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Neither myself nor a large group of people on a community chat can figure out what this tool is called or used for. It’s triangular with a thick solid 3 legged base, multiple flat wired blades (possibly blades), has a handle, and the rear legs are slightly higher than the front leg. We’ve had guesses (some of them hilarious) of everything from a cheese slicer, soap making tool, pastry cutter, blind cleaner, harvesting tool, to iron holder. It’s none of those. Someone must know!

enter image description here

FreeMan
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JamG4
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    Welcome to DIY! Where did you find this tool? That info might help narrow it down. Also, take the tour – P2000 May 04 '21 at 14:48
  • The blades look too thick to use as slicer well. Does seem it might be adjustable for amount of blades. – crip659 May 04 '21 at 14:55
  • I was going to say "combination cheese slicer/concrete trowel", but since you ruled out cheese slicer, I'd go with some sort of concrete trowel. – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact May 04 '21 at 14:58
  • The standoff feet at the bottom rule out any sort of trowel. How do you know it isn't one of the things you listed? I think it might be for slicing fruit to go in pie. Like the fruit goes on the middle then you force it through the wedge – Matthew May 04 '21 at 15:06
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    The type of metal suggests it's for masonry or mortar. Perhaps it's a tool to spread mortar on a hard-to-access edge and the bottom is a stopper/hard edge. A thought crossed my mind that its' for heating up and scoring something meltable but the (apparent) wooden handle would overrule that. Very peculiar tool though. Where did you find it? – David May 04 '21 at 15:10
  • @Matthew the blades look like they have no cutting edge on them, would tend to smash fruit/soft stuff than slice. Might be a type of strainer, straining stones from sand(?). – crip659 May 04 '21 at 15:11
  • Here is another idea. I vaguely remember as a kid, helping my aunt in rugmaking. Basically, she would set up a long rug "skeleton"series of strong vertical strings, we would hook yarn on each one of them, one knot at a time. Finally, she would tamp down the completed row of knots with a special tool, but that one didn't have that thick edge. Only mentioning it here because perhaps this tool is used for something similar but narrower than the rug. In fact I found a video of Persian rug making that is similar to what I was describing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyQWEItxWYk&t=120s – David May 04 '21 at 15:21

1 Answers1

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The mystery has been solved, and it was discovered to actually be a vintage aluminum iron stand. I had found many antique iron stands that were similarly shaped, but none had the blade like structure around it. I assume their purpose is to prevent the iron from falling off while allowing heat to escape.

enter image description here

FreeMan
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JamG4
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    Interesting. It's a very simple and effective radiator/heat dispersant – David May 04 '21 at 17:42
  • Google Image Search can be your friend in cases like this – Carl Witthoft May 04 '21 at 17:51
  • @CarlWitthoft admittedly I tried, as well as ebay image search, with poor results, but yeah, Google Reverse Image search it's a good first resort. – David May 04 '21 at 18:00
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    The grille would be to prevent accidental burns or damage from inadvertent contact with the hot iron. – isherwood May 04 '21 at 18:18
  • @isherwood: Or possibly put glowing coal inside? No idea. – Eric Duminil May 05 '21 at 08:55
  • Vintage+aluminium would be expensive (depending on how vintage). Also aluminium is a good conductor of heat, which would cool the iron (it also holds a lot of heat, but that's only useful if used with a heat source - maybe it was. The listing's identification of the metal may be incorrect (even though the purpose is probably correct) – Chris H May 05 '21 at 10:46