Clamp, Hook, Hanger, what's it

[Oregon rock crusher]

Here are a couple pics of some C-Clamp shaped chain hooks that I have never seen before. Nothing cast into the body of any of them to help identify them but there was one other kind of similar clamp in the box that has Durkee Cony City cast in. For what it's worth they were not that far from Durkee Oregon so they could be something they used in a cement plant or similar? I did hear the pallet pulling/lifting theory but??? Seem to be maleable steel and would make some neat plant hangers...Any ideas? Ed.

 

[M_George]

Looking at the curled hook, I would guess they are C-clamps that someone forged the little hooks onto. They are typical for the decorative hooks a blacksmith would create.

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

Thanks for the comment M George. I do agree the curled hook is typical of blacksmith decorative hand forged hooks but due to the uniformity of them I don't think that modification was the case. Cutting or forge welding the barrel shut and drawing it out without variation would be very difficult. They aren't all that useful as hangers the way they are either. The geometry's just wrong. I picked 8 out of the box and there were probably 4-5 times that many there. Also the Durkee clamp is probably unrelated to the others except for ending up for sale in the same box but looking closer I do see it has a USN ID stamp of X68 in it. Ed.

 

[bmwrd0]

I have no idea, but they do look neat. Maybe something decorative rather than functional?

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

Ha!! I think I've got it. They are planking chain clamps used for wooden boat building. building.http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?146860-Planking-chain-clamps The link has several pics and I tried to snag a couple from the site but it wouldn't let me. Ed.

 

[d42jeep]

Ha!! I think I've got it. They are planking chain clamps forwooden boat building. building.http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?146860-Planking-chain-clamps The link has several pics and I tried to snag a couple from the site but it wouldn't let me. Ed.

Here you go.
-Don

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

Thank you Don, I thought I had the pics twice but there was something weird with the formatting and they came out distorted. I wish I'd have picked them all up now... Ed.

 

[bmwrd0]

Dang, the amount of time I spend reading about wooden boat building I should have figured that out.

 

[Farmer J.]

Interesting, don't remember having seen those before..

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

Dang, the amount of time I spend reading about wooden boat building I should have figured that out.

If not for the USN stamp getting me searching boat building I doubt I would have come up with this ID. Seems to be a pretty obscure tool.

Interesting, don't remember having seen those before..

I expect these were more common in the New England states and probably Great Britain where boat building shops were concentrated. I'm not sure how old they are but modern strap clamps would seem to work as well or better, maybe why these old ones are no longer seen.

 

[Provincial]

I wonder if they found a use in building Liberty Ships during WWII. Not for structural, since that was all steel, but for detail work. Lots of tools from the WWII shipyards in the Pacific NW.

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

Could be Provincial. There has definitely been some boat and ship building here on the left coast too. I did some searching for pics of the clamps in use today and only found one example and it was on a repair job. I couldn't find any in old boat building catalogs or anywhere else for that matter. I'll also put a pic of a number that was in one of the C shaped clamps, 1084LA4 in case it means something someday. These seem to be some pretty obscure clamps. Ed

 

[drivesitfar]

ORC: not that you are going to be BOAT BUILDING anytime soon (or are you?) are you thinking of going back to pick up the rest of the clamps so you'll have a huge set to keep in your collection or to sell/trade some old boat builder?

i've never seen one much less a few dozen in one place and I'm a lot closer to the water and a NAVY BASE than you are.

nice stuff as per usual!!

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

I'm pretty sure I don't have any large boat building projects lined up Drives but I would like to make a kayak and maybe a drift boat someday. What I do like about the concept of the chain clamps is that they work a lot like pipe clamps but limited in length only by how much chain you have on hand. Not sure there is a lot of advantage over strap hold downs though other than resistance to welding slag but it's nice to have more clamping options. If I was closer I'd probably pick up a few more but they'll probably be gone by the time I get back to the shop that had them. You do have a lot of maritime history in your neck of the woods for sure....could be you'll see a few now that you know what to look for. Ed.