Strange tool

This is a strange tool we found in our shed when we moved into our house. The house is 116 years old, so this tool could go back a ways. Anybody have any idea what this would have been used for?

Scott

Rug beater
Large egg slicer
Rock sifter
Portable bicycle rack...

Looks like a handmade flail. Used to knock the seeds (wheat, etc.) loose from the straw.

I'm going to take a stab at this as we had a very similar tool and for the life of me I never could get an answer to what it was. My family came here and they became miners and farmers. They had about 30 Dairy cows at any given point in time give or take a few as about one every other year got struck by lightening out to pasture and some died of old age. The old style stachions had water bowls that they could drink from that were "state of the art" and refilled automatically. Hay and silage was tossed in front of the cows into their separate bins with pitch forks or we simply broke apart bales of hay and tossed it in each stall bin. Silage was measured out for them and each received the same portion. Behind the cows was the "poop line". The concrete floors had a formed recession in them that was about 6" deep by about 12-18" wide that ran the entire length of the stanchions to the outside of the barn. There was a "state of the art" conveyor belt down there that I can even remember from the 50's that conveyed the cow pies outside when you flipped the switch. When the conveyor belt got stuck, that was the tool that was used to loosen up poops if they had dried. You could stand there and sort of scrape and fluff up the poops to unclog the conveyor belt. At least that is what I remember that thing being used for. Now, it may have served a different purpose originally but that's what we used it for. We sort of made do with what we had. For all I know, that tool could have come with the purchase of the farm and we simply found a use for it.

I truly would be interested in learning what it really is.

This photo better illustrates what I was trying to describe-
http://www.iceandcoal.org/favorites/farm/dairybarn.jpg

I think you might be right. The slots were to allow the fluid to slip through while moving solid waste. A poop scoop.

Delightful. Grow a vine on it.

What a great thread. Loved the poop line photo Equilibrium. I'd just hang the oversized pooper-scooper on the wall as sculpture, it's really nicely designed.
Good balance of form and function.

Try sending a pic here http://www.garfieldfarm.org/ They should know

AddieOtto--That's it! A slicer for ostrich-sized (or as VV would spell it--Kentucky schools are such a mess--ostracized) eggs. Brilliant! I wonder where they stored that in the kitchen?

BTW EQ, "poop line" aka gutter.

We have one from an old farm auction. One of the old-timers there called it a "spork" (spade/fork) but never related the poop-scoop part of the story.

Guy S.

Maybe the previous owners had a really large cat.

Hey Bob, thank you for the correct term of the poop line. I feel fulfilled now that you have provided the proper terminology for the concrete trench that I had to help keep moving as a kid.

I was mentioning this thread to one of my brothers and his comment was, "Oh yaa, I remember the **** slosher". We evidently both have such fond memories of this tool from all the nice hands on experiences we had with it.

Well Scott, have you sent the photo to Kevin's link yet? Inquiring minds want to know what this "spork" is really called.

Scott, I also have one of these. It has been identified to me as being a clay spade used to dig tile lines in sticky clay. Anyone who has dug clay with a regular shovel or spade can attest to the fact that the clay will stick to the surface and will not "clear" the face without using some sort of scraper. When the clay spade is used there is less surface for the chay to adhere to and the tool is pretty much self cleaning. All this is not from personal experience and could be a line of BS from somebody pulling my leg. Along this line, however, in an antique store yesterday, I saw a similar tool based on a common manure fork design that was identified as a peat fork, which could cradle a slice of peat when one would harvest it for drying and then fuel. Had no straight crosspiece to get your foot into play, crosspiece was rounded as in a 3 tined "bedding" fork, which I found odd as that would indicate arm power alone. Would not want to lift peat for too many hours without the use of my legs as helpers. Ken

A clay spade. That makes sense.

Yes, it does. And I have plenty of good, sticky clay to try it out on too. I'll let you know how it works.

Scott

Looks a bit weak for digging clay - the three tines would bend as soon as you put any leverage on the thing. A peat turf cutter seems a better bet, allowing water to drain off more quickly.

Resin

I have broken several shovels and spading forks on our clay, even the ones marked "landscaper grade". Not counting the various other implements of destruction that have been bent, sprung, and otherwise rendered useless. Bentonite is not my friend.

Spork? In the Sixties there was a short-lived eating utensil that was a spoon with prongs on the end. There was an even shorter lived one with one edge serrated so it could be used as a knife as well as a spoon/fork.

Would that be a "sporf"?

Sorry, I'm not being much help here.

Hey Larry, I remember those cheap plastic sporks!

No 'Liars Club' references - I can't believe it. Where is Martin Mull when you need him.

Ooooo...that's good al. :-))

Al always comes up with good stuff!