October
2003 Issue
by Bob Cahn

Care to Guess.? Email Here

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            When we talk about cutting edge design, we’re particularly referencing this month’s GUESS WHAT with its sleek lines and Slimfast diet profile. Mike Goodman, the “King of Stuff,” has done it again – coming up with this ingenious dual purpose device of steel, brass, and wood.

            The slender, elongated, spring-activated lever controls a snap-on safety cover to protect the steel rolling disc cutter – for pocket portability. The wooden end-roller handle completes the package. The combined action challenges the movements of a Mediterranean belly dancer.

            Its eleven-and-a-half inch length allows for hand application, but we’re asking you to supply some mental energy to solve this rather simple challenge. Can this be a:

1) Pizza cutter
2) Leather worker’s hide stripper
3) Candy maker’s licorice whip lacerator
4) Carpet layer’s entrance cutout silhouetter
5) Bank cashier’s money bundle paper wrapper slasher
6) Shipping room tape cutter, package slitter, and label affixer
7) Wallpaper hanger’s trimmer
8) Pasta maker’s fit-in-the-box end cutter
9) Taxidermist’s skin edger and finishing tool
10) Dress maker’s fabric trace and pattern cutter?

         The correct answer is hiding above, waiting to be discovered. Verification next month. Till then!

SEPTEMBER 2003
 Guess What?

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Answer to September 2003 'Guess What?'

            If you don’t believe us, call Debbie in Idaho and she’ll confirm that it’s a conformator. It’s her weird stepchild – this rare 1888 hat conformator. It was actually worn on the head – not as a fashion statement, but to facilitate custom hat making – as an adjustable cranial sizer/measurer. An expandable series of spring controlled upright forms singly conformed to the unsymmetrical shape of the head, outlining it in a fixed position with individual locking thumb screws. When removed, the hat could then be custom shaped and designed to the immobilized form.*

*Available from Debbie and Bob Helton, Ogee’s Antiques, Eagle, ID, (208) 938-3416