Nostalgia:

[onceabull]

I've traveled to & fro,back & forth across this valley seeking a Peavey to replace the one I left on the West Slope in 9/58 on my way to become one of them " collidge kids". Gave up the search locally,but after todays card game,too late to cast or load,so hit "peavey"on yahoo search. Quickly I'm looking at the website of the Peavey Mfg.Co,directly descendant of the inventor. What a find , peaveys of many styles & sizes, cant hooks allsamee, draw shaves,pickeroons of styles/types unseen in western forests, etc.et al. There's still hope for the U.S.A... Onceabull

[454PB]

Are you talking music amplifiers?

[onceabull]

Not music related..

[NVcurmudgeon]

Onceabull, if some of our cast boolit friends don't know what a Peavey is, I'll bet they will also be thrown for a loop by "McLeod" and "Pulaski." I carried a McLeod in my windsmith truck, and used my hunting partner's Pulaski in camp, but never had the pleasur of meeting Mr. Peavey, though I know what one is.

[KYCaster]

Onceabull: I sure didn't know you could still buy a brand new shingle fro (I always thought it had an E on the end....froe). I would think that anybody who knows how to use a froe would just fire up the forge and make one in about half an hour.

I usta watch my uncle make hickory tobacco sticks with a froe and a drawknife. I was finally able to make a couple of good ones. Its not as easy as he made it look. And he did it with one hand.

Its nice to know how to use the old hand tools, but its also nice not having to use them out of necessity. The good old days were pretty rough at times.

Jerry

[onceabull]

Should you be passing through Wallace,Id.try to have time for a short side trip up to the Monument to "Big Ed" Pulaski,there are pointers and a guide to the trail up to the mine portal,where he saved a good portion of his fire crew,also in general area but at So.end of Lake C'D'a. go the St.Maries, where a tall spar pole stands in the center of a ring of graves for the men(mostly marked "unknown) trapped in a canyon on the No.side of St.Joe river,twixt St.Maries and Avery. Same fire... Watch your speed driving in the Silver Valley with out of area plates..!! ask Waksupi... Onceabull

[waksupi]

Should you be passing through Wallace,Id.try to have time for a short side trip up to the Monument to "Big Ed" Pulaski,there are pointers and a guide to the trail up to the mine portal,where he saved a good portion of his fire crew,also in general area but at So.end of Lake C'D'a. go the St.Maries, where a tall spar pole stands in the center of a ring of graves for the men(mostly marked "unknown) trapped in a canyon on the No.side of St.Joe river,twixt St.Maries and Avery. Same fire... Watch your speed driving in the Silver Valley with out of area plates..!! ask Waksupi... Onceabull

And I have not set foot in Idaho since. Hope they miss my money, at the merchants. Used to spend a lot of money there. I imagine they used to make a few thousand a year from my business. Screw me once, and I'm gone. Congratulations, Idaho. You made $80 on a speed trap. And lost income to your state. Smart move. I'd rather cross into Canada, and go to Washington that way. Not all that inconvienient for me, and a prettier drive.

I know what a Pulaskie, and a Peavy are. What is a McLeod?

[bruce drake]

I grew up using a Peavey in Maine before I left and joined the Marines. Not a finer tool to move trunks around. Amazing what you can do with leverage!

And does it make perfect square holes in BMW fenders when you catch yuppie tourists fishing on your property for the second time without asking.

Bruce

[Shepherd2]

Around here we use them for moving logs and straightening pickup truck bumpers.

[wills]

I’ve seen those in a catalog and always wondered what is the difference between a peavey and a cant hook?

[bruce drake]

"A cant dog or cant hook was used for lifting, turning, and prying logs when loading sleds and on the drive. At first, a swivel hook on a pole with nothing to hold it in position was used. This was called a swing dingle. In 1858, Joseph Peavey, a blacksmith in Stillwater, Maine, made a rigid clasp to encircle the cant dog handle with the hook on one side. It moved up and down, but not sideways. All loggers have used it ever since."

text from http://www.ruralheritage.com/logging_camp/peavey.htm

[NVcurmudgeon]

Waksupi, the generic name for a McLeod is "fire rake." without a doubt, you have used them under a different name in your neck of the woods. Looks like a very wide hoe, with coarse rake teeth on the other side. When I worked on the wind farm we were required to carry either a McLeod or a shovel in every truck, as well as an Indian can, another tool I am sure you are very familiar with.

[Maven]

Using a Peavey (leverage) to move heavy loads must be the principle behind RR car movers, which look like modified Peavey's. Google "Advance Car Mover" and then go to "car movers" to see for yourself. A friend of mine used one to move a 40' boxcar into position (on level track) so that we could eventually load it onto a flatbed trailer. The trucks were removed and placed elsewhere on the trailer. Btw, Advance Car Mover also sells Rowell ladels (1lb. - 10lb.).

[Bret4207]

Spent a few hours with a peavy just yesterday. Gypsy moths killed off a bunch of my red oak over the past 2 years so I'm cutting some really nice firewood. Horses are too soft for stuff this big, so I'm using the 800 Ford tractor. Impressed the heck out of my 14 YOA foster son, my "safety officer" (he runs for the ambulance if I cut something important off), when the front end was 3 feet off the ground and I was still skidding along. I didn't let on I was a little less impressed with my bravado than he was.

Rolling the big stuff with the peavy is easy. What handier yet is what we call a "felling lever" up in the NE. About 3 foot long, solid steel, with a small peavy/cant dog type hook. Great for digging under a trunk to run a choker or jam in a saw cut and start a tree in the right direction. Handier than carrying wedges and an ax and a peavy.

[Bigscot]

Here's a place for all sorts of logging stuff.

http://www.baileys-online.com/

http://store.baileys-online.com/cgi-...UG6&area_id=76


Bigscot

[StanDahl]

Should you be passing through Wallace,Id.try to have time for a short side trip up to the Monument to "Big Ed" Pulaski... Onceabull

Not only passed through Wallace this summer, but spent the night too! Missed the monument, but spotted a nice looking New Model Ruger Blackhawk .357 Mag at a downtown antique/junk/taxidermy store for $350. Couldn't buy it, he wouldn't sell it to an out-of-stater.

As for watching out for the law, the 75 mph speed limit seemed dangerously high in parts of that windy (curvy) area and I had no trouble keeping to it, what with my wife keeping her foot on her imaginary brake at every turn.

[waksupi]

Spent a few hours with a peavy just yesterday. Gypsy moths killed off a bunch of my red oak over the past 2 years so I'm cutting some really nice firewood. Horses are too soft for stuff this big, so I'm using the 800 Ford tractor. Impressed the heck out of my 14 YOA foster son, my "safety officer" (he runs for the ambulance if I cut something important off), when the front end was 3 feet off the ground and I was still skidding along. I didn't let on I was a little less impressed with my bravado than he was.

Rolling the big stuff with the peavy is easy. What handier yet is what we call a "felling lever" up in the NE. About 3 foot long, solid steel, with a small peavy/cant dog type hook. Great for digging under a trunk to run a choker or jam in a saw cut and start a tree in the right direction. Handier than carrying wedges and an ax and a peavy.

Brett, Please don't skid logs like that. I had a friend killed doing it. Things were going along fine, until he hit something, probably a rock, in the ground. The tractor came right over on top of him, before he could react.

[floodgate]

I keep a Pulaski, a McLeod and a brush-hook on the back porch, "just in case". Had a 5-gal back-pack pump can, but it rusted through last winter; should have added a tad of anti-freeze; I'll have to get one of the new, lighter plastic ones. Also one of those chisel-end railcar mover bars Maven mentioned; used them to align the trucks for a neighbor who put a SF caboose on rails on his lot to use as a shop; they really work.

I think ANYONE moving to a rural or semi-rural area ought to put in a couple of years with the local Volunteer Fire Dep't. A real education in survival, in what to do (or not to do) until the firetrucks arrive, and a great way to get to know your neighbors. I was no great shakes as a Firefighter, so retired to the budget and planning support groups and helped us to get a fine new main station and some good new equipment; I think we are still the largest-area VFD in Northern California at 15 x 45 miles, plus co-op support of our neighbor departments. No Peavey or cant hook, though I did have one of those "log-lifter" props for bucking-up; sort of an all-metal peavey - didn't work worth a darn.

And yes, Bailey's is a great source of good stuff, and they have a wonderful catalog out twice a year; I have stopped into their Laytonville, CA outlet many times. Several years back, they had a wonderful article on a timber topper who had scheduled a TV / photo demonstration of his art. The week before, he broke a leg, but did that stop him? H--l no! There he was, cast and all, standing on the top flat 125 feet in the air. Geez!!!

Yeah; be careful of those tractor "wheelies", Bret; we want you to stick around awhile!

floodgate

[onceabull]

Floodgatel Bailey's $300 Axe is moving toward the top of my list,just have to sell a firearm or three. onceabull

[KCSO]

NOw that the jack pine savages have had their fun how many of you old cattlemen can tell me what a NEBRASKA was?