Hmmm... Cogar m'dear, I'm gonna have to challenge that answer too. I think the punched tin would be too harsh on the clothing and the soapy water would rust it up in no time, then you'd have rust stains on your clothes.
Uh, Tales, there were literally tens of millions of tin kitchen implements that the soapy dish water did NOT rust them up in no time and …. and …… and what can I say, to wit:
It is not heavy. It is hollow and made of tin. It is rough on the outside of the cylinder but not sharp like a grater. It remains a mystery.
Prove it cogar!!! :O
Confused on why the pointed ends if it was for clothes!
KC, look at this picture, to wit:
Now picture that woman holding that tin “thingy” rather than the washboard.
Having blunt ends would make it more likely to “snag” on the clothes one was scrubbing ……. and oval ends are not an easy thing for a tinsmith to be making unless it was mass produced and then a die would have had to been made to form them.
And if you look at the picture AntiquesOnTheS posted you can clearly see the “dimples” in the tin were “hand punched” and thus not mass produced.
And KC, I am not definitely stating that is a “clothes scrubber”, but it is a definitely possibility that that is what it was made for.
Cheers
