A curator at the Alaska State Museum appears to have identified a mystery object found on a Lutak Inlet beach.
Ellen Carrlee, curator for Alaska State Museums, has located images of a the handle of a sharpening steel that appear to identically match a handle-like object found by resident Luke Marquardt about a year ago.
Carrlee’s photos suggest Marquardt was half right when he surmised it was a handle off a ship’s wheel: It was a handle. But instead of attaching to a wheel, the object anchors a long, metal rod used to hone blades.
A handle she found on eBay had a pewter, inlaid design that appears to be a perfect match to Marquardt’s, only with the rest of the tool attached.
Carrlee said she used Google Images to narrow down the object’s identity. She typed in “handle” with the words “inlaid,” “pewter,” “lead” and “ferrule.”
“It was the words handle and inlaid that really helped,” Carrlee wrote in an email. “But the real fun part is the logic puzzle about the physical features of the item itself…the engineering, wear pattern, orientation, size, how robust or fragile it is…these are the real joyful puzzles for museum-y minds,” Carrlee wrote.
For the record, the handle appears to be a “Vintage Keen Kutter Sharpening Steel.” There’s one for sale on Ebay for $19.