fort find what is it?? Strange, weird, compelling

[alderan33]

Found this strange item near a fort. It is heavy lead with brass inserts that look similar to nails. The buckle somehow attaches to it as do the rivets/snaps.
In the side of the item, there is a threaded hole slightly smaller than a pencil. I have never seen anything like it.
The leather straps were both intact in the ground but I apparently pulled one loose during excavation.
I threw in the nickel for size reference.
Thanks for any help identifying this bizarre-looking item. HH

 

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[parsonwalker]

Put this in the "What Is It" forum. WEIRD. I wanna know . . .

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Alderan33 sent me a message asking me to help ID the object.

Sorry, but I've never seen anything like it. All I can tell you is my "logical observations" about it.

An object's shape, features, and metal-type are not "random"... each of them has a purpose, related to the object's function. Figuring out the purpose/reason that each of them is there can lead us to the correct ID of the object.

Your mystery-object's main body is made of lead (or a similar-looking metal), instead of brass or iron. There's got to be an important reason why the manufacturer chose that metal instead of brass or iron. The only thing that comes to mind at the moment is, lead is much heavier than brass or iron... so perhaps the object's heavy weight is an important part of its purpose/function.

Does the threaded hole in the object's side go all the way through the lead body to the hole in its center? If so, I suspect the hole held a screw-in "pin" for "securing" the lead circle in at a particular place on a shaft or pipe.

The fact that the "pin" SCREWS into the lead indicates that the pin sometimes needed to be removed (or loosened) in order to re-position the lead ring. In other words, the screw-in "pin" is a device for TEMPORARILY positioning the lead ring onto the shaft, instead of attaching it permanently there.

The staple-shaped bars on it are brass instead of iron. Why brass instead of iron? (Brass is a much-more expensive metal than iron... so the manufacturer wouldn't have used brass without an important reason for doing so.)

The ends of the brass staple-shaped bars are bent over on the "back" of the object to keep them from being easily pulled out of the lead. That indicates the leather straps which went under the "staples" were subjected to a LOT of pulling force.

I have to mention, the leather straps MIGHT not be "original" to the object. Somebody might have been monkeying around with the object after it was discarded from whatever it was used for.

I should also mention, any or all of my deductions above could be incorrect. I'm just doing the best I can to give you some logical guesses about the intended purpose of the various characteristics of the object.

If somebody gives you a DEFINITE identification for it, please let me know.