What is this thing?

[O2Bfree]

Can anyone tell me what this thing is?

My parents have had it for decades, I remember seeing it in a box in the basement when I was a kid. They were active in the shriners, Masons, and Eastern Star, and my grandfather was active in the White Shrine of Jerusalem, so I'm thinking it's some sort of ritual paraphernalia, but haven't found anything like it on the web. Google picture search came up with nothing. I found it again while going through my mom's things. Wish I could ask her about it but she died in August.

The brass ball end is quite heavy, so maybe it's some sort of ritualistic mace? Poke 'em with the pointy end, then if that doesn't work, smack 'em on the head with the other end?

 

[braumeister]

Looks like it might be a garden tool for digging weeds out by the roots.

 

[Aerides]

what is the pointy end made from? is it plastic or painted wood?

 

[Qs Laptop]

Google Lens says:


Magic Trick Spell Casting Channel Energies Wood Carved Different Colors Big 15" Wand

https://www.walmart.com/ip/628437658

 

[O2Bfree]

what is the pointy end made from? is it plastic or painted wood?

The pointy end is plastic and hollow. So that means it's probably not a gardening implement as braumeister suggested.

 

[O2Bfree]

Google Lens says:


Magic Trick Spell Casting Channel Energies Wood Carved Different Colors Big 15" Wand

https://www.walmart.com/ip/628437658

Eh, I don't think any of those groups were into casting spells, wouldn't be very Christian.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Eh, I don't think any of those groups were into casting spells, wouldn't be very Christian.

You said, "I'm thinking it's some sort of ritual paraphernalia". Maybe it is and someone copied it and is selling it as a magic wand?

 

[Aerides]

Google Lens says:


Magic Trick Spell Casting Channel Energies Wood Carved Different Colors Big 15" Wand

https://www.walmart.com/ip/628437658

I saw those, but the pointy end isn't split like an old clothespin, like the Op's one

 

[PaunchyPirate]

My parents are/were active in the Masonic/Eastern Star. Mom says it doesn’t obviously appear as something they use in rituals, but it could be. She said it could be a type of baton used at initiations, but her chapter’s doesn’t have the blue part and has ribbons attached. But she said that could vary around the world. She also said those things would normally be kept together with other things in a “kit” of sort. Not usually just one piece kept by one person. Unless the chapter disbanded and the ritual stuff got spread out and lost track of.

She also said there are secret elements and rituals she is not privy to. My late father was pretty much all the way up in the Masonic order and he had rituals that he was not free to tell even her.

 

[O2Bfree]

You said, "I'm thinking it's some sort of ritual paraphernalia". Maybe it is and someone copied it and is selling it as a magic wand?

It's been in my family since at least the 1960s. The brass end is a solid ball, quite heavy, which makes it rather unwieldy as a magic wand. Or so I'd guess.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

My guess would be a gavel of some type. If the ball end is that heavy, I see it used with the ball end downward. The blue fin is decoration.

 

[O2Bfree]

My parents are/were active in the Masonic/Eastern Star. Mom says it doesn’t obviously appear as something they use in rituals, but it could be. She said it could be a type of baton used at initiations, but her chapter’s doesn’t have the blue part and has ribbons attached. But she said that could vary around the world. She also said those things would normally be kept together with other things in a “kit” of sort. Not usually just one piece kept by one person. Unless the chapter disbanded and the ritual stuff got spread out and lost track of.

She also said there are secret elements and rituals she is not privy to. My late father was pretty much all the way up in the Masonic order and he had rituals that he was not free to tell even her.

Thanks for checking with your mom!

My mom got me and my ex sis-in-law to join OES years ago, and I remember a baton, but not like this thing. I've found quite a few OES items, as my grandmother and mother were both Worthy Matrons many times. Mom and dad even got to go to Scotland as Grand Representatives one year. So I have lots of OES decorated china, books, a nice marble gavel, jewelry, and other items, but nothing that looks like a ritual kit.

 

[O2Bfree]

My guess would be a gavel of some type. If the ball end is that heavy, I see it used with the ball end downward. The blue fin is decoration.

I was thinking that too, although I have an Eastern Star gavel that was my grandmother's, and it's shaped like a regular gavel with a nice marble head.

But maybe it was used by the Masons or the White Shrine of Jerusalem.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Thanks for checking with your mom!

My mom got me and my ex sis-in-law to join OES years ago, and I remember a baton, but not like this thing. I've found quite a few OES items, as my grandmother and mother were both Worthy Matrons many times. Mom and dad even got to go to Scotland as Grand Representatives one year. So I have lots of OES decorated china, books, a nice marble gavel, jewelry, and other items, but nothing that looks like a ritual kit.

Both my mom and grandma were OES Worthy Matrons. Mom took it on twice, if I recall because the small chapter just ran out of people to do it. Pretty sure my grandma did the same. At 84 years old, Mom still goes to her meetings and plays the organ for their ceremonies.

 

[O2Bfree]

Both my mom and grandma were OES Worthy Matrons. Mom took it on twice, if I recall because the small chapter just ran out of people to do it. Pretty sure my grandma did the same. At 84 years old, Mom still goes to her meetings and plays the organ for their ceremonies.

My Mom was WM four or five times, several with Dad as WP. Dad was a wonderful speaker and really enjoyed all the recitation. Their chapter was also running low on members and eventually merged with another chapter.

It's great that your Mom still attends meetings. My Mom quit going in her mid-80s because her hearing wasn't so good and she refused to get hearing aids. It's a shame because her quality of life was declining and I think the engagement with OES would have helped her immensely.

 

[Marita40]

It looks to me like a handmade garden dibber used for seed planting. These are very often of wood, and although most make a single hole someone put an (incongruous looking) plastic forked end on yours to make a double hole.

 

[O2Bfree]

It looks to me like a handmade garden dibber used for seed planting. These are very often of wood, and although most make a single hole someone put an (incongruous looking) plastic forked end on yours to make a double hole.

Dibber, now there's a word I haven't heard before!

But why the heavy brass ball on one end? When you plant seeds you don't need a very deep hole, so you wouldn't need any weight behind it. It's really quite a heavy ball.

 

[Marita40]

I don’t know of course, but it looks very handmade to me, spliced together in fact with odd components. So maybe they just used what was on hand.

 

[cathy63]

The other day I spent way too much time reading a subreddit called whatisthisthing "For the identification of mysterious objects"? They have 2.2M members, so if you don't get a believable answer here, I suggest you post it there. https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/

 

[O2Bfree]

The other day I spent way too much time reading a subreddit called whatisthisthing "For the identification of mysterious objects"? They have 2.2M members, so if you don't get a believable answer here, I suggest you post it there. https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/

Yes, thanks! I just posted there this morning before seeing your response. Then I also got sucked in and spent an hour or so looking at all the interesting objects posted there. Fascinating indeed!

I'll post back here if I get as solution to this puzzle.

 

[street]

Yes, thanks! I just posted there this morning before seeing your response. Then I also got sucked in and spent an hour or so looking at all the interesting objects posted there. Fascinating indeed!

I'll post back here if I get as solution to this puzzle.

Please do.

 

[Graybeard]

Dibber, now there's a word I haven't heard before!

But why the heavy brass ball on one end? When you plant seeds you don't need a very deep hole, so you wouldn't need any weight behind it. It's really quite a heavy ball.

I carved a dibble out of a piece of scrap wood, it was easier to plant garlic that way vs pushing my finger 3-4" deep. That doesn't look like a dibble to me because it is too narrow.

 

[O2Bfree]

I carved a dibble out of a piece of scrap wood, it was easier to plant garlic that way vs pushing my finger 3-4" deep. That doesn't look like a dibble to me because it is too narrow.

I'll add that it weighs 283 grams, 0.623 pounds. So yeah, it doesn't seem suited for a planting tool.

 

[SecondAttempt]

I am very curious about what this is. I can't say I even have any good guesses.

But just some observations - it does not seem to be ornate enough to be anything ceremonial, although it could have had more to it at one point. I also note what appears to be a screw holding the brass ball on. That is very practical so I suspect it is something practical rather than decorative.

 

[Telly]

The blue plastic end is incongruous with the brass end and wood turning. The brass ball may have been an old-time finial from a bedpost, the wood from some piece of furniture like a chair rung, but the blue plastic is much more modern. Because of that, it looks to me like something someone made out of materials they had, ie., cobbled together. But what that blue plastic piece was from is a mystery to me.
As to what someone could do with this thing, when I first saw the pic, I wondered if it was built as some sort of fruit-picker.