Hand Tools

[baymule]

I spent many an afternoon after school, peeling pine saplings with a drawing knife, for fence posts. My Grandpa was putting up a new fence and me and my Dad went to his farm on weekends, picked up a pick up bed full of pine poles and delivered newly peeled ones. My Grandpa had his own treatment vat. Then we got to help him set the posts and string fence.

 

[baymule]

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wow - that is one wicked looking tool. I'd have to count my fingers after working with that.

 

[Mini Horses]

LOL...not your fingers....you generally straddle the pole, hold that rascal in front of you and pull....you skin the log of bark.

I have several (!!!) saws for lumber and crosscuts for big timber. You master their use or die trying.

Chisels are good to have.

I LOVE my machete and use it often when clearing vines, etc.

At this point in my life, I hope to have power 'cause hand tools for BIG jobs are very tiring and need more muscle than I sometimes have -- not to mention endurance. It will give you a whole new appreciation for those pioneers who trecked West and, if they lived thru that, began to clear land and build houses.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Oops! I guess if I was a guy I'd be EXTRA careful, lol!

Agree with hoping the power never goes away...I nnnnneeeeeeeeddddd AC! Oh, I could live without it, but who wants to?

 

[MoonShadows]

The only place I have ever seen a drawing knife is on one of those homesteading shows. Looks like tough work.

 

[sumi]

That looks like a very handy tool… Machete, bow saw, yes! Got to have those on hand as well. Thinking back on SA, we had something I can't find an English name for now, we called it a koevoet. There are a range of images here, ranging from completely wrong to political, Images for koevoet tool

Our two were about 4 feet long, more an inch thick, metal (mot sure which now) rods with a sharpish end. They weighed quite a few pounds each, thinking more than 20 lbs? Easy. In our rocky soil, those were used to help break up soil when digging holes.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Cool! We have what my DH calls a pry bar that's about 6 foot log...flattened on one end and I think, I'd have to go look, it might be curved on the other end. Definitely a handy thing to have around!

 

[baymule]

Your koevoet is called a crow bar here. And yes it is a useful tool! I have that too, in several sizes. The small one is great for pulling stubborn nails.

A drawing knife is not so bad, just peel fresh poles and it is fairly easy.

 

[CJ1]

A portable hand cranked coal or charcoal forge and a mean file. Could make whatever else I need. Haven't picked one up yet. But I intend to.

Oh. And I know how nouns and different terms mean different things mean different things in different areas. But where I grew up this is a prybar

And this is a crowbar

So I always get confused when people call one or the other.

Correct me if I'm wrong please. But the reason they call it a draw knife is because it's the only blade that was designed to be drawn toward the body as opposed as away from it. Or so I was told anyway.

Edit X2

Ok so I was wrong. I couldn't live without a spud wrench and hammer wrenches and I can't make those.