Obseletely out of the question

Greetings dear reader.

Question: What do a boot jack, a goffering iron and a leather strop have in common?

Answer: They are all items rarely if ever used today which were once commonplace.

This witter is about that which is old, defunct and well past its sell by date. No not me. Well, possibly but I'm talking about items which are obsolete. I had a box load of museum artefacts today. I encouraged the Littluns to investigate to determine age, usage and owner. It was all great fun. We'd been finding out about inventors and inventions so these were considered cool.
Some of the suggested uses were quite imaginative and creative. Little Dynamo thought that the club used to wash and beat clothes was a baseball bat for a fat man. His amigos thought the barber's leather strop was either used to beat unruly children [hmmmm] or as a sash worn diagonally over armour.
They were particularly interested in the glove stretchers which, according to them, could have been been hair combs for Chinese women or curling tongs for rich people. Why Chinese people couldn't be rich or want curling tongs was never quite explained to me.
Their favourite gadget though was a clockwork meat hook which was once hung over a range so that the meat would slowly turn and cook evenly. No-one guessed it although one girl did spot the clockwork mechanism through a small hole. Suggested uses for that ranged from church bell to a weighing machine.

There was a frenzy of excitement over the vicious looking lino cutter which most assumed was for cutting up meat or alternatively, as one person thought, chipping diamonds from rock.

Interestingly, only four out of the nine investigation teams worked out that the lobster measure was a lobster measure despite it being engraved on the metal itself in inch high letters. Time to hone their observational skills perhaps.

It's a pity that I can't show you some images from the day - expressions were priceless. Finally, let me end this witter by warning you that small children may suggest eye watering uses for a goffering iron. Google it - you know you want to.