"My mother-in-law has had this thing for years and no one in the family can figure out what it is. Looks like it was mounted on the wall or something at one point. Any ideas?"
A: "It’s an old Parker’s Foundation Fastener. Beekeepers get the bees started by putting starter wax into the frames so they have something to work with, and the bees draw it out into honeycomb. This starter wax is called the foundation, and that tool is for spreading it."