Really old cheese grater?

[mart]

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 !!

[Rauville]

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.

[mart]

I just use my handy dandy mandolin style slicer !!  I make a lot of cream style every year !!

[KC]

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


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.

[mart]

I know what you mean KC !! I trashed the two I had like that !!  They were useless !!

[frogpatch]

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.

[mart]

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 !!

[talesofthesevenseas]

Wow that is definitely cool. Being all wood I'm mystified!

[KC]

It would have to be a soft root...hard root would be to hard and break this!

[fancypants]

My 2cents says maybe a chute-scraper , as for old-timey-time grocery/gen'l merchandise dry-goods bin.

[cogar]

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:

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.

 

[mart]

Sand burrs, cockle burrs ect !!  It might knock them off !!

[KC]

It would be easier to knock them off with a stick! 

[bigwull]

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".... ....

[cogar]

Well now, you could probably knock this type of bur off with a stick.
 

Or you could “buzz” this type of bur off your clothes …
 

With that pictured BurzOff Bur Removal Tool that you can purchase here.
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.