Long time ago i bought this thing without knowing what it was ... you know, the collecting trend fever
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Later i learnt it is a fleam, a device to bleed animals, a habit started ages ago with humans ... so often the way to hasten their death
.
This example appears to be a pattern used over time; probably dating from the 19th century, has the same design as those figuring in Nuemann's "American Revolution" work.
Certainly of French origin, marked POLYCARPE, has been subject to alterations in two of the blades that have always intrigued me. They were drasticaly transformed from their puncture like shape into what we may call utilitary knife blades. Whereas its owner found his own way to bleed whatever kind of animal or simply found for this fleam a different use, i may never know.
The classic way of bleeding is done by means of a little wood hammer that knoks the lancet punctures into the veins. The way the modified blades are now does not match with such procedure. But on the other hand i find it rather imbecile to use a fleam resource to manage a pocket knife instead of simply buy one.
Go figure
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