No clue what this is

[rusty]

Err...hoof, not shoe *duh*

"The object of the invention is to provide a
rasp of simple construction, one that shall be
 cheap to manufacture, highly efficient for the
purpose of dressing the hoofs of animals pre-
paratory to shoeing, and one wherein the
blades may be removed and sharpened with
great ease, accuracy, and rapidity and re-
 placed in said rasp, rendering it as good as
new..."

[keykeeper]

Ha, I was right in the rasp part. I was leaning toward shoeing originally, but figured it was a little too aggressive for hoof work. Doesn't take much to make ol' Plug limp a little when the rasp bites a little too deep.

It is a good idea, though. Farriers go through rasps at an alarming rate.

[rusty]

It does seem coarse for that, I was in fact leaning towards an ice tool of some sort, but turned up nothing, finally backtracked to basics....

Oddly, there is a patent class just for these things...

[Aunt Phil]

Don't nobody tell Rusty, might make him too nervous to sleep over there in the basement of the Patent Office, metal trades, particularly weldors tend to adopt tools designed for other trades, maybe heat them a little, bend them some, and make use of them.  I have at least 2 hoof rasps that are 8 sided (edges count) and every side has different teeth.  They have been absolutely great over the years removing coatings and scale.  I have a butcher's meat tenderizing hammer that is handy as hell for rust scale removal on a small area not worth dragging the hose for a needle gun to.

Time to time I wonder how often tools get used by trades other than the one they were designed for to do things the tool maker never knew about.  Then I grab a mug of coffee, kick back and ponder taking a nap.

[oldtools]

If the tool works, Use it!!  but don't abuse it!! sometimes the right tool for the job isn't what it was designed for... 
Must be lots of examples of resourceful & innovative uses for tools, It takes talent to "MacGyver" new uses for tools...
Reuse;
old Meat tenderizer/Rust hammer..
Old baking pans/parts pan..
Old Colander/parts bath... & toothbrush.
Old files/reshaped scrapers & Knifes..
Old Screwdrivers/reshaped to picks, awl, pry's, diggers, etc..
Shingle hammer/great to remove carpet tack boards...
Cut up plastic vertical blinds for; Bondo/epoxy squeegee card, mixing pads, edge paint guards, etc..
The MacGyver multitool.. (a paperclip) had 20 uses...
Etc...

[Aunt Phil]

Not sure if we're helping the kid or torturing him. 
We can pass information onto him, much of it he may not use for 10 years, some never, but the men I learned from told me it was my duty to remember what I had learned.

Sitting here today I realize I have failed them miserably.

[rusty]

Oh, torture, payback for putting it in the what's it forum, there is a price you know -P

Have you ever gone to do something, and suddenly realized that:

A) Someone long ago taught you how to do that.
B) You then did it yourself, successfully.
C) You no longer have the faintest clue how you did it....

[Billman49]

Yes........

[Papaw]

Oh heck yes!! Many times.

[bird]

I'd call it a good looking woman...oh, you mean the tool, not the poster on the refrigerator....

I'd say some odd patent of a rasp, maybe for lead removal in bodywork???

You made my day!!!!!!!  That's the first thing I saw!!!!  all in good fun
cheers,
bird.

[Branson]

Have you ever gone to do something, and suddenly realized that:

A) Someone long ago taught you how to do that.
B) You then did it yourself, successfully.
C) You no longer have the faintest clue how you did it....

Yes, and I've made wonderful discoveries about the best way to do something, an idea I just had to remember, and when I came to the same problem again,  realized I forgot it after all...

[Branson]

Time to time I wonder how often tools get used by trades other than the one they were designed for to do things the tool maker never knew about. 

Can't begin to count the ceramicist's tools that began as something else.  A lot of them began as kitchen tools and can now only be found in ceramics catalogs.

[oldgoaly]

Oldtools
You hit a nerve with the  meat tenderizer / shrinking hammer!  I've spent way to much time reading many so call experts bash the shrinking hammer! When I was in the senior autoshop back 1972-3 "WE" learned how to use one. Now you don't know how many times I've heard they don't work or  they make a mess of the metal!  Well it finally took me a while to learn enough computering to  make it clear to all those internet dummies uhhh experts!
a snapshot from the Key to Metal bumping,  oh how many of them quoted from it as the Bible of auto body repair. And somewhere I have a 1932 edition? 

[oldtools]

Had to Looked up "Shrinking Hammer" to understand how it works,, very interesting.. now I understand the link to meat tenderizer & shrinking hammers...  Got to try this technique on some sheet metal... I only used the torch technique to shrink before...

[Aunt Phil]

Sitting here pondering, back in the dark ages when I was around Nola's age, probably my greatest source of learning was the Thomas Regional Directory.  For those who don't know, Thomas's was a set of encyclopedia size books (please let them be old enough to remember encyclopedias) each between 2 and 3" thick containing the catalogs of most manufacturers.
I think Thomas is now on the Internet.

The set I had access to was at least 5 years old when I got to look through them, but most definitely not obsolete.  I guess some inner voice within was telling me where my future would be, and something gave me the wisdom to learn all I could whenever I had a spare moment.  I do remember it beat hell out of the mandated reading list the teachers assigned.

Had someone told me I'd someday sit at a keyboard behind a TV and have access to virtually all the world's information in nearly real time I don't think I could have envisioned it.  Back then all information ended at the school library, perhaps the city library if one had access, which I didn't.

I sit wondering what the mechanism of information transfer between humans will be 50 years out. 
I'm not sure I'd want to know even if I could.  Sort of funny when I consider we still don't have the automatic flying car everyone was certain would come by 1975, or, for the most part, the convenient household robots that were just around the corner according to the TV ads from General Electric, where Progress was their most important product.