LAST week’s Craven curiosity had most people stumped, with only one of my advertising colleagues, Louise, having a stab at it, with the imaginative suggestion it was some sort of archaic foot measurer to gauge shoe sizes.

It was in fact a soap slicer, used long before just about every household had a washing machine.

Anne Read, Honorary Curator of the Museum of North Craven Life at The Folly, Settle, tells us: “In the days before washing machines and soap-flakes, the family’s weekly wash was boiled up in the copper or set pot housed in the scullery or washhouse.

“The metal pot was filled with bucketfuls of cold water from the pump and a fire lighted underneath early on a Monday morning - the traditional washday.

“When the water was really hot, some of it would be ladled out into wooden tubs and allowed to cool a little for soaking or washing coloured items. Sunlight soap was bought in large blocks and sliced into thin slivers with the soap slicer so that it would easily dissolve in the hot water rather than sticking together in lumps. Soda was also added in hard water areas. The ‘whites’ were generally washed first in the set pot in the hottest water, followed by the rest of the load as the water cooled down. Thorough rinsing must have been all-important by the end of the morning’s wash.”

This soap slicer has been part of the museum’s collection for almost 40 years and has obviously been well-used, says Anne, although it is still very sharp.

Perhaps this week’s curiosity will be more familiar with people - and a little clue, it was ‘fiendishly’ difficult to master. Suggestions by 8am on Monday to news@cravenherald.co.uk