Chloe's hoofpick

Although she held a master's degree in social work, my mother-in-law, Chloe's primary occupation was that of homemaker.

There were, of course, a few side gigs along the way, most notably, refinishing antique chairs and replacing cane seats.

Here she is peddling her wares at the Mission Festival in 1980.

In the last few days, some of her caning instructions...

and tools have found their way to my house.

A couple nights ago, Seth was in the other room, sorting through the tool box. It was mostly filled with awls, pliers, hemostats and screwdrivers, but he found one tool he couldn't identify.

He brought it to me and said, "Look at this weird thing. I don't know what it is."

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "That's a folding hoofpick."

I unfolded the hoofpick and pantomimed cleaning a hoof with it.

A quick google search found a number of similar old school muti-tools, although most had at least one or two other pieces.

One mystery solved, but others remain: How did Chloe acquire a hoofpick? Did she know what it was, or was it just a useful oddity? And what was its purpose? There wasn't a lot of extra in the tool box so I'm assuming it served some function, but what? 

We'll probably never know the answers, but this much is clear: Chloe's hoofpick is now my hoofpick. It's hanging on the wall in my studio, a reminder of my mother-in-law, a housewife and artisan.