Logging dog, or not?

[Wrenchmensch]

I stopped by to speak with a fellow who has a 1929 Pierce Arrow 2 seat runabout to ask him about the gas cap on that car, and whether it was threaded or not.  He didn't remember as "it's 13 years since he put gas in the car" he said.  He and I will get together with his car and my Pierce Arrow wrench later to learn what we can about his car and my wrench.

He handed me the tool pictured below and asked me to identify it.  He thinks its a logging tool, and I can see his point.  It resembles logging dogs used to tie logs together for temporary purposes, e.g. rafting, building log walls, or for towing logs.  I told him I knew a bunch of fellows who are good at identifying mysterious tools.

So here it is, 18 inches long, with a fixed wedged-shaped 3 1/2" point on one end, and 4-sided pivoting 9 inch point on the other end.  The two photos below show the rotational properties of the longer point.   The heads of both points are badly mushroomed from heavy hammering. The whole piece is hand-forged. The 18-inch piece has 8 irregular sides.

[wvtools]

I would say that it is a logging dog.  I bought part of a big logging tool collection with lots of dogs.  There was one in that group like his tool. 

[Wrenchmensch]

An Early American Industries Association (EAIA) stalwart, tool collector extraordinaire, and an all-round good man came forward with this opinion about this tool:

Only thing I might add would be that they were used on saw mills to hold logs in a particular position: sawmill dogs.
 

[Lewill2]

Log Dog, yes, I think they were also used when hewing logs with a broad axe and adze. I have a pair nut they are solid the one end doesn't pivot like this one.

[Branson]

Absolutely a log dog, and the Cadillac version.  The simpler version is little more than a big staple.  One of the early Roy Underhill episodes showed how to make one of these simpler versions on the forge.   It's also illustrated in Eric Sloane's A Museum of Early American Tools, in both versions.

While I'm sure these saw use at saw mills, they were a necessity for anyone who was turning trees in to usable lumber, whether it was hewing beams or splitting fence rails.  The log to be worked would be lifted onto two sections of logs at right angles to the piece to be worked.  The log dog was driven into these and the log, holding the log in place while it was worked.  Absolutely essential when trying to work a rolly-polly log.  I have the only one I ever found in the wild.

[Wrenchmensch]

Branson:

Thank you!  I found Sloane's drawing of this very tool in use on page 16 of his book a Museum of Early American TOOLS.

There are lots of houses and barns around here, Southern Chester County in Pennsylvania, dating from the middle 18th century to the middle 19th century, that have visible hand-hewn posts and beams made the way Sloane shows us.