Sharpening them up

[Magicman]

While turning a log earlier this week, I noticed that my cant hook did not "stick" just right.


 
Yup, I had gotten some dings on my Logrite cant hook tips that needed touching up.  I'll bet that they will stick now.   ;)

[Tam-i-am]

Magicman

Sometimes they need a little sharpening.  A file is the best way to do that.
A grinder will take too much material and it will loose its temper.

[r.man]

I know the logrites are a bit different than the oldtime cant hooks but I remember my father saying that a logman in our area would not put a file to his hook tip, he would take it to the blacksmith who would reshape or draw the point out. They ran logs through the spring waterways here and between that and the fact that logs were handled manually much more in the past your cant hook had to be working well or it was a serious danger to everyone. He also didn't approve of a hook that had the tip welded on, the hook was formed and then the tip was formed out of the end of it. I think the term was to "upset" the end of the hook to create a blob which was then drawn to a point.

[Magicman]

Sadly, even though I have most of my Grandpa's blacksmithing tools, his skills were not passed down.  The only logging tool that I have are his 3' tongs that have never been sharpened.

Not so with another set of logging tongs that I use.  They were badly abused when I got them and I have not been their friend because they are available for customers to use....and they do.  The points need "smithing".   :-\

[thecfarm]

r.man,my Father use to load trucks with a peavey. But the trucks was a lot smaller than too.He used to sharpen the end. We used one while we was cutting wood. I do have 3-4 of the hooks hung up in the old farm house. He would take off the hooks and change it out from the ones he took to a blacksmith to have them bent back into shape. He always told me he kept 4-5 on hand so he could just change them. Than take 4-5 to a blacksmith to be re-bent. I never saw him change a hook.

[Tam-i-am]

On some old cants and peaveys, grinding the point old the hook could change the geometry of the hook.  That geometry determines how well the hook grabs.
So it would be best to have a blacksmith draw out the point.

Our hooks are designed to be filed.  By following the existing angles you can remove material without changing the geometry.

[Magicman]

Which is exactly what I did with my Logrite tips.  They are back to sticking like a Logrite should.   

[r.man]

Until I was about 25 there was a working blacksmith in my area. Albert, the philosopher blacksmith, had a raw wall in his smithy and after he drew a point or reshaped a hook he would drive the canthook into the wall, if it stuck it was sharp and the right shape.