Really old cheese grater?

[mart]

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 !!

[cogar]

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.

[bigwull]

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"

[ghopper1924]

Those burrs pale to insignificance when one ponders the Giant Hogweed, now naturalized throughout Scotland.

[fancypants]

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 ?

[bigwull]

it looks like a planting tool to me...y,know push it into the ground remove a half plug of soil.....

[regularjoe2]

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 !

[KC]

Good to see you here regularjoe2!