A relative who traveled a lot passed away. She had this at her house. We dont know any other details about it’s origin or purpose. The oval ball in the middle is loose and shakes around. A: Cannibal fork

What is this wooden and metal vintage thing? A: It is a snooker cue tipper. The cue is places into the open end to straighten and shape the tip and the file is inserted into the open horizontal slot to make the tip perpendicular. Kinda like a pencil sharpener for a snooker cue.

Found while trail running. What are these things? There’s rotten wood that goes along it that looks cut/altered by man. Would it be for making a flat surface to easily maneuver the mine? A: It’s a collapsed wood-stave pipeline, it may have been for dewatering the mine.

UK here. Why is there a ‘Super Antenna’ glued onto a drain cover? Drain is stamped with ‘FH’ and sprayed blue just off shot, this antenna is glued down tight. A: It’ll be for a monitoring system of some sort. Could be to track how much waste water goes through the drain, could be for monitoring gas buildup, there might even be a gas or water meter down there and it reports the metering data so they don’t have to send out readers into a possibly hazardous environment so often.

This structure I found while walking in the woods, the metal bit is about 2 feet wide and looks like it could uncomfortably fit a person in it. My guesses are a well, sewer or time capsule. For context I live in eastern Massachusetts. We plan on going back to open it A: Definitely a man hole. Do not open it. DEFINITELY DO NOT GO IN IT! Manholes are notoriously deadly because they contain low oxygen percentages and high concentrations of poisonous gases such as hydrogen sulfide and methane. First responders usually find two dead people in manholes – the first one that went in and succumbed and their friend who watched them pass out and rushes in to help.

Feels like hard rubber and was found in the ground. A: Those are cattle brands, it is the base from a horseshoes set.

Some sort of boiler or pump found in a forest nearby a trail A: That is a vertical turbine pump. The discharge line looks to be 6 inches in diameter. The device with the round flanges on the top is a check valve. Check valves only allow liquids to move in one direction. In this case, the way the check valve is oriented on the discharge line prevents any pressurized liquids from going back to the pump. The discharge line has a “T” (tee) shaped fitting where it connects to the other pipe. The tall object on the other pipe to the right of the tee is a 6 inch gate valve with the operating handwheel missing.

What is this metal object we found in the woods in Stockholm, Sweden? A: Smudge Pot. Old roadside flare kind of thing.

It was titled at auction as “sewing bag” but it’s completely padded inside and I have no idea what it’s for A: Tea cozy, this particular style was common in the Netherlands

What is this oval metal tool(?) found in a box of sewing and craft supplies? A: It’s a handle for carrying books, but it’s missing the straps

This structure between two buildings. Relatively new buildings, connected by these rebar (?) frames. It doesn’t look like anything moves between them. A: It looks to me like they are there to support the balconies on both buildings. Those balconies look like they were added sometime after the original building was completed.

What is this kitchen item? About the right size to hold an orange with 5 pointy spikes. A: Holds fruits/ veggies to be sliced on a mandoline food slicer

Has ridged teeth, looks almost like a bottle opener on the one end, but is definitely not effective as one. Says KIPP on it. A: It’s one of these “GM ignition switch actuator” thingies.

Asking for a friend, what is this weird staircase protuberance thing called? What is the purpose? A: It’s called a pulpit….same as you see on boats (eg: Orca, from Jaws) It’s mainly decorative here, but if that were a mezzanine area, it could be construed as the Forecastle deck, so the owner and/or architect may well have been into sailing?

flat plastic utensil (?) found in the tupperware drawer, made from flimsy plastic A: Allows you to stack on a set of various size funnels (large to small) to keep them organized. The hook at the bottom shoves through the exit holes and you bend it to get a funnel back off

What are these weird cylindrical things? This on the top floor, deep inside one of many buildings of what used to be a naval engine research facility A: These are carbon filter housings. HEPAs in large buildings like that are still squarish/rectangular. The perforated cylinders are common for carbon. Also, military buildings like that typically have carbon filters in addition to their HEPAs because they filter out toxic gases.

Coffin sized concrete container with lid. It has rebar sticking out the sides of the lid. A: It’s part of a jetty of some sort. Those bolts look like they could have secured a wooden beam to the side to form a protective edge.

This tool is in a shed that we are cleaning out, belongs to a trail maintenance conservation corps A: It’s a Swedish clearing axe. Judging the design, it would allow you to bring spare blades into the field where sharpening is time consuming and dangerous. Especially where roots are close to rocks.

Plastic Blue Things all over attic A: Bio balls

Strong white ivory pen sized, flat object. Slightly curved. We are Scottish so I thought a kilt thing but husband disagrees, I am a knitter so he thought a knitting thing but I disagree. Feels strong like fake ivory. A: A folding bone. Certainly looks the part.