Featured Any Idea What This is?

Asking for a friend, and this is all the info he gave me, sorry. ..."This photo was sent to me, and I'm stumped. The nails seem awfully substantial for a paling..it strikes me as the tip of a tool or weapon, but what do I know? The follow from the member: "My hometown historical society, in Little Falls, NJ, posted this. My friend volunteers there and is an architect. We can't figure out what it is. He thinks it's a very old paling, as in pre-Revolutionary. it's from the site of iron foundry along Passaic Rvr - operated by Capt James Gray - a TORY loyalist."
Thanks!

 

that thing gives me the Creeps !!!!

 

is it 6 inches tall......or 16.....

 

Trying to get more info...Google image search says it's a Windsor chair.

 

Looks like a good place to hang some suet for birds, but other than that, looks kind of 'tortuous' and evil!!!!

 

Google is an

 

GOOD OLE GOOGLE!!!!!

 

I was going to say iron fence post topper. Didn't know what a "paling" was, see that is the term for a fence post top.

So a paling gets my vote.

 

I really don't know what it is but I thought "what the heck are all the nails for?" If it nails to something I would think it would be wood. It is interesting though. I hope someone figures it out.

 

OK, some more info...

 

Also requested some context info....stay tuned. In the meantime I found something remotely similar, a fort gate support at Fort Frederick,Maryland .... possibly? .

 

Technically a paling is a flat board with a decorative or squared tip nailed to horizontal supports..what most people call a picket fence. Originally a picket was described as a squared stick, usually 1.5", with a pointed or round tip. Not to nitpicket, but the metal cone would be neither, I would call it a cap or finial for a palisade or gate pole... if that is indeed what it was used for. We may never know. There is no context info available, unfortunately.

 

Looks like a post cap for a wooden post to me. I wish there was a photo shot from the top to see if it's round or squared.

 

It's just bigger, not a different angle...........

 

The general consensus at Hunter Research is that it's probably a spike from the end of a cheval-de-frise. It could very well date from the American Revolution, although it's also possible that it could be as late as the Civil War. I guess the historical society doesn't have much data on why they have it or where it came from or they wouldn't be asking ... but it is from that part of northern New Jersey where there were many iron works. So it may have been made nearby but never deployed (just a hunch).

Here's an example of one pulled out of the Delaware:

http://twipa.blogspot.com/2013/06/preservation-of-cheval-de-frise-from.html

 

Not a user-friendly gate....

 

DW, the one you posted looks pretty similar to the one from the Delaware Dig, albeit yours is a bit shorter!!! That's VERY COOL!!!!!

 

This makes perfect sense. When I was doing searching I used long wooden post (because of the nails) with cast iron spearhead. Crazy but I got nothing that looked anything like it. I actually thought it might have something to do with fishing. Good find!

 

Thank you all for your efforts! What an astounding think-tank resource we have here!