What is this ?

[tamborine]

Its silver colored metal & 3 part folds into tube, as photo. What is it & whats it for ?

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=eb3a8p&s=6

[Mamyalynne]

Looks like a tool for cleaning out tobacco pipes.

[FredPuli43]

Looks like a pipe smoker's tool (steady you lot, I don't mean that!) for tamping down tobacco and so forth.

[Mamyalynne]

http://cdn100.iofferp.../494/353/196/vYKG.jpg

[HowardKennitby]

I go with the consensus. Pipe smoker's paraphernalia.

[HowardKennitby]

If not that it looks like something for taking the wax out of one's ears.

[tamborine]

Thanx Mamya & Fred, that must be it. That'll teach me to poke around my late OHs chattels; he never smoked a pipe around me.

[tamborine]

errr yuk, Howard :(

[HowardKennitby]

If it is silver it may be worth a few bob.

[tamborine]

It feels like tin & not pliable. One of the prongs is a knife. The case has a slit on the top. I cant see any silver markings but its made in England.

[heathfield]

The knife is for cutting up 'plug' tobacco, which comes in pressed rectangular blocks, or is rolled tightly into a rope-like form. Thin slices from the plug are then rubbed in the hands to break up the tobacco further before filling the pipe.

[MichaelZZ]

Most definitely a pipe smoker's tool. The blunt end is for pressing down the baccy in the pipe, the knife is either for cutting up "thick twist" (evil smelling stuff and harsh on the throat) - as already mentioned - and also for scraping carbon deposits from the inside of the bowl. The spike thing is used to clear out any gunge from the stem of the pipe and, unlike the familiar wire and cotton pipe cleaner, can be use time and time again.
As a former pipe smoker I can categorically state that it's impossible to beat a good shag.
(As a "by the way", my grandfather was a serious pipe smoker and lived to be 94. When he was 91 he went to his GP with a bit of a cough(!). The doc said, "You smoke a pipe don't you?" Grandad agreed that he did. "Have you always smoked a pipe?" the doc said.
"No! No! Only for the last 78 years!" (A bottle of Benylin saw him right after a few days!)

[tamborine]

MichaelZZ, I've marked yours as best answer in honour of your 94y grandad. I hope his pipe smoking didn't affect your health.

Am searching for Popeye to give the tool a good home :)

[douglas9401]

Not sure but it crashed the Adobe Flash plugin. :(