Featured Antique Valve Key?

This key has a finial that unscrews - revealing a long sharply pointed tool. How was it used and am I right in identifying it as a valve key?

Thanks, in advance, for your help.

 

Would likely open a water valve.

 

the awl is interesting.....maybe to chip away at ice on an outdoor valve...

 

Looks a lot like a scriber, but I've never seen one on a valve key...there's a common carpenter square that has a similar scriber:

 

Those types of scribes were used a lot by machinists and metal workers for scratching lines into metal. Could be a T-handle wrench for a welding torch. It would be helpful to get the measurements of the piece, and the square opening.

 

A welding torch had never crossed my mind. Overall length is 3.25 inches. The socket size is 3/8 of an inch.

 

"revealing a long sharply pointed tool"
so then i guess that Awl......not so much an awl....if it's so damn small...

Yes...give us the measurements 1st.......the photo makes the key look 9 inches long !!!

grrrrrr...

 

If my prior post wasn't clear, the overall length of the KEY is 3.25 inches and what you're describing as an awl is only 1-5/8 inches long. The opening at the end would fit over a shaft that's just 3/8 of an inch. I was hoping that somebody on this board would immediately recognize the key's purpose - but since that isn't the case so far. Is it possible that the barrel of the key served as a reservoir and the tip of the pointy tool was used to apply oil to a moving part? Alternatively, how about for cleaning an orifice that, when clogged, would obstruct the flow of natural gas or some other fuel?

 

Similarities

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Trumbull-H...-Pentagon-Nut-w-Ice-Pick-Handle-/292783323358

 

I cannot speak for the sharp pointy thing you have lying next to the main item in question, but it sure looks like a plain old antique bed wrench, to me..........

 

Thank you Spring !

 

I'm getting a real education here. Have never heard of bed wrench previously - but out here in California, my house which was built in 1910 is considered very old and the same applies to technologies such as this.

 

Too flimsy for an ice pick. That is a scriber if I've ever seen one. Maybe you could scratch stuff on a pipe after turning the valve, I guess, as Sabre suggested.

 

Flimsy.....??
whatever it is...or used for.....both pieces look solid and well crafted....

maybe ....you mean.... tiny...or slender...?

 

All is relative. Too slender for an ice pick, but sturdy for a scriber. Too small for an awl. This is exactly the kind of well-made scriber one finds screwed into a carpenter's combination square.

 

hey, I said awl...when I thought it was 4 inches long.....not 1 1/2....

 

Awl is relative.

 

ha ha ha !!!!!