The mystery tool from our October 2018 issue, belonging to Ray Consilvio of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, “looks like a bottle capper or corker,” said Randy Waldrip of Metamora, Illinois. “The bottle capper would be smaller, as the corker would be tall enough to fit a wine bottle under the plunger,” said Bruce Dumelin of Hinesburg, Vermont.
Uses? Randall Wood of Cockeysville, Maryland, says, “homemade ketchup.” Victor Frausini of Waterford, Connecticut, guesses, “probably used by moonshiners.” Larry White of Delta, Colorado, remembers that, “We’d make homemade root beer.” And Jim Davis of Charlottesville, Virginia, said, “looks like what my dad used to put the caps on his good ol’ homebrew.”
Back to the tool, which is most likely “a vintage French style wine bottle corker,” as identified by Ben Hughes of…
