22 Comments

  1. If the cushiony stuff in the middle is made from canvas and gypsum and the orange stuff is mold, it might be a valve for an old air pump, like used in a smithy.

  2. Looks like a polishing stone. The sides are where it is clamped in place by a machine. Rust is on it because it is water cooled during the process.

    1. Bobbie is correct, it is a buffing/polishing wheel. In this case, it’s used to polish parts and clean off any rough spots. This particular polishing wheel happens to be made out of whale leather, and is still in use in the Walther plant in Ulm.

      1. Whale? The firm of Greene, Tweed & Co. out of North Wales, PA was a distributor (up through the early 1950’s at least) of buffing wheels made out of WALRUS hide. A peculiarity of genetics and diet causes the walrus to include tiny osseous particles throughout its skin — like Nature’s Own Craytex. Does the sample feel like it has tiny chunks of grit in it? However: One Never Knows®.

  3. The pizzas the team members are forced to eat in the cafeteria, god bless their souls.

  4. A buffing wheel made of whale leather, used for polishing gun parts…

    It’s like a million hippie voices just cried out in terror, and then were silenced.

  5. We do a lot of custom buffing, sanding, and polishing with robots. You cannot buy that particular item in the US, but I am told they use the whale leather, not just because of it’s better porosity for holding buffing compounds, but because it comes in a cylinder which can be stretched around the buffing wheel without having a seam which would either come apart or result in a “Thump” in the process once every 360 degrees of rotation. The leather in question coming from the whale’s pecker. This information is strictly anecdotal, having come to me from one of my European manufacturers of buffing equipment, I have not verified this with my own eyes.

    Ostensibly, then, each time Bond holds that PPK up to his face he’s rubbing up against a whale pecker by proxy.

  6. If you’ve ever been in an old factory where the machinery is/was powered by overhead jackshafts, the flat belts driving the lathes, planers, triphammers, looms, sewing machines, etc. were/are made of, get this, Walrus Leather. It takes three or four normal human lifetimes to show any wear and even when oiled regularly with neatsfoot oil, does not stretch or slip. No other product even comes close.

  7. OG, knowing how homophobic some past Bonds have been (Roger Moore, I’m looking at you in particular), that makes me cackle like Nancy Pelosi burning Tea Partiers at the stake. . .

  8. Gerry: I still have my round knife and lacing rawhide from lacing leather thresher belts. You had to skive a length of taper ten times the thickness of the leather, and then you could glue, and lace. Gramps had a lineshaft shop, and near every pulley was a stick with a nail to shift gears. memmmreeez!

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