What be dis?

[jabberwoki]

I have a feeling one of these has popped up here before.

 

[Old Man Roger]

Log dog

 

[RTM]

WAG: Wrought iron fence post topper.

Or to steal Roger's running joke, since he was first in line and abdicated, a saw set.

 

[readhead]

A finger hammer for doing metal shaping in tight spaces. I have a similar one with a larger hammer face.

 

[Mintgrun]

AKA logging transport spike. (apparently)
Used to tie logs together when floating/rafting them.
(this is a googled-up image that came up for "log dog")


I have a few too. Jabber's looks fresh, as in, hardly hammered on.

Tom

 

[Provincial]

Technical name is "rafting dog."

 

[Roberts210]

Arf Arf!!

 

[no704]

I’ve seen Those in adult films.

 

[jabberwoki]

Thanks Mintgrun/Provincial and Old Man Roger of course.

 

[Mintgrun]

You're welcome, but Old Man Roger won the race!

 

[2oolhound]

We call them log dogs here on the west coast too. Typically used when salvaging logs on the ocean that have separated from log booms being towed to a mill. Log salvagers pull up along side the log, pound the dog in and then tow the log to where they stock pile enough logs to hire a tug boat to take them to the mill.

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

Why would we have had to bring in a so called rafting dog from Japan. Oh ya electronics hadn’t been invented yet.

 

[Provincial]

We have several of those around my place. In 1855 the surveyor who documented the Donation Land Claim took a sight and noted "on this line lies Hudson's Saw Mill." About 30 years ago I poked around the area indicated and found the remains of a saw blade still attached to a shaft.

We have a photo of the man who my grandfather bought the property from. He had been the foreman of the logging operation for the original landowners (who were partners with Hudson) and had married their oldest daughter. The photo shows them skidding logs with oxen and rolling them into a log sluice (ditch) which emptied into a pond that held the logs, then floated them down another ditch to the mill, and also ran the water wheel that powered the mill. The first ditch and the pond still are in operation. I cleaned out the ditch two years ago with a small excavator, and when I removed the accumulated silt the ditch is 8' wide and 4' deep!

I have no doubt that the rafting dogs were used in moving the logs to this mill.

 

[Mintgrun]

I hadn't noticed JAPAN on the tool because I didn't zoom in on the image. Now that I have, I am wondering if the spike on that one is round. The ones I have are a flatter spear-point shape. I'll try to find them and share some photos.

I'll bet a dedicated Logging Tools thread would include some interesting stuff.

 

[Provincial]

All mine have the flattened cross section.

 

[Mintgrun]

The Japanese one is the first conical point I've seen. The flattened profile would be less prone to twisting/rotating and might stay-put better.

 

[DAustin]

Medieval rear end plug.

 

[Mike'smeatshop]

These are some from Ky river. The chained Log Dogs are from the Nathen Goe farm which is Danial Boones Grandson. About a mile from the river. What I was told they connected a large circle called the pond and fill the inside with free logs and then ride them down to the mill. Way before the Locks were put in.