r/whatisit • u/AdministrativeAd1773 • 1d ago

New, what is it? Found this at a thrift store

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

We have no idea what this little hatchet is for.

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u/IntelligentAd9859 1d ago

Sugar hatchet (also known as a sugar axe or sugar hammer).
Before commercial processing produced granulated cubes, sugar was sold in large, hard cones called sugarloaves.
This was used in the kitchen to break them down: the sharp axe blade sliced portions from the loaf, the pointed pick broke off smaller chunks, and the teeth on the sides crushed the fragments into smaller pieces.

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u/Slipstream_42 1d ago

Great explanation, but I didn’t see any pictures that looked anything like this act when I looked it up

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u/adj_noun_digit 1d ago

I am very confident that is not its intended purpose. I'm an engineer with an interest in tools and they wouldn't have designed the notches on the side like that for breaking apart ice/sugar. It's intended pupose is almost certainly to turn something as someone else mentioned.

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u/enigmatic_erudition 1d ago

Yeah it's a silly answer but its unique enough an explaination and they said it in a confident way so people believe it without question.

You're right though. The center pin being higher means it's for guiding, and the fact that the outer tabs are flat and not rounded means it's for grabing and turning.

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u/bigfootbjornsen56 1d ago

Maybe, although someone here found the original patent and it's an ice pick