Wooden Rope Bed Wrench

This is a wrench that was used to tighten up the rope lacing that supported the mattress (usually grass or straw). You actually needed two used together to tighten up the lacing.
The rope (usually made right on the farm) was crisscrossed around the pins in the frame of the bed. To make the rope tight enough to prevent the bed from sagging, you would use this large close pin type of wrench to twist the rope tight after each successive pin thus tightening the rope until it "twang" like a banjo string. the second wrench was used to tighten the rope to take out any slack that formed after the first wrench twisted it tight.
I made some rope out of hemp and put it in the trundle bed that our grandchildren used when they stayed over night. The rope was strung so tight that you could bounce a Quarter on the bed. The children always looked forward to sleeping on this early rope bed.