On Jan 6, 11:26�pm, Mark Thorson > wrote:
> Look at it he
>
> http://cgi.ebay.com/_W0QQitemZ120207314961
>
> If it weren't for the two spikes in the middle,
> I'd say it was a cheese slicer. �It looks something
> like a curd knife (used to cut the curd into cubes
> during cheesemaking), but it's way too small for
> that.
>
> Could it be an unusual form of cake rake?
>
> If not, what are those spikes for?

It's a cheese slicer... those two elongated "spikes" are to prevent
the freshly cut slice from sticking back on to the block of cheese...
works especially well with soft cheeses... in delis of years ago such
a cheese slicer was used on farmer and cream cheese.... fifty years
ago cream cheese wasn't available in individual foil wrapped packages,
instead it was sliced to order from a huge block from a wooden box, of
course butter too... was a much better product back then.... farmer
cheese the same... cottage cheese and pot cheese was scooped from a
large wooden pail, later from a parchment lined metal can. People
forget that there was no plastic back then, folks typically brought
their own glass containers when they shopped... even brought their own
milk bottles, not everyone wanted to pay for milk delivery nor was it
available everytwhere. There were no six packs then either, folks
bought beer from the local tavern, tapped from a wooded barrel into
their wooden pail (was called a growler), when I was six years old I
could buy beer... of course I always sipped some from the growler on
the way home. Back then beer was real... no one under sixty years old
has ever tasted real beer... was about then brewerys began using metal
production equipment and artificial ingredients too, plus it's all
pastereurized(cooked).