Hay hook fighter

[Raymond Richard]

Gene Chapman gave me an old hay hook this past fall. I'm not 100% sure how it was used but I believe it was used in an old time hay bailing operation. Anyway the hook itself was close to 3' overall. I forged a couple knife blades out of it. The first one was sacrificed to a water quench and this one oil quenched. I believe this steel to be 1080. The blade on this knife is just over 11" and overall its 16 1/2". Handle is curly maple and all the fitting are from an iron buggy wheel. The rest of this steel will be used for hawks and small axes.

[Gene Chapman]

Remind me not to go into a dark alley with you if your carrying that knife.

It's a beaut!!!

[NuViking]

Hay Hooks,,,,Boy that brings lots of mamories back. It is hard to beleive that my dad at 45 years old was in better shape than I am at 42. An I was in way better shape at 16 then my stepkid is. My Dad and I use to load 100 pound square bales onto a ford 350 longbox flatbed truck. The bed of the truck is 3 and a half feet off teh ground. The first few levels of bales went easy then when we got to 5 levels of bales he would pick them up with a three tine pitchfork and toss them up to me and I would catch the 100 pound bale in mid air and slam it into it rightfull place. When the bales were solid and the hayfeild were sorta smooth we would load 175 bales onto this truck and haul them home. Again Dad would throw me the bales and I would catch them in air and slam them home.
The last stage of this game was feeding them stupid ungratefull cows, Purebred Blond" D Aquitain. I had a loop hay hook that would catch one bale and hook it to another then with a second hookcatch the bale to make a smale bale train. By the time I was 16 I was able to drag 2 bales with my right and one with my left. About three hundred pounds. This doesnt sound bad,,,Try it wiht a bunch of 1500 pound cows trying to get a bite of the bales as you are draging them through the snow. Mind you that was easyer then draging them through mud in the spring. After we tossed 8 bales in each round feeder we would climb in and tear off the twines with our hayhooks. The twine wanst biodegradable back then unless it was siscal. and that twine didnt allways make it to spring.
The hayhooks are still hanging in the barn where I walked away from tehm about twenty years ago but I still have fun mamories of Dad showing off how he could drag six bales to my three and would get the blue heeler to chase the cows in front off me.
After all this you would think that I would want to forge all these hayhooks and branding irons into something I could use today,,,,,NO WAY. I still have my two waxed siscle lariets and one leather larriet along with all my cattleman tools of the past.
By the way I dont like praire oysters. Tastes like rubber bands even when you marinate them with onions.

[toddhill]

Whew, Ray! That's a fine looking knife. Love the s guard and the striped handle. Fine work, as usual.

Todd

[rasp181]

Ray, I always anticipate you posting a new knife. They are always fantastic and exemplify what mastery of the craft can bring out. Great work!!!

[Martin Brandt]

Very nice pointy slicer there Ray. Always like your work.