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Antiques! => Antique Questions Forum => Topic started by: cmlindb on January 18, 2013, 01:48:37 pm

Title: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: cmlindb on January 18, 2013, 01:48:37 pm
Hey I found this old wooden handled cheese grater or something like that. Wondering if anyone knows anything about it. Age, where it was made, value?
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: frogpatch on January 18, 2013, 01:54:54 pm
That is a great piece. It looks as if it is handmade, probably from the mid 1800s. Where did you find iT? Mart will know a lot about this piece. She is very good with primitives. I really love old kitchen items. I want that..
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: cmlindb on January 18, 2013, 02:01:56 pm
was at an action and got it in a box lot.... no one even saw it or even looked at it (including me) until I went throught the box at my house.
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: mart on January 18, 2013, 02:09:26 pm
Its all wood ??  Openings don`t seem to be close enough together for cheese grater !!  And they are scattered all the way around !! Would not work well like that !!  Got to think about this one !! Rauville or KC might know !!  Didn`t use anything like that here !!
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: cmlindb on January 18, 2013, 02:16:50 pm
the handle and base (paddle, one piece) And the dome with the slots looks like tin maybe. Cheese grater was the only thing I could thing of. Yeah not sure what else it could be used for.
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: bigwull on January 18, 2013, 02:27:58 pm
That is a great piece. It looks as if it is handmade, probably from the mid 1800s. Where did you find iT? Mart will know a lot about this piece. She is very good with primitives. I really love old kitchen items. I want that..
good with primitives..mmm...l ike this you mean... ;D ;D...
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: cmlindb on January 18, 2013, 02:29:56 pm
Haha weird direction to take that
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: mart on January 18, 2013, 07:27:58 pm
LOL  !! I might be the one with the club !!
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: gg27 on January 18, 2013, 08:37:53 pm
Might be a soap grater, although all the ones I've seen have been a bit different from this one.
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: cmlindb on January 18, 2013, 08:43:38 pm
ive literally spent like 4 hours between the queen anne salt and pepper shakers, the small dish and this thing searching the depths of the internet with little to no finds.
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: Rauville on January 18, 2013, 09:00:43 pm
Is the bottom open, as a grater would have been made? With the paint it looks more like a piece intended for display only.
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: cmlindb on January 18, 2013, 09:07:14 pm
The bottom is open and in person it doesn't look like paint It looks like weird "crap" haha here's a couple more pics
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: KC on January 18, 2013, 09:20:28 pm
What is the size?  Could be a nutmeg grater!  On second glance, there isn't any grating area.
For example this one has the grating teeth:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Hand-Made-Cheese-Grater-Wood-and-Tin-and-Nails-11-Shabby-/130827732018?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e75f0c432 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Hand-Made-Cheese-Grater-Wood-and-Tin-and-Nails-11-Shabby-/130827732018?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e75f0c432)

If the slots were more pronounced...it would have been used to slice items like ginger.

Does it appear it has ever been hung on the wall?  Is the inside worn?  Have seen old items like this used to "funnel" dry good into bags (like rice, grits, etc)
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: cmlindb on January 18, 2013, 10:07:49 pm
I thought of that too but some of them are still pronounced more then others. I think they just got flattened from handling. You got the side view there where people are most likely to handle where on the from they stick out enough to cut even still
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: bigwull on January 19, 2013, 02:24:15 am
What is the size?  Could be a nutmeg grater!  On second glance, there isn't any grating area.
For example this one has the grating teeth:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Hand-Made-Cheese-Grater-Wood-and-Tin-and-Nails-11-Shabby-/130827732018?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e75f0c432 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Hand-Made-Cheese-Grater-Wood-and-Tin-and-Nails-11-Shabby-/130827732018?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e75f0c432)

If the slots were more pronounced...it would have been used to slice items like ginger.

Does it appear it has ever been hung on the wall?  Is the inside worn?  Have seen old items like this used to "funnel" dry good into bags (like rice, grits, etc)
$49.95....for a piece of Junk....i,ve offered them $5...i,ll let you know if they respond....
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: mart on January 19, 2013, 09:36:45 am
Before I saw the pics,, my first thought was to scrape corn off the cob for cream style corn !!  If the cutting edges are outside,, it would not seem to be a cheese grater because you would have thought that the cheese would fall to the inside and then remove top and empty out !! Still,,you would think that the cutting edges would be closer together !!
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: Rauville on January 19, 2013, 10:20:26 am
Before I saw the pics,, my first thought was to scrape corn off the cob for cream style corn !!... 

That was my first thought as well. But since I've never done anything other than open a can of corn I'm far from an expert in that field.
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: mart on January 19, 2013, 11:20:49 am
I just use my handy dandy mandolin style slicer !!  I make a lot of cream style every year !!
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: KC on January 19, 2013, 12:03:29 pm
Mart, we grew up creaming our own corn as well and have one of those washboard style corn shuckers but before that it was just our trusty kitchen knife! Similar to this but adjustable
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31LfyJv9zsL._SL250_.jpg)

If this thing is what I had to use for corn...I would just use a knife.  This would get you no where!  Believe it was for spice.  Even when you made homemade coleslaw this wouldn't accomplish much with carrots or cabbage.  Still betting on ginger or horseradish slicer.
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: mart on January 19, 2013, 12:21:08 pm
I know what you mean KC !! I trashed the two I had like that !!  They were useless !!
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: frogpatch on January 22, 2013, 07:02:46 pm
I want to know what this really is and I will keep bumping this until I am satisfied that someone has the right answer.  Horseradish? What about a root grater in general. I think that's a good guess. Sassafras root was coarsely grated to make root beer wasn't it? Horseradish was grated the same way.
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: mart on January 22, 2013, 07:25:24 pm
I would like to know too but I haven`t seen anything with those staggered cutting edges !! Would not work for sassafras,, remember its a tree !!  Those roots are tough !! I like sassafras tea but I just peel the roots !!
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: talesofthesevenseas on January 22, 2013, 07:34:44 pm
Wow that is definitely cool. Being all wood I'm mystified!
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: KC on January 22, 2013, 10:07:21 pm
It would have to be a soft root...hard root would be to hard and break this!
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: fancypants on January 22, 2013, 10:19:36 pm
My 2cents says maybe a chute-scraper , as for old-timey-time grocery/gen'l merchandise dry-goods bin.
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: cogar on January 23, 2013, 07:03:28 am
After looking closer at those perforations (slots) in the tin .... I've decided that it is not a grater of any kind, nor is it even a kitchen tool/implement.

I think it was made by maybe a blacksmith and used for ... scraping, de-burring, napping, smoothing, ... whatever, ...... either leather or a fabric.

Me thinks that, as an adolescent, I could probably have used something like that "thingy" because I was always getting a bunch of these all over my clothes, to wit:

Quote
A bur (also spelled burr) is a seed or dry fruit or infructescence in which the seeds bear hooks or teeth which attach themselves to the fur of passing animals or the clothing of people. The hooks or teeth can be irritants and very hard to remove from clothing, such as wool or cotton.
 
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: mart on January 23, 2013, 07:10:48 am
Sand burrs, cockle burrs ect !!  It might knock them off !!
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: KC on January 23, 2013, 08:05:35 pm
It would be easier to knock them off with a stick!  :)
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: bigwull on January 23, 2013, 10:02:19 pm
might be bigger in Texas....everything else is....according to a Texan i worked with many years ago...."boy could he tell tall tales when he,d had a few too many".... ;D....
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: cogar on January 24, 2013, 04:51:57 am
Well now, you could probably knock this type of bur off with a stick.
(http://farm1.staticflickr.com/72/276947002_3d8d146122_z.jpg) 

Or you could “buzz” this type of bur off your clothes …
(http://www.huntinglife.com/imgLib/20120830_Bursonpantsvertical.JPG) 

With that pictured BurzOff Bur Removal Tool that you can purchase here.
http://www.huntinglife.com/reviews/product/burzoff-bur-removal-tool (http://www.huntinglife.com/reviews/product/burzoff-bur-removal-tool)

But I don’t think ya could beat this type of bur off with 2 sticks, .... even if an irate wife or mother was wielding one (1) in each hand.  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

(http://www.pinguicula.org/images/plantes/P_moctezumae/37-Moctezuma_Canyon_aftermath(HR).jpg)

Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: mart on January 24, 2013, 06:10:19 am
I had long hair as a kid and a mischevious little brother (top pic),,we don`t even want to go there !!  Bottom pic,, we have those here, small vine type weed loaded with those stickey seeds with spines that imbed themselves in your jeans and socks !!  Hate those things !!
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: cogar on January 24, 2013, 11:16:03 am
Yup, the wee small "stickies" and barbed "gougers", ..... like in the last picture, I was always getting covered with them cause I was always out in the weeds n' woods and along the creek a hunting n' fishing, etc.

 I use to use my pocket or hunting knife to scrape them off my blue jeans. That didn't work so well on shirts n' socks.
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: bigwull on January 24, 2013, 02:49:28 pm
well we don,t have these burr things over here...but we do have a plant...that sticks to your clothes and its called a Sticky Willy....."No relation" ;D
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: ghopper1924 on January 24, 2013, 02:54:51 pm
Those burrs pale to insignificance when one ponders the Giant Hogweed, now naturalized throughout Scotland.
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: fancypants on January 24, 2013, 08:39:17 pm
Last guess on this one (was my first 'impression') is that it may have been used as a pigment shaver (back when journeymen painters shaved & powdered their own tints/pigments) .... but the item seems a bit newer than that (as usual , can't tell everything from a picture) era of fairly long-gone craftsmanship .

I'm wondering if the OP/owner of this cool little gaget feels that it was a manufactured item , or a 'home-made' one ?
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: bigwull on January 25, 2013, 02:38:19 am
it looks like a planting tool to me...y,know push it into the ground remove a half plug of soil.....
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: regularjoe2 on November 29, 2014, 08:58:56 pm
Another bump on this one ... just took another look & maybe have the answer on it ... looks like a brush-soaker , used for soaking & cleaning bristle brushes used in oil based paints .
Usually set or hung i/s a gallon can of turpentine , solvent & etc , which allows solvent to gently soak the heel of brushes (without making them 'splay') .

Gently lift & lower into solvent to make it work !
Title: Re: Really old cheese grater?
Post by: KC on November 29, 2014, 10:08:10 pm
Good to see you here regularjoe2!