio said:

and renewed in Dec

Now that warms my heart Herb, way to go sir!

1 hour ago, John Morris said:

Yes, blame me!

 

18 hours ago, John Morris said:

No indications Bill, because they have no idea either.

Going back to many of the items we have here are at the MWTCA website, there still is no answer. If there is an answer, I will track down the item topic and update it and put out a bulletin that the item mystery was solved, that is fair Bill, thanks.

John, is there a way to set up a pic gallery, with appropriate link to the original thread?

I wanted to show my electrician BIL the tool from a few months back.  It took me quite a bit to find it, and it was a fairly recent tool also.  If there was a gallery which showed them, we might also get a good response from new members or visitors who might happen by searching for old tools.