Mystery surrounds aristocrat's vampire hunting kit sold at auction

[Still Waters]

A different sort of hammer has fallen on a century-old vampire fighting kit, complete with holy water bottle and wooden stake, after it was auctioned.

The bizarre box of paranormal paraphernalia, including candlesticks, crucifixes and pistols, was once owned by British peer Lord Hailey.

It sold for £13,000 at a Derbyshire auction - five times its guide price.

It is unclear how seriously Lord Hailey took the threat of vampires, or if the kit was ever used.

Continued:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-61998607

[Buzz_Light_Year]

Spray the stake with Luminol and see if any trace blood shows up.

[Myles]

It'd be a nice conversation piece to have but it doesn't change the fact that vampires are not real.

[NCC1701]

There is probably an app for that now.

[Hyperionxvii]

"A wooden box containing everything a person would need to combat vampires has sold for over $15,000 - which was five times its initial guide price"

And I thought I got ripped off on those Sea Monkeys when I was 8. I guess it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

I'm struggling to fathom what this "mystery" is that supposedly surrounds the kit. 

Many of the items in the box, and in any of these kits (there are many out there) are generally based on ideas straight out of fictional stories. 

Actual vampire lore differs from the work of Stoker, etc. 

[Nnicolette]

I feel bad for whoever got accused of being a vampire...

[Tatetopa]

On 7/1/2022 at 7:21 PM, Hyperionxvii said:

"A wooden box containing everything a person would need to combat vampires has sold for over $15,000 - which was five times its initial guide price"

And I thought I got ripped off on those Sea Monkeys when I was 8. I guess it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. 

Brilliant.  I'm done making planters, benches, and Adirondack chairs in my woodshop. to sell for a few hundred bucks.  Now all I need is an Internet site to sell my Apocalypse Ready Vampire Hunting Kit for the low low price of $3,999.  Maybe I could also offer a line of hand turned zombie destroying baseball bats. 

[Hyperionxvii]

7 hours ago, Tatetopa said:

Brilliant.  I'm done making planters, benches, and Adirondack chairs in my woodshop. to sell for a few hundred bucks.  Now all I need is an Internet site to sell my Apocalypse Ready Vampire Hunting Kit for the low low price of $3,999.  Maybe I could also offer a line of hand turned zombie destroying baseball bats. 

People will literally buy anything. And sometimes the crazier it is, the more thy will pay for it.

Edited July 4, 2022 by Hyperionxvii

[Piney]

On 7/3/2022 at 1:10 PM, Tatetopa said:

Brilliant.  I'm done making planters, benches, and Adirondack chairs in my woodshop. to sell for a few hundred bucks.  Now all I need is an Internet site to sell my Apocalypse Ready Vampire Hunting Kit for the low low price of $3,999.  Maybe I could also offer a line of hand turned zombie destroying baseball bats. 

The misses has quite a few vintage gear driven Homelites that we don't use. Maybe a partnership is in order. 

[Tatetopa]

1 hour ago, Piney said:

The misses has quite a few vintage gear driven Homelites that we don't use. Maybe a partnership is in order. 

I have not seen one of those in a lot of years.   All we need to do is convince Boston Dynamics to fit a couple of those on a Big Dog and we would have a Zombie fighting heroic robot, last bulwark fending off an alien invasion, or a serial killer evil robot.  Movie possibilities are endless. 

Or more of a practical use, a robot for rough out carving.

 

[Tatetopa]

1 hour ago, Piney said:

The misses has quite a few vintage gear driven Homelites that we don't use. Maybe a partnership is in order. 

My brother in law has been a chain saw carver for 30 or so years.  Now his best friend has bought a huge Chinese CNC router that can rough out a 6' bear or other stature that he can spend a couple of hours furring up and burning some details into and then put a price tag on it.  

Yeah, some sadness to it.  We have our memories, skills, and experiences, the things that shaped our lives.   You can tell you kids or grandkids  about making a usable tool out of an old truck axle in a forge,  and they wonder why you bothered or suggest that a CNC lathe could have done it better.  My kid can now program that CNC lathe.  In 50 years will his grandchildren wonder why he didn't just tell an AI lathe what he wanted and to figure it out by itself?

 

[Piney]

1 hour ago, Tatetopa said:

My brother in law has been a chain saw carver for 30 or so years.  Now his best friend has bought a huge Chinese CNC router that can rough out a 6' bear or other stature that he can spend a couple of hours furring up and burning some details into and then put a price tag on it.  

Yeah, some sadness to it.  We have our memories, skills, and experiences, the things that shaped our lives.   You can tell you kids or grandkids  about making a usable tool out of an old truck axle in a forge,  and they wonder why you bothered or suggest that a CNC lathe could have done it better.  My kid can now program that CNC lathe.  In 50 years will his grandchildren wonder why he didn't just tell an AI lathe what he wanted and to figure it out by itself?

 

Home Depot was selling fake chainsaw carved bears made out of polyvinyl. 

Back to the subject of vampire hunting. My uncle had a Homelite 66 with a bow bar which was borrowed by a friend who tried to cut a overhead branch with. The saw fell backward and lopped his arm off at the shoulder. But it'd make a good beheading saw.

[Tatetopa]

12 hours ago, Piney said:

Home Depot was selling fake chainsaw carved bears made out of polyvinyl. 

Back to the subject of vampire hunting. My uncle had a Homelite 66 with a bow bar which was borrowed by a friend who tried to cut a overhead branch with. The saw fell backward and lopped his arm off at the shoulder. But it'd make a good beheading saw.

I suspect it would. Never used one.  All I know about bow bars is that people have told me they are good for brush and small trees but tend to kick back.   I don't think they are in real common use out here.  Do they use them in the south or on the East Coast?

[Piney]

46 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

I suspect it would. Never used one.  All I know about bow bars is that people have told me they are good for brush and small trees but tend to kick back.   I don't think they are in real common use out here.  Do they use them in the south or on the East Coast?

They did in both. But only as cut off and firewood saws. They can only cut straight down. That's why they have the dirt foot.

I have a couple of Homelite XL powerheads. The Ash Williams Evil Dead saw. The world's first zombie killer model. One has a melted piston so I want to gut it, make a dummy plastic bar and the wrist cuff so it fits over my hand.