What is it help

[Jeff Ivers]

Overall diameter is about 4.75". Made form about 5/8" steel rod. This is as it came out of the ground - no attempt to clean yet. Would this be some type of rigging device for lifting items with a crane?

Backstory: I made it down to the woods to mow for the first time this year. While mowing, one of the gauge wheels broke off the deck (happens about once a year). Unfortunately, the piece that I needed to weld back on the deck was lost to me, so I took my metal detector down to the woods and found the needed piece. But before locating it, I found this.

 

[nadogail]

Maybe Sasquatch lost his Wedding Ring.

 

[Lumpy102]

Could be almost anything, but I'll take a stab at it. Looks like the ring from the chains that drag behind the disc openers from an antique seed drill. One dragged behind each opener to close the trench that the disc opened for the seed to fall into when planting farm crops. Gawd, I hope I haven't dated myself.

 

[Old Man Roger]

Saw Set Mounting Ring.

 

[jack stand]

....or a ring off of a skidder tire chain. But I just can't see that happening without some attached parts and often they have lugs/ caulks welded on.

 

[larry_g]

We had similar rings on the hitch bar to attach drag harrow sections to the bar.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[four.cycle]

quoits?

ring off a choker?

Saw Set Mounting Ring.

good one!

 

[Squankum]

Ox yoke pole/chain ring?

 

[four.cycle]

yes... could very well be a piece of swingletree or whiffletree (whippletree)

 

[Bill T]

My ex- lost one of her rings....... she didn't sweat much for a big girl

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Some good ideas posted - thank you! I don't know if it means anything, but this was found at least 100 yards from any land that could have ever been planted or seeded. The only known activity in the area is the installation of a major sewer line a few feet away many years ago - could that have been done using horse or oxen power?

 

[A17Raider]

Your guess is as good as anyone's, as to what this ones actual use was but these forge welded rings had so many uses that blacksmiths of old couldn't make enough of them. My guess, as large an example this is, that it was at the end of a log chain used to thread hook end through, for a choke sling for dragging cut timber around. When you clean it up a little look for where the ends were hammered flat, overlapped and hammer welded together. They were harness links, tether rings, door pulls, for hay doors, barn or shed doors. Small versions are on bridles where leather straps converge. around an old farm they'll be everywhere, most time not being used for their original purposes but repurposed for any use. Once these were hammer welded together they were reheated in the forge and dropped over a cone mandrel to hammer into perfect round, or maybe just over the horn of the anvil for a large one like this. My Grandpa Blacksmith-ed until 1957 when he retired and close his shop in Southeast Missouri, so I see these as works of art rather than utilitarian. Clean it up a little, put some bees wax on it and hang it on the wall in your shop.

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

Bull Nose Ring

 

[Squankum]

Some good ideas posted - thank you! I don't know if it means anything, but this was found at least 100 yards from any land that could have ever been planted or seeded. The only known activity in the area is the installation of a major sewer line a few feet away many years ago - could that have been done using horse or oxen power?

If wooded, draft horses and oxen used to be the way to get logs out of the woods.

 

[four.cycle]

it was at the end of a log chain used to thread hook end through, for a choke sling for dragging cut timber around.

^ that was my first guess: a loop off a choker chain.

 

[BurtEggley]

Any of the above or something a kid brought home from one of these. Probably threw it at a squirrel and kept the brass one in his other pocket.

 

[A17Raider]

four.cycle, I think you win. I didn't mean to chicken claw your great first guess! I'm new here and I see that many differences of opinion go on long after the original question has been answered, so I don't need to "P" anybody off, right off the bat.
I'm not a man of few words either, so many good answers to any number of questions will probably be long posted, while I've been writing mine.

 

[four.cycle]

I don't have any ego investment in any of this - those were just my best guesses.
The OP is in Oklahoma. I don't know how much timber harvesting is done there, so that may or may not be accurate.
In any event, as noted above by you, those iron/steel rings are actually not that uncommon. You'll find them here in junk shops, but they're always attached to a length of chain with a hook on one end - a choker.
But as you noted, they served all manner of purpose, really, so it's possible one guess is as good as another.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Well, I spent some time cleaning up the ring with a powered wire wheel.

Based on the current appearance, I think we can rule out bull nose ring as there is no apparent joint. Based on the known activity in the area, it seems to me the best guesses are logging chain or swingletree.

 

[Old Man Roger]

Definitely Definitely a Saw Set Mounting Ring. I'm positive.

 

[Jacko264]

Looks to me like there is two dimples at about 10 o’clock and one at 5 o’clock that could have pins In
for a nose ring

can you put it in a acid box

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Definitely Definitely a Saw Set Mounting Ring. I'm positive.

Can you post a picture of one of those for comparison purposes?

Looks to me like there is two dimples at about 10 o’clock and one at 5 o’clock that could have pins In
for a nose ring

can you put it in a acid box

Could, I suppose, but looking at it in my hands I don't find anything that convinces me I should spend any more time evaluating it.

 

[Old Man Roger]

Can you post a picture of one of those for comparison purposes?

You're not supposed to call me on my bullchit.lol

 

[Jeff Ivers]

You're not supposed to call me on my bullchit.lol

Oh, sorry. But I was so looking forward to the second act.

 

[Squankum]

Wot? You're not going to drop into the local ER on a slow night and ask for an x-ray?