Potlifter or Knuckles?

[cogar]

As I see it, such a “kitchen” gadget would have been mighty useful when cooking at the hearth, over a camp fire, near the chuckwagon …. but not so much when cooking on a wood/coal burning stove.

Lets see now, looking at the picture below, starting on the left and going counter-clockwise you have:

1. a cracker, cruncher, grater, breaker or meat tenderizer.
2. a finger hole for stability when using #3.
3. a pot lifting hook
4. double hook ?? maybe for removing a skillet or breadpan from the fire.
5. a lid lifting hook
6. a finger hole for stability when using #5.

Those “finger holes” would have been a necessity for lifting heavy items so as to keep the “gadget” from “turning” in one’s hand and “dumping” the pot on the ground.

[KC]

cogar, in addition, the #5 large hook can hook over the top rim of the cast iron pot and the #3 can hold the pot lid open while one stirred the pot.

The #4 hook is centered and was great for holding the thin metal handles of a kettle/pot.

These tools were also useful for #6 lifting the metal round discs on the cast iron stoves.

(Per my even-older-than-me relatives! HA!)

[cogar]

lifting the metal round discs on the cast iron stoves

Right on, KC, I shoulda though of that given the innumerable times I’ve performed that operation. Just hafta blame it on a mild case of CRS.   

That lower hook of #4 had me confused as to its purpose because I wasa thinking “open fire” cooking I guess. It doesn’t “curve up” very much to be lifting pots or kettles by their bails. But its “curve” is just right for lifting stove caps or lids. Note the same “curve” on the cap/lid “lifter” pictured below.

The “square hole” in that “lifter” is used for “rotating the grates” in the firebox of a coal burning stove to per say “shake the coals down” ….. or dump the ashes in the “ash pan”. This is done before trying to light a “new fire” and/or to permit more air flow up through the burning coals to create a “hotter” fire.