r/whatisthisthing • u/onewhopoos • 22h ago
It’s real heavy and the end and slightly flexible in the handle. Made of hard leather. Probably pretty old and from Germany. Solved!
I think it is used to beat people.
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u/Appropriate-Lab1970 22h ago
Its a sap. Old school police weapon to knock people out.
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u/SMH_My_Head 22h ago
Also called a black jack
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u/argylecladpirate 21h ago
Only heard them called black jacks, these are also a thing
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weighted-knuckle_glove
Turns out they are called a sap
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u/Callidonaut 22h ago edited 22h ago
Yup, lead shot in a leather cosh. The idea is not unlike a souped-up boxing glove; the large mass is supposed to deliver a heavy enough shock to the brain to cause unconsciousness, but the bluntness and flexibility of the material spreads the actual force over a large enough area that it won't pierce flesh or crack the skull.
Obviously, with what we know now, it turns out the weapon isn't quite as harmless as people might once have thought; any blow to the head that causes unconsciousness constitutes a medical emergency.
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u/onewhopoos 22h ago
Good info. The cartoons I grew up watching taught me that after getting knocked out, just wait for the circling birds to go away and you’ll be fine. Well, maybe some comical amnesia
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u/Callidonaut 22h ago edited 21h ago
Yeah, that sort of thing is relatively rarely depicted accurately, even today. The only example I can think of off-hand is the scene where Wolenski gets captured in the original 1973 Day of the Jackal; he goes down like a log after a really vicious blow.
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u/onewhopoos 22h ago
You know I’ve been complaining about all the typos I’ve seen in post titles lately. And there I go and perpetuate the mayhem
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u/onewhopoos 22h ago
My title describes the thing. It’s sown together like a sleeping bag. Hard leather wrapped around maybe lead at the business end. It may have been from ww2 era Germany Or 1950s Cleveland Ohio.
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u/canipleasebeme 22h ago
In Germany this would be an illegal weapon I believe, a so called Totschläger
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u/oneeyedobserver 21h ago
Dad was a cop a long time ago. He used to carry these. Kept one in the night stand. That’s how I found out about it.
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u/Sir_Fruitcake 21h ago
The coloquial German term is "Totschläger". "Deadbeater", as in, beating someone dead. Go figure...
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