What is it?

[Digger_O'Dell]

Hi all,

They started the tearout around the brewery this week and so far they only took out the concrete curbs on one side of the street leaving about a 24" wide trench. I tried detecting it last night after work since I saw some 100 year old bricks laying around the bottom. But I was only able to detect about 2/3 of it since one end has horrid EMI from the underground power lines and power control room adjacent to the trench.
Despite this I found a lot of trash including some old building spikes and electrical switch parts, and of course the pepsi cans the builders buried when putting in the old curbs. But I did find one relic I'm never seen before and I hope someone can help identify it. It looks like a drawer pull made of copper/red brass, and has a fancy design on the knob which is nearly half dollar size in diameter. But the shaft is not that of a drawer pull. It's longer than any pull would have, stepped, and has a square shape at the end sort of like a valve wheel.
The design seems very unusual. The center has a 6 point star with diamonds at the points, and between each point is a Fleur De Lis
Thanks!

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[fyrffytr1]

Please post a side view of the stud.

[Digger_O'Dell]

Please post a side view of the stud.

Here's the photo as requested, along with a penny for size reference. Hope this helps!

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[badgers325]

Not sure Chris, but I am thinking it is a knob off something vs. a drawer pull due to the squareness on the backside of stub.

[fyrffytr1]

I was thinking the same thing but I wonder if it was used more like a key instead of being permanently mounted. Are there any holes in the square end?

[Digger_O'Dell]

I was thinking the same thing but I wonder if it was used more like a key instead of being permanently mounted. Are there any holes in the square end?

No holes, dimples, etc. Just a short square end.

[Menzl]

Interesting find. Could it perhaps be a component of a kerosene lamp? The wheel that controls the wick (hopefully the right word?) in the lamp.

[Digger_O'Dell]

Interesting find. Could it perhaps be a component of a kerosene lamp? The wheel that controls the wick (hopefully the right word?) in the lamp.

Unfortunately no, those just have a relatively thin rod with a thin knob on the one end and a serrated wheel on the other to engage the wick.