I found this in an old wall with a fire place poker. My guess is it was used for holding a wooded match to light a fire. Not sure though. Any other Ideas?

It is 36" long brass, about a 3/16" in diameter. One end has a cast aluminum football shaped handle that spins, the other has a hole that you can stick a wooden match in.

Gun cleaner? Does the end have internal threads?

I don't think it has any threads, but I'll check. The swivel handel makes sense for a gun cleaner.

Jamie

Does the hole go all the way down the piece? They used to have hollow tubes to blow down to help in starting the fire.

its that cast Aluminum or cast Lead, sure looks like Lead in the picture

Looks like brass to me. I would go with gun cleaning rod.

Either a gun cleaning rod or ram rod for a small caliber muzzle loader. :)

As a muzzle loader shooter, the first two things that popped into my mind were ramrod and gun cleaner rod. Think I'll go hunting. :D

Looks like brass to me. I would go with gun cleaning rod.

I am speaking of the small oblong shape on the end, not the rod itself. The poster said it was AL

Thanks for all the replys! The hole does not extend through the rod. The rod is brass. The handel on the end is dark like lead but it is very light in weight so I assumed it was aluminum. I'm going to check on the internal threads. The rod does have some residual black material on it. I had assumed it was soot from matches or a fire. Could be gun powder residue? Jamie

The handle could be magnesium. Commonly used during WW2.

Back in '66 I would go down to Viking Arms in downtown Oklahoma City and they would get in crates and crates of surplus military rifles. I bought a German k98 Mauser, 8mmX57mm, from them for $25 and it came with a cleaning rod just like that. The Mauser is long gone but I still have the cleaning rod. You might see if a regular bore brush will fit into the threads on the end, it seems to me that it will or will be close enough. And, yes, that handle is aluminum.

Thanks Bentiron! I cleaned the end out and it is in fact threaded. They are a little banged up. I tried to screw in one of my bore brushes but couldn't get it started. Wish I had the Mauser that went with it!

Mystery solved! Thanks everyone for your input!

Jamie

Metric thread on the end?

I just did a search on the net for this rod with the Mauser reference. No luck. Bentiron and I may have the only two in existance! Wishful thinking!

Brian, How do you tell if the thread is metric?

Jamie

IF....it came with a Mauser, there's a real good chance that it is metric. :)

Jamie,

I don't have any way to do thread sizing. I would take it to a big box store and see if it works on the displays. I have seen the displays by the nuts and bolts sales. They have different standard and metric bolts and holes in the display. You can try the one you have to id the size.

I have seen something like that with some friends. I will have to ask around and see if I can get more info.

Brian

What would you like it to be, Mrs. Customer?

whatever the internal size of the end of the rod is, take a piece of scrap wood and split it so it just starts in the end. Then try screwing it into the threads. you can also do this with soft materials ( like a small birthday candle or other similar item). this may give you the OD of the male threads. I have screw plates with various SAE threads on them but not metric. There will be different pitches on metric threads too. You might try a hardware store with various stove bolt selections in the small yellow plastic trays on a display. i have thread pitch guages for SAE but not metric. A quality supply house would have a pitch guage for external threads (or an auto parts store perhaps).

a 20 year box in an electricians tool area may have a good selection of small machine screws with various sizes in it (some with tapered ends).

OR you might just re-drill it and re-tap it for SAE threads if you really wish to use it.

you may need a bottom tap for this though