This rack needs its own thread

I posted in the what is it thread about a rack I bought, wondering what it was originally made for. The original post is here : https://permies.com/t/1480/90251/game-Post-unknown-objects-ID#2844152  and the discussion is derailing the what is it thread, so I started this one to talk about it's possible uses, since it seems to be fascinating more people than just me (that's why I bought it, it's cool!)

Shortened version of the discussion (read the link above if you want all of the details)

Pearl Sutton wrote:It's really a heavy rack, looks really specific what is was made for, no clue what that would be.  About 12 x 10 inches, has feet on the bottom, so it's meant to stand flat. The spaces wont hold things like silverware in place, wrong direction of bars for things like business cards...  
What was it made for?
I think it's neat and I have my own agendas for it, but it is puzzling me.

Carla Burke wrote: Looks like a store/ coffee house/ tea shop display rack for long, thin flimsy boxes of individually wrapped fancy teabags. Think 'Stash' brand.

craig howard wrote:Doesn't look like it is meant to set anything on it.
Because most things would fall through.  

Pearl Sutton wrote:It's a VERY well made item. HEAVY compared to most racks that size, the little feet, it's really not a cheap beastie. May have been inexpensive when it was made, but compared to what is being sold now, it's a tank. That 12 by 10 inch rack probably weighs about the same as an 24 x 24 chunk of my oven rack would weigh. Some of it would be the curly stuff, but it's simply a sturdy well made item.  

(More on the weight ahead in this thread)

Tereza Okava wrote:I have just done some computer updates and used the new shiny tools to do an image search and lo and behold found the exact same thing, for a use I would consider absolutely impractical....  

Tereza Okava wrote:  I would totally not be surprised to learn they came with twee little baskets in there to hold the flatware.

Pearl Sutton wrote:Tereza also tossed me privately a link to one of the sites she found.
https://classifieds.castanet.net/details/metal_display_pieces/4813574/
It contains this image (amongst others) and this text:

Decorative Metal Display Pieces

$10. for all 4 or $2.50 ea.
Napkin Holder - 8 1/2" L X 3 1/2" W X 6 1/4

Rectangular Piece 12 1/2" X 10 1/2X 3 1/2"

Large Circular 12" Diameter
Small Circular 9" Diameter

12 inch round is dinner plates. 9 inch round is smaller plates often called lunch plates. The napkin holder I agree with. If all the rest of them are serving ware, the idea it's for silverware might be right. I'd agree that something like baskets were probably involved.
And I agree with Carla's idea being more rational.

Apple to Tereza Okava, and I declare this one solved.  :D

Then speculation as to it's possible USES started...

So.
I still think it's way over engineered for silverware, AND designed WRONG for silverware.
I got out a digital scale, a ruler, and took notes.

The curly rack in question is 12 x 10 inches and weighs 2 lb 5.5 oz
The rack out of my oven is 18 x 24 inches and weighs 4 lb 2.5 oz
This 3 shelf wire rack's size is16 x 13 x12 inches and weighs 4 lb 6.5 oz




So really roughly, this rack is as heavy as a 1.5 section of the 3 shelf rack, and about the same weight per size as the oven rack. It's a heavy critter! The bars are close to the same diameter as the oven rack's.


All the welds are very solid, the work is lovely. It may have been inexpensive when bought, but it's not a cheap piece of metal.

But then I get to "Is it a silverware rack?" It seems to me that if I was putting this much work into making it sturdy, AND designing this to be a silverware rack, I'd have made it HOLD silverware!
Look at this picture again....

The spaces in the triangles of the back to front loops are so big, silverware will slide sideways if it is carried or bumped.
And yup, putting random silverware in it, even straightening it up as I put it in, bumping it does this:



It has vertical bars on the back side. Putting two bars in each of those triangles would have fixed this problem, and looked consistent with the rest of it.

I repeat: if I was putting this much work into making it sturdy, AND designing this to be a silverware rack, I'd have made it HOLD silverware! It's too well designed to do it's job badly. This is why this puzzles me.

So what did I buy it for? I need to go back to selling my craft work one of these days, and it looks similar to other racks and such that I have for that purpose, and will match nicely and make a classy display.

Ok. Opening it up for discussion of the question: What else could it be used for?

From the what is it thread:

Carla Burke wrote: I'm also remembering seeing something like that used for displaying wallets, change purses, and that sort of thing, at boutique shops.  

Nancy Reading wrote: Other things that occur to me: If it is for buffet display as seems likely, then other things could be displayed on it like glasses, bottles or mugs, foodstuff too: line with a napkin and use for rolls or croissants, possibly fruit like apples or oranges. It could be useful if you wanted something to cool and air (not sure what you'd cook and eat cold though?); it is small enough that you could put a few on a tray for carrying perhaps. Rolled up cloth napkins or large facecloths.....now I'm running out of ideas.

If it were stainless (not sure - probably chromed steel) I could use it as a shelf upside down in my future forge to sit a crucible on. It's about the only metal that has a high enough melting temperature that it might survive.

Tereza Okava wrote:If it were me I'd gift it to my sister, who has a parakeet that needs more fun in its life, and I'd suggest she put a bath station in one "aisle" and some snacks in another, maybe rig up some dried grasses in there.  

Ned Harr wrote: Is it possible that the other items are indeed for plates and things, while that one item is for holding a hard-bound cookbook? It would hold it tilted at a slight angle for reading while one cooks.

What do YOU think?

1. Seriously over-engineered for it, but holding mail? Different slots for bills. If you have a stack, maybe, but only 1 envelope it wouldn't stay vertical.

2. Hang it on a wall with the curls at the bottom and hang coats or dishtowels on it. Over-engineered for towels and too narrow for coats.

Personally, the gaps are too wide for most small things, and too small for most large things that I'd want to use it for!

I randomly had two boxes sitting in the room where the racks are that had things shipped. They fit in two of the spaces PERFECTLY. I'll cut them lengthwise and have linings for each space.

But why make the spacers pretty curls if you have to use a basket, cloth or other liner that obscures them to make it function? Or the back for that matter?

Still reminds me of a wine rack:



Source

Or something like this with a combination of the wine bottles added to the top:



Source

Anne: Hm. I have some of the wine glass racks. I don't drink wine though, and if I do, it's cheap stuff that doesn't need to be treated nicely :D Think the 5.00 bottles of artificially peach flavored stuff :D


I took a pic of one of the boxes that fit perfectly.



Edit: And the wine glass racks ran through the What is it thread many years ago!  
https://permies.com/t/440/90251/game-Post-unknown-objects-ID#965871

You could mount it on the wall, use the swirly-qs as hooks to hang stuff & the back as a shelf - even if it meant putting a piece of glass or something on the back, to make for a flat/ level shelf.

To me, especially with its little feet to raise it off the counter, it looks obviously like a bread cooling rack for someone who habitually baked four loaves at a time in smallish equal-sized molds. What are the dimensions of one "slot"? Does that make any sense? That's what I thought of instantly.

Hm. One slot is 3 inches wide by 10 inches long. Mini loaf pans, which is what I'd guess would fit, are  5¾" x 3¼" so, nope.
Interesting idea though.
I could serve breadsticks in it

Hmmm... 3 inches... I keep thinking what with being raised it must be a cooling rack for something baked, I just can't think of anything so long and skinny... Maybe mini baguettes? Ha, ha, this looks like it's from an era when French bread was not a thing.

How about crackers, baked in sheets and stacked vertically to cool?

Ooh, and off on another tangent, just thinking of stacking vertically, how about a dish drying rack? Or maybe not even drying, maybe a vertical plate organizer or display gizmo?

Edit: should have looked at the picture again before I said this, bars are running in the wrong direction... so I'm back to cooling crackers!

I might as well re-post here my suggestion that perhaps it's for holding a hard-bound cookbook open while you cook.

Pearl Sutton wrote:Tereza also tossed me privately a link to one of the sites she found.
https://classifieds.castanet.net/details/metal_display_pieces/4813574/
It contains this image (amongst others) and this text:

Decorative Metal Display Pieces

$10. for all 4 or $2.50 ea.
Napkin Holder - 8 1/2" L X 3 1/2" W X 6 1/4

Rectangular Piece 12 1/2" X 10 1/2X 3 1/2"

Large Circular 12" Diameter
Small Circular 9" Diameter

12 inch round is dinner plates. 9 inch round is smaller plates often called lunch plates. The napkin holder I agree with. If all the rest of them are serving ware, the idea it's for silverware might be right. I'd agree that something like baskets were probably involved.
And I agree with Carla's idea being more rational.

Apple to Tereza Okava, and I declare this one solved.  :D

Then speculation as to it's possible USES started...

So.
I still think it's way over engineered for silverware, AND designed WRONG for silverware.
I got out a digital scale, a ruler, and took notes.

The curly rack in question is 12 x 10 inches and weighs 2 lb 5.5 oz
The rack out of my oven is 18 x 24 inches and weighs 4 lb 2.5 oz
This 3 shelf wire rack's size is16 x 13 x12 inches and weighs 4 lb 6.5 oz

What do YOU think?
Grandma had these! Square for cloth napkins (which only grownups used), rectangle for folded paper napkins, paper plates for the last two.

I was at a thrift store, picked up some metal cans with clear tops, and look! They fit nicely!!

Pearl Sutton wrote:I was at a thrift store, picked up some metal cans with clear tops, and look! They fit nicely!!

OooOooOooh.  I love it!

(Most of) my spices are in similar cans with magnetic backs, stuck to the side of my refrigerator.  (This iteration uses IKEA Grundig, which is expensive and I think discontinued, but I did a DIY version years ago with jewelers cases from… Lee Valley?). Highly recommend!

But this is a great variation on the theme!  Brava!

It seems like most of them for sale in eBay and Etsy claim they're flatware caddies. That seems like such a terrible idea, I wonder if there's a plastic four-compartment tray that's supposed to slide into those lanes that would actually hold flatware more appropriately.

This one sounds authoritative, but who knows?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126154547751 wrote:Please Note: this was a Tupperware award, but it was not manufactured by the Tupperware company and does not say "Tupperware" anywhere on the product

Buffet Service Flatware Caddy Award

   Nickel Finish
   Divided into 4 Compartments
   Approx. 12.5" Long x 10.75" Wide
   Made in 2002

Cookbook holder seems possible: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1771224499/countertop-cookbook-stand-in-gold-metal

Morfydd St. Clair wrote:
(Most of) my spices are in similar cans with magnetic backs, stuck to the side of my refrigerator.  (This iteration uses IKEA Grundig, which is expensive and I think discontinued, but I did a DIY version years ago with jewelers cases from… Lee Valley?). Highly recommend!

But this is a great variation on the theme!  Brava!

The metal containers do stick to magnets.
Not sure what's going in them, but it still all looks to me like a display rack, if I took a display to sell stuff. Which I have done before.
Not sure what I'll put in the cans. Got about 40 of them, new, clean.

:D

Pearl Sutton wrote:

Morfydd St. Clair wrote:
(Most of) my spices are in similar cans with magnetic backs, stuck to the side of my refrigerator.  (This iteration uses IKEA Grundig, which is expensive and I think discontinued, but I did a DIY version years ago with jewelers cases from… Lee Valley?). Highly recommend!

But this is a great variation on the theme!  Brava!

The metal containers do stick to magnets.
Not sure what's going in them, but it still all looks to me like a display rack, if I took a display to sell stuff. Which I have done before.
Not sure what I'll put in the cans. Got about 40 of them, new, clean.

:D

I am so jealous!  I really recommend them for spices - easy to see what you have, grab a stack for a recipe, etc.

On the side of the fridge that gets warm and more light, live: Table salt, sea salt, black pepper, white pepper, garlic powder, onion powder.  They get used quickly enough that heat and light aren't a problem.

The other side of the fridge has, uh, 36 spices listed alphabetically.  Facing it I attached a steel plate to the side of my Hoosier and it holds 16 spice mixes, also alphabetically.  (Easier for me, and also when I ask the bf for something.). There's much less light and heat and I just have to cook more to use it up quickly! :)

(And I still have a stash of obscure things that get used once in a while, and the asafoetida lives in the freezer securely wrapped.)

Morfydd St. Clair wrote: There's much less light and heat and I just have to cook more to use it up quickly! :)

Yes, light and heat are the enemy of spices. I have a bunch that I don't use regularly and I have a basket in my fridge that they all live in - cold and dark is  win!

Glad I'm not the only one who puts her spices in alphabetical order!