Charles Day, author, writes me about the stick given me from my uncle's crashed glider. The arrow points to one end, the leather case of the load adjuster mounted on he stick, is behind the red knob.The problem with comparing your stick to the museum gliders is that they all have been rebuilt and none are original wood parts.
Your stick is from a Pratt Read glider. Some of their wood components were made by Steinway. In any case, I theorize that the finish of your stick potentially was done (and maybe not standard to all production of P-R or Steinway) only on P-R gliders. That is, Ford, WACO or NW and others did not necessarily finish the stick that well.
Because the stick was bolted to a special bracket welded to the steel tubing of the nose and was loose on the other end, I still believe the function of the stick was a guide for fitting up the wood nose assembly to the steel. Being P-R made piano keys and piano hammers and the linkages to the keys, they had some men who were real craftsmen with wood, as did Steinway.
Henry Z. Steinway was an Associate member of the WWII Glider Pilot Association. He passed away in September 2008. His widow said he always enjoyed getting the newsletter telling the stories about the gliders. I am not sure what his position was, what with the Steinway brothers, uncles, etc.
Charles Day and I would appreciate learning more details of that particular piece of wood and why my uncle's glider had a unusually shaped and finished stick.
