Somebody that knows boats might know what this is

greg setter

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The pictures here are something that came from my maternal grandfather, who died in 1962. I probably got this about 15 years later when my grandmother died. I would have been a teenager. I had always thought it was some type of casing from some type of artillery piece, even though the brass doesn't go very high. And never really thought of it after that other than it was kind of cool, and as you can see, I've found a way to use it. But earlier this year, something made me question that, I looked at it again, and realized that this was more than likely something off of one of his boats. He was from East Lansing MI and boated on Lake Michigan(I have pictures of all 4 of his boats, all from the 30's and 40's, and they are really cool). He docked them in Grand Haven. So if any of you real boat people out there think you know what this is, I would love to know.
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Nick Taxiarchis said:
Japanese artillery shell cut off to make a bowl or ashtray. Pretty cool.

It looks like Nick nailed it. Here is an identical one: https://stewartsmilitaryantiques.com/japanese-wwii-small-artillery-shell-ashtray.15582.archive.htm Very cool piece you have.
 
You guys are great, and thanks for chiming in. It looks like my teen-aged guess was right, and my adult overthinking as wrong. It would make sense that it was an ashtray. He would have been in his 40's during WWII, an would have had friends whose sons were in the war. J Overland, nice find on Stewarts, it's the same one for sure. And it makes a nice holder as I tie my flies. Now I need to get some polish and get it cleaned up. I think what threw me off was the letter F that is stamped in it, which must have come when it came to the states.
 
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