Tool Talk

Farm and Implement Wrenches and Tools => Farm Implement Wrenches and Tools => Topic started by: Northwoods on December 23, 2017, 10:08:07 PM

Title: Fencing tool
Post by: Northwoods on December 23, 2017, 10:08:07 PM

Ran across this by accident.  But, lordie, would you use this to repair fence?  Not me.

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-atomic-glaskin-mfg-co-cast-532969478

https://www.google.com/search?q=glaskin+mfg+co&sa=X&biw=1441&bih=660&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=UY21FvUCxYfVHM%253A%252CWgpLT0fnbV86_M%252C_&usg=__34gyMTsxeRVmNf5RfvtNBfUNp8g%3D&ved=0ahUKEwiEi5G34aHYAhUl04MKHZiCCv0Q9QEIPTAG#imgrc=UY21FvUCxYfVHM:

Title: Re: Fencing tool
Post by: Papaw on December 24, 2017, 08:28:33 AM

Ranch hands would carry that on the saddle horn for quick repairs. Many were made by local blacksmiths.

Title: Re: Fencing tool
Post by: Lewill2 on December 24, 2017, 09:01:00 AM

There are a few different versions of that one and there are a lot of reproductions of that style out there. I have one in my collection.

Title: Re: Fencing tool
Post by: Yadda on December 25, 2017, 02:39:43 PM

Better than no hammer at all.

Title: Re: Fencing tool
Post by: Plyerman on January 03, 2018, 05:30:16 PM

I've got one, but I don't understand it. Sure it would be easy to carry on a saddle horn, but being so "short", and with no handle, it couldn't be used to strike a very strong blow. I don't think I could pound a decent size nail in with it, for instance.

Title: Re: Fencing tool
Post by: rustyfordgarage on January 03, 2018, 10:40:49 PM

I have a hard enough time driving staples with the pliers type fence tools , although I have several and use them for lots of different jobs. If I KNOW I'm fixing fence I have an estwing framing hammer handy.

Title: Re: Fencing tool
Post by: turnnut on January 04, 2018, 10:50:04 AM

 one thing that we have to remember when we look at a vintage tool, is they used what was available. they learned the
 best possible way to get the job done.

  they did not have computers and fancy machines to push out a new product every month.

  they were the pioneers of tool manufacture's.

Title: Re: Fencing tool
Post by: Plyerman on January 04, 2018, 01:10:41 PM

Well now, this is interesting. I've just spent the last hour scrounging the web for information about the Atomic Wire Fence Stretcher. Turns out it was patented in 1949 by a fellow named John Birch Glaskin of Colorado Springs, Co.

Title: Re: Fencing tool
Post by: Plyerman on January 04, 2018, 01:15:06 PM

The Atomic is remarkably similar to a much older tool, patented by James Halstead Birch of Plattsburgh, Missouri on Oct 2, 1888 and sold by the Birch Mfg. Co. of Granite City, Illinois.

Below is a photo I found on he web of a Birch tool (left) alongside an Atomic tool (right)

Title: Re: Fencing tool
Post by: Plyerman on January 04, 2018, 01:21:44 PM

So is it a coincidence that both inventors have the same surname, for their patents 61 years apart?

I also found it interesting that the "saddle horn" carry method, which seems to be widely assumed today, is not mentioned as a feature in either of the patent texts. Instead, the hole in the center is intended to slip over a pole, which gives the user more force when hammering, and more leverage when stretching wire:
 

Title: Re: Fencing tool
Post by: lptools on January 04, 2018, 03:43:45 PM

Hello, Bob. Great research, thanks for sharing. Regards, Lou