What should I do with this?

The wife brought this home today.

She was given it by the children of an old neighbor of hers. It is a cast iron cherry pitter manufactured by the Scott Manufacturing Co. of Baltimore, MD. I have found info about apple parers made by that company but not a cherry pitter. It doesn't have any dates or patents numbers on it. From I found so far the company seems to have existed from ~1880 until around ~1920.

Condition is somewhat rusty, the nuts on the wing bolts that hold it together are rusted so they won't turn but it looks like all the parts are there.

Wife was going to clean it up and use it but I told her "NO" at least until we can find out more about it.

Does anyone have any info about it? What might it be worth? Looks to me like one of those things where if someone is looking for on it may be worth some money.

If you do clean it, I would do like ECM did with her Lodge Hibachi

Otherwise I have no further input.

Before

After

I'd clean it up a bit and make a cherry pie, but that's mostly because I love cherry pie, and pitting cherries sucks. If that machine works, I'm in the market for one.

Since posting I have found some listings for them on ESTY and E-Bay with BIN prices ranging from $150 to $335. But they all have 4 legs and the legs are fastened by machine screws rather than wing bolts. The listings are using ~1860 dates.

I did find one reference on a website to a 2007 E-bay auction that touted the "rare 3-legged design" but I won't pay the $20 the website wants to tell me what it sold for.

I found a similar 3 leg on eBay that sold in April this year with a BIN price of $100, but sold for "make an offer", I would guess less. The listing specified the 3 leg as 1860-1880.

Listing

I would pit some cherries with it.

Put the whole thing in a tub of vinegar overnight.

I picked up an Alexanderwerks westfalia meat slicer from a lady who was of the opinion that it would never be able to be made functional again due to the blade being very rusty... I soaked it in vinegar overnight and viola!, its ready for slicing duties again. I've also resurrected an old Bengal straight razor with vinegar. Thanks grm for introducing me to vinegar as a rust stripper.

As it sits now it's really only valuable as a decorator piece, may as well bring it back to a functioning level and use it for its intended purpose.

In spite of any temptation that may arise, keep your hootus well clear of it!

In reply to The_Jed:

You are odd.

SVreX wrote: In reply to The_Jed: You are odd.

But his advice is sound!

Navel jelly, a garden hose, wire brush... a big bag of cherries. Maybe some olives too?

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

That's about the straightest thing I've ever seen you post. Who are you, and what have you done with the real GPS?

If you're going to keep it as decoration, I've used 3M pads to knock the rust off cast iron and Johnson Paste Wax to keep it from oxidizing again. The paste is paraffin and carnauba wax with something similar to turpentine. It stinks for a while but after a day to two the turpentine evaporates and all that's left is the wax.

RealMiniDriver wrote: In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker: That's about the straightest thing I've ever seen you post. Who are you, and what have you done with the real GPS?

I need atleast one useful post per month to refer to for legitimacy when taking heat for making irreverent fun of someone's favorite sacred cow.

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

My scared cow broke the fence and done run off.

RealMiniDriver wrote: In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker: That's about the straightest thing I've ever seen you post. Who are you, and what have you done with the real GPS?

I was trying to decide of calling it "navel jelly" in stead of "naval" was subtle humour or a typo... then I remembered GPS doesn't do subtle.

Are you sure it's not worth more as is? Send a picture to Cracker Barrel and see what they offer for it.

The_Jed wrote: In spite of any temptation that may arise, keep your hootus well clear of it!

You're too much like me. I know when you read the thread title, without thinking twice or thinking of looking at what was posted, you thought "YOU SHOULD berkeley IT!"

Also, you should clean it up and pit some cherries.

That thing is cool. Reminds me a bit of the spider sculptures at Barber. Who was it that had a thread a month or two ago about harvesting cherries from the trees in their yard? I'm in the get it working and make a pie camp.

It was SF1 who has an abundance of cherries.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/harvesting-a-cherry-tree/102475/page1/

N Sperlo wrote:

The_Jed wrote: In spite of any temptation that may arise, keep your hootus well clear of it!

You're too much like me. I know when you read the thread title, without thinking twice or thinking of looking at what was posted, you thought "YOU SHOULD berkeley IT!" Also, you should clean it up and pit some cherries.

Jerry worked at the pickle factory. One day, he came home and told his wife they got a new pickle slicer at the factory. "And honey, I don't know why, but I have a strong urge to put my hootus in the pickle slicer." She told him that wasn't a good idea, obviously.

A few weeks went by, and Jerry came home early one day. His wife asked why, and he replied, "Well, I got fired. I couldn't control my urge, and put my hootus in the pickle slicer."

"OMG, Jerry! What happened to your hootus?"

"It's ok."

"But what about the pickle slicer?"

"She got fired, too."

trucke wrote:

SVreX wrote: In reply to The_Jed: You are odd.

But his advice is sound!

I guess you are right.

I just can't for the life of me figure out why someone would look at that contraption and think about their hootus.

Is there a "Darwin the Eunic" award for people who would consider such a thing??

keep it rusty and put it on a shelf somewhere..

Keep it rusty and display it on a shelf, it looks cool. Or clean it up and use it and maybe throw it on a shelf anyway