I think it might be a loopturner.

My grandmother used one of these to repair runs in nylon stockings during WWII. She was paid quite well as nylons were expensive. I remember watching my mother use it as well to do the same. We have sure gotten spoiled with pantyhose being so inexpensive to buy. Wish I had my mother's tool, just for memories.

I think a button up tool would not need a spring. The picture attached is what I found online...all similar with no spring. It might be rug hooking or a really fancy shoe button up. Even the fancy silver ones didn't have a spring - only a hook. Hmmm?

I doesn't look sturdy enough for a latch hook does it? I agree with the knitters here....cool to see it as an antique. Interesting.... :)
That's a button hook alright...I still use the one I have..as I have some buttons on a pair of boots ....

To pick up stitches that are dropped--my aunt had one--at least that is what she used it for....

looks like a loop turner i have about 3 of em

Since it is so short and so fine, I would guess it was used with a stocking knitting machine. They were very popular 100 years ago and worked like other knitting machines we see today but it worked in the round. I had two knitting machines over the years and one used a finer hook like this with fingering yarn.

This type of hook works well on fine yarn knitting when you lost a stitch and have inches to bring it back up.

The principle behind this is the same as the rug hooks made for using cut pieces of yarn to make a hooked rug.

Carol J.

It looks somewhat like plate hangars my mother had, for the back of a plate you want to hang. The spring extends to the size of the plate.

I have a hook like that but it has a wooden handle, It's called a latch hook. I used it to make this latch hook rug.

No it's not a knitting machine needle.

it looks like a machine knitting needle adapted by someone to perform some other stitchy task. It's definitely a needle from a flat bed knitting machine.

I have one that belonged to my Mom and is a newer model with a wooden handle. The end hook is the same as yours and I believe it is for hooking rugs.

Unless it is from an old old knitting machine , it is not from a knitting machine as I have two and they do not look like that.(they don't have that spring on them)

i don't think so. the ones that they sell for pulling sweater snags ARE just like that on the hinged end, but they don't have that springy thingy that looks like it would add tension. does that spring move at all? if it does, then the tool would damage a sweater. in any event, that spring is there for something.

EDIT TO CORRECT: sorry. i just realized that it's made for the hook to go THROUGH the handle. the spring would hold back the material, whatever that would be, either snag or rug.

I was thinking shoe buttoner, also.

my mother had one of these and she repaired runs in nylon hose, having six girls wearing them she was kept busy.

I have a gadget that has the same end hook but long skinny metal handle. It is used for turning the fabric right side out when making spegetti straps.

I agree. I think it is an early latch hook for rug hooking.

The picture of the shoe button hook is just like the one my Granny gave me.

I agree with you, Irishrose!

Nope...it's a torture devise!
Hang me....and let's find out what it really is, the suspense is getting to me! LOL

I have one it is for turning things like spaghetti straps for dresses, I've used it plenty. The hook grabs the fabric at the top ridgr and the hook stays up and you don't catch your hook and it pulls through smoothly.

Not a button hook, I have some of those and that is not what it looks like. Not a latch hook cause they don't have the extra spring thing on it. Not a knitting machine needle (I have one) because that wouldn't have a handle or that spring on it, and it would have to have a raised part to catch the carriage. I think it might have been used like a crochet hook, someone once gave me a device, more modern than that one looks that you could use like a crochet hook and it had a plastic part half way down that controlled how much yarn you would pull by controlling how far you were able to go into the stitch.

I think it could be a knitting machine hook, that would explain the spring on it.

This reply is terribly late, but I really got behind while I was ill this spring.

I, too, remember the days when we had our precious nylon stockings mended during WWII. (If you didn't mend the nylon, you soon were wearing rayon, and those were UGLY!!) We took them to JCPenney's where they had several girls doing the mending. They would stretch the run in the stocking over a small glass like a cream cheese glass, and were very fast at their work, moving the hook rapidly up and down to catch the stitches. Quite an art! And it really was appreciated during the war.