Mystery tools

[jensor4]

I used number 1 seventy five years ago as youth on a farm. We used this saw in 2 places. One was to cut hay that had been stacked and stored in the hay mow in the barn. The other was to cut straw that had been stacked in the barnyard. After several months of storage loose straw and hay packs sufficiently tight that it is very difficult to pull it loose with a fork.
Jack

[jimirwin]

The "saw" shown is pretty common around hay farms. Any thought given to possible use on ice would bring the clear conclusion such use would be absurd! There's no teeth suitable for cutting any solid form of anything. Ice is a hard solid, so whatever one would use to cut it would have to grab it and chip away the kerf. The hay saw is merely a succession of knife edges pretty ideally suited to slicing thru the stems or fibers of hay.

[Jon]

Number two looks like it was used as a clamp for taking the bow out of deck boards. The two pins would jam on the edge of a joist as the clamp pushes against the deck boards and the handle would lay across the other joist.

Reminds me of MetalDesigner's deck board straightener:

[TSiArt]

So I have no idea what this would be used for . But i see the curved straight bars. In my mind this has to do something with wood and square stock.

The blue is the "wood"
Red arrows point to the bars that have rounded sides where the wood should not be "damaged" .
Green Arrow points in the direction that the "work" would be done and the handle move up or out.

I was thinking that this is to grab a board in the "stack" and pull it out , But why do that.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/6VuhLnHmr4ncBqov8

[Okapi]

# 1 is for cutting hay that has been mowed-away loose. Nearly impossible to get with a pitchfork with out cutting away what was needed. Have one at home my dad used when he lived at home on the farm in Eaton ny. The strands of hay would interlock into a mat.
Eric

We use it for that purpose too in Switzerland about 30-40 years ago in my mind for last time I've seen it, now it's used in demonstrations of old farming machinery etc…

[Frank S]

I son't remember ever seeing #2 But we has a couple of the first one hanging in the barn . Back when Grandpa used to stack his corn and Milo stalks into tall tepee type shocks then later tie into bundles to be fed to the cattle once the long bundles were laid in the feed troughs he used one of those to saw the long stalks into shorter lengths making it easier for the cattle to eat Once he bought a silage chopper that ended all of the shock stacking and cutting as from then on we used a deep trench to store the chopped silage and a front end loader to haul it to the feeders

[ranald]

Jon
, that one is so simple & beats my use of wedges & sash cramps but I probably have to still use them at the final couple of boards.

Regards,

Ranald

[Du$tin]

Sorry I'm late to the party and you know already but my passion in life is collecting old tools, mainly saws, its the thrill of the hunt, and I have thousands of saws, it is definitely indeed a hay saw, I have a few let's just say

[Toolmaker51]

Hi Bony, looks like you have the answer to No.1 (I thought it was bart simpsons hair brush).

Well, certainly not Homer's...

Tool 1. Country-folk have a pragmatic view of work and useful implements. Never the less, this city slicker can visualize how ice knife could evolve from hay/ peat knife, especially in possibility one could vary rake and blade set to achieve cutting of ice not too thick compared to blade length. Can also see this being where the varied forms of serrated edge rope knives & cookware originate (ie bread, steak knife etc).

Tool 2. Might work with lumber and carpentry, hard to imagine that for piping, peg shape not well suited to round shapes or flanges. Although if not of extreme weight, could jack one foot of machine base etc. Could it adjust/ shift/ tension belts or the sheaves in a line shafting rig?
There is a rough modern equivalent using bumper jack type action for lifting cabinets...

Beside all that, expected this thread to uncover greatest tool-mystery of time, discovery of what plane all our 10mm sockets converge in.

[Philip Davies]

No 2 is a lever type flooring clamp, used to close floorboards when nailing to joists. The one shown cost 27 Shillings and 6 pence in 1935. The prongs grip the joist, so it’s much more efficient than using a screw cramp. (Like the Bissell clamp above) The picture, from the Buck and Hickman catalogue, is not quite like the one we’ve seen, but the principle is there. It weighs 21 lbs.
Nobody seems to have mentioned the way that hay is compressed for fodder. I know sometimes a roller was used, but my brother in law drove the tractor up and down the pile. Then, a few months later, he could cut blocks out, using his hay knife.