Brass Novelty Tooth Pick?

[mdmike]

Found this man-shaped jack knife - like item many years ago in NW CT. Home was from the 1850s i believe, but most of the stuff there was from the early 1900s. It has no markings and is composed of thin brass plates like a jack knife. it has two "blades" that fold completely behind the two identical side plates. The one swiveling accessory looks to be a tooth pick -like function and the other is just the manly parts of the man. I'm thinking its from the early 1900s time frame and is possibly a sales item. 2.5" tall. Any ideas?

 

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[releventchair]

Pipe bowl cleaner I'd suspect.
Would work for a crude awl too maybe.

 

[CreakyDigger]

Pipe bowl cleaner I'd suspect.
Would work for a crude awl too maybe.

Probably right, I think...the feet would work as a tamp. A word came into use as an euphemism for the male member several hundred years ago so maybe it could be a novelty "prick" of some kind also.

 

[Red-Coat]

I would agree with "pipe knife", although the term "knife" is used somewhat loosely for these things. Some incorporate a true blade and some don't. Fun item!

 

[mdmike]

when you said knife, i thought about a crude cigar cutter, but typically they were made to keep the cigar round vs. a shearing action....

 

[Red-Coat]

when you said knife, i thought about a crude cigar cutter, but typically they were made to keep the cigar round vs. a shearing action....

No, the term 'knife' is used loosely. Usually they're 'multi-tools' like a miniature Swiss Army Knife, but with the tools aimed at pipe-smokers. Usually there's something for bowl-scraping, a stem 'ramrod' and sometimes a short general-purpose blade. As CreakyDigger said, one end of the handle is often designed for tamping. The one my grandfather used had the tamper as an additional fold-out tool with a swivelled metal mushroom-like button on the end that acted as tamping surface, but could be neatly folded back into the handle with the button swivelled flush to the tool.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Found this man-shaped jack knife

Yep, it's "man shaped" alright, and leaves no doubt at all about gender identity.