
You all had very good guesses of what Leah's item is! :) Yes, it is indeed a part of the harness (or more specifically, of the collar) for mules or horses. It is made of two different pieces and each one is called a 'hame' (neither Leah or I knew the correct name of them until she had looked online and found it. :) And this is what hames look like when joined with a collar . . .
And then here is what it looks like in use . . .
Can you see it around the horse's neck? (If you would like, you can click on the photo to see a larger version of it.)
As an interesting little bit of information - the above photo is from our collection of family history photos, but unfortunately the person in the photo is unidentified so we do not know if it is a relative of ours, a friend of the family, or just a photo of someone who is in no way connected with our family . . . but it is still a very neat photo nonetheless!
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Can you see it around the horse's neck? (If you would like, you can click on the photo to see a larger version of it.)As an interesting little bit of information - the above photo is from our collection of family history photos, but unfortunately the person in the photo is unidentified so we do not know if it is a relative of ours, a friend of the family, or just a photo of someone who is in no way connected with our family . . . but it is still a very neat photo nonetheless!
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For those of you who asked what I am planning to do with the buck saw . . . well . . . it's highly unlikely that I will use it for its intended purpose. ;) For now it will be used as a decor piece, though I'm not quite sure where yet! I/we really like the look of antiques and 'old-timey' things, and it's fun to try to come up with creative ways to display and/or use them. Another thing I enjoy using the antiques for is history 'lessons' with the children we know - whenever they come to visit, they always enjoy seeing the antiques, finding out how they work, and things along those lines. It makes for some fun times, and it's educational for them as well! So for now, that will be the future of the buck saw. :)




















































