maybe it's NOT a tool, but

[skipskip]

This came in a bucket o tools from a barn.  I cant place it.

Handle?

part of some horse or cart  rigging?

scythe part?

pictures here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skipskip/sets/72157627993949400/

[Branson]

Nothing to do with a scythe that I can see.

[Papaw]

I believe that is a hame, One of the two curved wooden or metal pieces of a harness that fits around the neck of a draft animal and to which the traces are attached.

[keykeeper]

If that's a hame, it is pretty small. Note the size compared to the keyboard in the background. The set I have here are at least 22-24" in length.

Could be for a miniature horse or a goat, though.

[kxxr]

Yes, nothing sadder than a once proud and noble miniature horse or goat standing in the walmart parking lot with a cardboard sign that reads "Please help! Hameless", who wound up that way just because they were 'different'. Oh, no wait, that's "Homeless", never mind.

[Papaw]

Perhaps I was a bit hasty, it looked like one to me, and I didn't notice the keyboard in the picture.

I need to rein in my enthusiasm some.

[Wrenchmensch]

Whoa, Noel, Whoa!

[johnsironsanctuary]

I'm going to guess that it is an internal part of a machine like a corn picker or baler. That looks like a cam in the middle. Is there any sign of wear?

[Branson]

Whoa, Noel, Whoa!

Yeah.  Get the bit between his teeth and slow him down.

[lazyassforge]

I'm not sure and I don't know a name for the tool. But, I think it may be a wheelwright's tool used for holding the bolts which go through the tyre (and the plate that holds the ends of the fellos in line) on a buggy wheel while the nuts are tightened. (The hook end of it going under the fello and the thumb screw looking thing pushing on the bolt.) The bolts are countersunk into the tyre and some had a small square shoulder at the base of the shank (think plowshare bolts only lighter) I think others were just countersunk heads with a screwdriver slot in them. Like I said, I am just guessing!

Bill Davis

[Stoney]

Your right Noel, it is a hame.  A pair of hames fit around a collar and are connected together with a leather strap thru the metal brackets on top of the pic to the right.  At the bottom they are connected with a buckle strap thru the metal ring at the right end of the pic.  The collar chain is connected to the tongue yoke which holds up the implement tongue and guides the implement.  The trace chains or leather tugs attach to the hames with a u shaped double hook  (it is the metal u on the top to the left in the pic) in the metal adjusting slots and are the connecting parts that allow a horse to pull the implement.  The briching that is not shown is what allows the animal to stop the implement.  The big ring in the pic is where the reins or lines go thru.  I have several from large draft horse hames to small pony hames and they are small.     

[Papaw]

Stoney, I think you are looking at the examples I posted, not Stoney's item.
Here is his-

OCT 248 by skipskip, on Flickr

[Stoney]

Sorry about that Papaw, I didn't see the link.

[johnsironsanctuary]

How about bolting a cultivator shovel to the pointed end and use it on a a walk behind cultivator?