Posted 11 years ago
Dabamadude
(1 item)
Really looking for someone to help me identify this tong-like apparatus was used for. It was found in an old house in southern Alabama.
Mystery tongs | ||
| Tools and Hardware7864 of 10103 |  |  |
Mystery tongs | ||
| Tools and Hardware7864 of 10103 | | |
Posted 11 years ago
Dabamadude
(1 item)
Really looking for someone to help me identify this tong-like apparatus was used for. It was found in an old house in southern Alabama.
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Looks like a logging tool
Looks more like something for seating tire beads on a rim to me. Not much size reference here & would like to know if it has a very sturdy wall mount? Don't think it's for shelling peanuts! Obviously for compressing something & maybe(my favourite word) & could be for drawing up straps for bales.
Don't know what it is ...but I like it.
It's about 5 feet long. The firewood in background about 6 inches in diameter by 20 inches long. The mount looks fairly sturdy. There must have been a cable or rope from mount, around pulley to right on end of steel arm, out to tongs. I can make out a few numbers and letters on steel tongs
Back looking at this & have a couple of questions. When the handle is pushed down the row of locking cogs, is that opening or closing the tongs? It appears that there is a coil spring behind in a guide, so does that hold the tongs/jaws open or closed?
Think I may have it from a friend in yo neck of the woods, Prattville. He says it is for skinning catfish or other fish that have to be skinned & small game. The lower hook goes thru the lower jaw of catfish & the other jaw clamps thru the head while you gut & peel the skin off. I'm getting quesy!
You skin game and livestock head down or eat blood clots. I sooner think is was a commercial type cant hook.
I know that large game & stock are bled head down but my friend said catfish & small game. I used to help at the island slaughter stall (for a free bit of meat) & would "pop" cows, sheep & goats behind the ear & they would be immediately hoisted up by the hind legs for a throat slitting over a bucket(nothing wasted in the islands) but we really didn't have edible small game other than iguanas & fish (nobody ate mongoose). I have never been a hunter except in the market.
Only other thing I can see it being used for in Alabama is hanging up gators to skin them.
Carpetbaggers & scallywags!
Yes. All the livestock and deer we slaughter is always hung head down. A lot of deer hunters up north hang head up. Don't know why. Thanks for all the feedback, I think they are too big for catfish. Which I hang head up to skin. I can make out a few numbers and letters on the steel pertaining to patent info. Anyone know if this could help with identifying this mysterious equipment
There are some really big catfish out there. I'm trying to figure out how people can read my words "small game" & then start talking about deer & livestock? Must be elephant hunters to consider deer "small game".
Yea there are some big catfish in the river here, we catch a few trot lining every summer, but this set of tongs wouldn't be needed to skin them. It does look like it locks in the closed position. The weird thing is it looks like it was mounted stationary but maybe swung back and forth on a heavy hinge. Didn't have a large gripping range with tongs either, about 18 inches down to 5 inches
What are the numbers & letters that you mentioned?
That is without a doubt a Folding Sawing Machine made by the Chicago Folding Machine Company. What you have is the body standing on it's end. The pinchers attach to the log and the handle at the other end operated the saw. It is missing the saw and wood handles appear to be rotten away. There are numerous pictures of the Folding Sawing Machine on the net and You Tube videos of it in action.
Dan O