Any idea what this is?

[Old Greenhorn]

I came across this at a flea market in southern VT today. The seller had no idea what it is. It has a large lifting eye at the far end and those barbs slip out when the handle is activated.



 

[Resonator]

Harpoon style hay spear. Jammed into a bale from the top, prongs extend to grab hold. Rope ties to Lifting eye, then lifts up to hay trolley in barn roof. (My guess anyways). ;D

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah that is the first guess for most folks but a consultation with an old timer from the farm museum says those prongs are way too short to do that. He thought more likely used in whaling possibly flensing work.

[IndiLina]

Based off of just Googling, a lot of the hay harpoons don't look to have been designed to go too deep or have wide arms.





Edit: actually, I probably misinterpreted the example pic I posted. I suppose this one could go deeper. 

[gspren]

I believe that's a watchamacallit, thingamajig, dohicky. And a fine specimen at that!

[mike_belben]

Oh thats an old hemorrhoid bander, weve come a long way! 


I dont know.. Its pretty funky.  Seems like some type of well casing puller or something like that. 

[mike_belben]

Or some type of self centering scribe tool.  Im better the eyelet up top is for a wooden handle for two men to spin.  

[Resonator]

He thought more likely used in whaling possibly flensing work.

OK Greenhorn, I might change my answer. Instead of a bale harpoon it might be a whale harpoon. ;D

[low_48]

My first thought was a carcass hanger for butchering.

[Patrick NC]

My vote is hay harpoon for a hay trolley.  For unloading loose stacked hay into a barn. One of the early ones before the 2 and 4 prong grapples. 

[Gary_C]

That thing could not lift enough hay to make it worthwhile to have. More than likely it's some kind of manhole or grate lifter

[21incher]

My guess is it is a wood barrel bunghole lifting tool that was used to load the empty whale oil barrels on the ships. You drop it in the hole, the fingers orient it on the radius plus keep it from going in to far and lever clamps it in place with the swinging jaws. Then it would  be easy to stack the empty  ones on a deck with a block and tackle jib crane. 

[Patrick NC]

That thing could not lift enough hay to make it worthwhile to have. More than likely it's some kind of manhole or grate lifter

One of the old barns on my dad's farm still has the old hay trolley and harpoon hay fork from when they used to put up loose hay. Built circa 1820 about 3 hours from where @Old Greenhorn found this. The early ones like this one were not as efficient as the later designs,  but I promise that's what it is. A rope was attached to the eye in top to hoist it up into the lift and a smaller rope was attached to the eye on the handle to release the load. You would stab the forked end as far into the load of hay as you could and then pull the handle to clamp it down.  The old timers told me that you could get between 50 and 70 pounds of loose hay per trip. Which was then hoisted into the hay loft by human power.  Later grapple systems could get up to 300 pounds per trip and were hoisted by horses. 

[mike_belben]

i guess it looks like the swinging levers do reach all the way over to the thin tines, so it probably would grapple a decent bit of loose hay and also release it well.  the release part of the equation probably explains the spoon bit shape.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yes, after posting this yesterday 4 of us adults, armed with various beverages of our own choosing spent about 4 hours down in this rabbit hole. I did indeed find a historical description of the tool and it's operation. The reference I found said that this device, called a  'hay spear or harpoon' would in fact lift "a surprising amount of hay". So I apologize to those who, like me, first guessed correctly and I steered you wrong. I was right the first time, but then decided I made a mistake, which I am herein correcting. I never did ask the guy what he wanted for it though. >:(

[scsmith42]

I believe that's a watchamacallit, thingamajig, dohicky. And a fine specimen at that!

Nah, it's a widget....

[WV Sawmiller]

My guess is it is a wood barrel bunghole lifting tool that was used to load the empty whale oil barrels on the ships. You drop it in the hole, the fingers orient it on the radius plus keep it from going in to far and lever clamps it in place with the swinging jaws. Then it would  be easy to stack the empty  ones on a deck with a block and tackle jib crane.

21,

   That is am amazing response. Succinct. Clear. Enough big words and diction to impress the masses. Very well done. 

    I was wondering if you pulled it out of your "bunghole" on short notice. :D (Sorry - the devil made me say that. No offense intended.) 

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah I was impressed by that also. However, that 'spoon' on the end is around 4" wide and would not fit in a bung hole (not any I've seen anyway). It just took a while to find a reliable historical reference to confirm it as a nay harpoon. There are a million 'opinion references' on the internet and sometimes very few real historical references that I will trust.

[Patrick NC]

Next time I go to visit my parents in Northern New York,  I'll take a picture of one that looks almost exactly like it along with the carriage and track it runs on. All it needs is new rope and some poor fool ( not me! ) to gather up a bunch of loose hay and it could be put back in service. 

[aigheadish]

I would have bought it in a heartbeat! Pretty cool, even if I had no idea what it was!