Tool Talk

Farm and Implement Wrenches and Tools => Farm Implement Wrenches and Tools => Topic started by: amertrac on May 01, 2012, 06:53:08 AM

Title: collecting farm tools
Post by: amertrac on May 01, 2012, 06:53:08 AM
does any one else collect farm tools? my living room walls and beams are full with hand thrashers,buck saws,scales,draw knives,traps,yokes ( both human and ox)hay knives ,hooks,a mule referee,and other treasures
the kitchen is full of kitchen utensils the dining room is full of oil lamps and colored glass items, My wife's gardens have horse drawn plows, cultivators,small levelers , hand plows cultivators,foot driven grinding wheels an old inertial wheel of an old JD, old hand pumps with cast iron buckets ,old seeders .I just wonder if I am the only one that goes overboard. I can not have one of anything it seems,I have 50 hess trucks, I started on linesmans tools now  and the last two years i have even started collecting medical problems.ALL THIS BESIDES A GARAGE FULL OF TOOLS  msybe I do need help    LOL   BOB W,
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: lazyassforge on May 01, 2012, 09:41:13 AM
Ok, Amertrac, I have to ask, What is a mule referee? Maybe something that goes by a different name down here?

I have a fair amount of farm "stuff" but I keep it in my "buggy shop".

Thanks, Bill Davis
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: Branson on May 01, 2012, 09:59:24 AM
I don't exactly collect farm tools, but a few have collected around me.   Draw knives are a favorite of mine, and I have quite a few, starting at a couple with 4 inch blades (qualify for the 4 inch club?) up to 12 inches.  I used to have a 24 inch mast knife, but sold it in an economic emergency.  Couple of traps, one a muskrat single spring trap.  Couple of buck saws, one that belonged to my grandfather and used to make firewood for us.  At least one hay knife.  Found a maple sap bucket some years ago.

I'd like to see some pictures of the human yokes!   Always wanted to make one of these.
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: john k on May 01, 2012, 12:10:26 PM
I have a few farm tools, from hog ringers, to snouters, dehorning tools.   Kickers for milking cows, my dads milking stool, and a number of wrenches with IHC and JD on them.  The foot powered grinders, and hand crank models, are in my shop, along with the hand crank post drills.   What was discarded in the city by 1920, when folks got electricity, was still in use on the farms by 1950, as many farmers didn't get hooked up to electricty  til 1955, some even later.  So, how about a bull lead?   Horn weights?  Cutting knives for, uh,, making steers?   Anyone else have an iron well diggers bucket?  The auction I was at on Sunday also had a row of hog oilers, mine went on the farm sale years ago.  Did you mention post diggers, and borers?   Potato forks, hay knives, cob forks, and oat scoops?  Where does it stop!
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: amecks on May 01, 2012, 02:20:15 PM
I only have a few Ford and IH wrenches (and a Fordson wrench) that I picked up over the years from working on those machines. But a while back I dragged an old metal wheel Deere hay rake out of the woods behind my house. Trees were growing up through it and the hitch bar was engulfed in a tree trunk. I pulled it up to the back of my yard. The birds and rabbits like to hang out in it. Al.
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: amertrac on May 01, 2012, 02:50:49 PM
Ok, Amertrac, I have to ask, What is a mule referee? Maybe something that goes by a different name down here?

a long steel rod that fastens to the inside of the bridle on mules. It keeps them from fighting in harness. we always called it a referee.Tt worked well for straight work bur was h--l on turns there are proper names for it depending on area
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: amertrac on May 01, 2012, 03:20:10 PM
I'd like to see some pictures of the human yokes!   Always wanted to make one of these
 the ice tomgs ane the rope oist do not go with it
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: Neals on May 01, 2012, 03:32:46 PM
I am really short on room so had to make the rule that if I cant pack it in one hand I don't buy it. That of course doesn't apply to boxes of small stuff. I'm into hand tools and the wife is into glass and ceramics. Most anything old is tempting to one of us.
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: john k on May 01, 2012, 03:33:10 PM
The human yokes I have seen were for carrying water buckets.   Usually made of wood, smaller in size, for women and children, was hollowed out to fit over the shoulders, then short ropes with hooks on them dropped down from the ends.  Where they assisted in holding up water buckets.   In some parts of the country all household water was carried to the house, sometimes from a quarter mile away, if they couldn't hit a water well in the farmyard.  Today they greatly resemble those false mannequins in dept. stores, the kind that are nothing but shoulders to hold up sweaters.
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: lazyassforge on May 01, 2012, 04:56:44 PM
Amertrack, I have heard those called jockey sticks around here(Oklahoma). They were a light pipe or piece of wood with a snap on each end, I do not have one though!

Thanks! B.D.
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: amertrac on May 01, 2012, 06:16:32 PM
The human yokes I have seen were for carrying water buckets.   Usually made of wood, smaller in size, for women and children, was hollowed out to fit over the shoulders, then short ropes with hooks on them dropped down from the ends.  Where they assisted in holding up water buckets.   In some parts of the country all household water was carried to the house, sometimes from a quarter mile away, if they couldn't hit a water well in the farmyard.  Today they greatly resemble those false mannequins in dept. stores, the kind that are nothing but shoulders to hold up sweaters.
I think if you look at the picture you will see one  bob w.
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: amertrac on May 01, 2012, 06:23:31 PM
the stick (referee) is along the bottom of the beam hard to get deasent pictures when the sun is coming the windows ,  bob w.
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: OilyRascal on May 01, 2012, 06:38:16 PM
hard to get deasent pictures when the sun is coming the windows ,  bob w.

It is also very hard (for me) to focus on the pictures of tools with all that wonderful looking woodwork :)
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: amertrac on May 01, 2012, 06:46:28 PM
hard to get deasent pictures when the sun is coming the windows ,  bob w.

It is also very hard (for me) to focus on the pictures of tools with all that wonderful looking woodwork :)
the whole first floor is open beams full 4x12 floor joists and 6x12 beams.we like it and try to keep it as is     bob w.
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: Branson on May 02, 2012, 10:53:31 AM
the stick (referee) is along the bottom of the beam hard to get deasent pictures when the sun is coming the windows ,  bob w.

Picture's clear enough to show that machete I'm looking at.   I picked one just like it a while back.  Is yours an Alligator?  That style is
listed as being exported to South East Asia, and I 'spect mine came from the Philippines.
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: Wrenchmensch on June 28, 2012, 04:50:30 PM
I've got a few plow wrenches, silo wrenches, stanchion wrenches, IHC, P & O, and Oliver RP wrenches, manure spreader wrenches, and cutout wrenches, buggy jacks, buggy wrenches, and wagon wrenches, but no farm equipment as such.  No room for it. I looked, once, at a pristine Hench & Dromgold corn shucker for $140 back when I was working.  I turned it down. As the twig is bent........
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: Nolatoolguy on August 01, 2012, 07:12:48 PM
Ive got a few. If I seem them at flea markets or garge sales ile pick them up if its a super deal. Not often do I buy them but I buy them every now an then.

Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: Rustn Dust on August 03, 2012, 09:22:52 AM
Great thread to bring back memories of being raised on a northern Missouri farm during the 50's and 60's.  Here in Missouri, cast iron hog oilers and hay trolleys seem to be the current collector items that bring big bucks at farm auctions.   Not my thing, but I have more than enough of some of the other stuff mentioned in this thread laying around. 
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: amertrac on August 06, 2012, 10:05:10 AM
does anyone remember the old manure barn cleaners that ran on overhead tracks and were hand pushed up over the spreader and dumped , the wooded cow stanchions that were nothing but two boards that closed and had a hook on the top.WATCHING HORSES IN THE PASTURE EATING SIDE BY SIDE THE SAME WAY THEY WORKED IN HARNESS up at 4 and supper was 9, you did notknow what poor was although you were, getting new work shoes every fall for school and the old ones went for barn work,when if someone did not smell like cows they were strangers,you had good clothes and barn clothes and left your barn clothes in the mud room in back of the house,the parlour where you were not allowed and only used for special occasions. A tough life but it was all you knew and work was not forced on you ,you did not know anything other than share the load. bob w.
Title: Re: collecting farm tools
Post by: rustynbent on August 21, 2012, 01:18:15 AM
Bob;   I grew up in a small town and both my grandfathers were farmers. Your last post brought back fond memories of them and the local farmers that I helped put up hay for in the 60's. I loved working for Mr. John Simmons, he was kind, funny and worked you like a mule. That was ok because he always worked harder than anyone else, and he was an old, OLD man back then, at least in his 60's. (well it seamed old then) The high light of the day was dinner, his wife was a little,  lady of German descent and boy could she cook. The Simmons' were known far and wide for the huge dinner they served. Three platters of fried chicken piled as high and they could get it and make it to the dinner table. There was no "lunch", the mid-day meal was always dinner where we came from. Bowls of mashed potatoes, bean salad, green beans, gravy, (milk gravy not that crap made from grease) fresh bread, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, fried tomatoes, and all the cold milk or tea you could ever want. They never skimped on a meal and all the guys would work their hearts out to make John happy. Thanks for bringing this memory back it's like visiting with old friends long since past.  RNB