Another “what are these tools for?” thread.

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bohngy

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I’ve been clearing out the shed and listing some stuff on ”The worlds most popular internet auction site“ and I found these…
what on earth are they for? l can’t sell them until I know what they do!
I’m guessing some sort of farriers tool, for the raspy-looking thing in the middle of the photograph.
Any help gratefully received!
image.jpg
image.jpg
 
Top item, meat chopper, possibly continental.
Middle "rasp" horse tooth rasp.
Rest. Horse "firing irons" When horses had leg troubles, then red hot irons were applied to force(aid) recovery. Very mixed results, but this was a couple hundred years ago.

Bod
 
I'd suggest using the really pointy one but get it nice and hot first
 
I don't think the knife is a meat-cleaver, the handle is a bit flimsy & the hole at the front & general shape suggest to me it was attached to a pivot point on a board and used for chopping up stuff (like plug tobacco which was an old "worm medicine" and would fit with the veterinary theme of the rest of the gear).
Those other gadgets look like "firing irons" alright. And "firing" isn't a practice of "hundreds of years ago", it was still practiced up until very recently, despite the lack of genuine evidence that it did anything useful, and I wouldn't be surprised if some folks are still at it. One of its supposed benefits was to cause scarring & "strengthen" the tissues around dickey joints. For all sorts of technical reasons (I'll spare you the pathology lesson) it's a silly procedure with almost zero efficacy apart from perhps causing the animal to keep the joint still while nature did its thing & got on with as much healing/repair as it could.

There are quite a few procedures in both veterinary & human medicine that persisted despite their utter lack of real benefit (& in some cases downright harm!) to patients. "Blood-letting" comes to mind - an idiotic procedure that was practised for thousands of years. There is a condition in which it is helpful - haemochromatosis, a hereditary disorder in which you accumulate more iron in your liver than is good for you. However, that condition wasn't understood until quite recently.

But the wheel has turned full circle and now we have people taking umbrage against genuinely useful therapies like vaccination, which has occasionally done some harm due mainly to human error, but on the whole has had immense benefits for both mankind & animal-kind!

Strange creatures, human beings....
:confused:
 
I have haemochromatosis. They discovered it during my tests for lymphoma. My iron count went sub 2000 just a fortnight ago having been at 8500 when my venesections began last year (pint and a half of blood removed every week). The average person has a reading of 50. The iron had done so much damage to my liver I had around 35-40% liver function which had caused my pancreas to fail as well giving me secondary type 2 diabetes . But they say that should go away as my liver recovers and allows my pancreas to start working again over the next 2 years, hopefully. In fact I have venesection today just before tea time.
 
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"Bloodletting" (officially venesection) is also used to control the rare blood cancer Polycythemia vera, where the patient has an excess of red cells. It's one of the Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPNs) which also include Essential Thrombocythemia, with which I've lived happily since 2013. They affect something like 1 in 200000 per year in the UK.
 
I don't think the knife is a meat-cleaver, the handle is a bit flimsy & the hole at the front & general shape suggest to me it was attached to a pivot point on a board and used for chopping up stuff (like plug tobacco which was an old "worm medicine" and would fit with the veterinary theme of the rest of the gear).
Those other gadgets look like "firing irons" alright. And "firing" isn't a practice of "hundreds of years ago", it was still practiced up until very recently, despite the lack of genuine evidence that it did anything useful, and I wouldn't be surprised if some folks are still at it. One of its supposed benefits was to cause scarring & "strengthen" the tissues around dickey joints. For all sorts of technical reasons (I'll spare you the pathology lesson) it's a silly procedure with almost zero efficacy apart from perhps causing the animal to keep the joint still while nature did its thing & got on with as much healing/repair as it could.

There are quite a few procedures in both veterinary & human medicine that persisted despite their utter lack of real benefit (& in some cases downright harm!) to patients. "Blood-letting" comes to mind - an idiotic procedure that was practised for thousands of years. There is a condition in which it is helpful - haemochromatosis, a hereditary disorder in which you accumulate more iron in your liver than is good for you. However, that condition wasn't understood until quite recently.

But the wheel has turned full circle and now we have people taking umbrage against genuinely useful therapies like vaccination, which has occasionally done some harm due mainly to human error, but on the whole has had immense benefits for both mankind & animal-kind!

Strange creatures, human beings....
:confused:
That "meat clever" wouldn't be part of a tail docker?

Bod
 
That "meat clever" wouldn't be part of a tail docker?.....
o_O
I s'pose it could be used for that purpose Bod, but we were taught a slightly more refined method. It's now illegal to dock tails unless there's a compelling medical reason, of course.

I forgot about polycythaemia as a condition where draining off excess red-cells would be beneficial, so thanks for the correction - it's extremely uncommon in the veterinary world, so I'll offer that as my excuse, sir. ;)

All the best, Droogs - hope your liver gets back in shape. I stretch the friendship with mine with an occasional excess of fermented grape-juice, but so far it hasn't protested too much........
Cheers,
Ian
 
I have haemochromatosis. They discovered it during my tests for lymphoma. My iron count went sub 2000 just a fortnight ago having been at 8500 when my venesections began last year (pint and a half of blood removed every week). The average person has a reading of 50. The iron had done so much damage to my liver I had around 35-40% liver function which had caused my pancreas to fail as well giving me secondary type 2 diabetes . But they say that should go away as my liver recovers and allows my pancreas to start working again over the next 2 years, hopefully. In fact I have venesection today just before tea time.

My wife had lymphoma about 5 years ago, and apart from radiotherapy and various other scans/whatnots during the time, she also had to endure a bone marrow test, which essentially means that a needle is punched into the spine and the marrow extracted.
(I can still hear the scream now...)
Her haemochromatosis count had been 'off the scale', hence the bone marrow episode.
You can't help but fret whilst waiting for the results....
They turned up in the form of a consultant's letter, stating that the results were normal.
No explanation as to why the previous ferritin blood tests had indicated a really heavy iron count, just a 'matter of fact' type letter stating the result caused no concern.
It might not have caused them any concern, but you try not being concerned waiting for the letter!

Good luck and good health to you Droogs.
 
Had my medical for getting my class 1 today and passed with flying colours, yay. Just need to wait for the licence to turn up now
🚚
 
My wife had lymphoma about 5 years ago, and apart from radiotherapy and various other scans/whatnots during the time, she also had to endure a bone marrow test, which essentially means that a needle is punched into the spine and the marrow extracted.
(I can still hear the scream now...)
Bone marrow biopsies are part of the WHO diagnosis criteria for some blood disorders, but "my" haematology team in Aberdeen says they should only be used when the result might mean a change in treatment. Weirdly, there's a lot of blood cancer patients who insist that you aren't a "proper" patient until you've had one. They post regularly on social media in response to people who are asking questions when newly diagnosed, and probably cause an awful lot of unnecessary anxiety and wastage of consultant time. Not to mention the significant pain and risk of complications. Nowt as queer as folk.
 
I was given a local for my spinal tap/lumbar puncture and just felt like i had been given a bit of a thump. the only icky bit was a slight grinding noise when the needle hit a bone
 
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