I grew up wandering around my Grandfather's wood shop in Vermont, and marveling at all the well-warn tools lining his walls. I loved figuring out what each tool was used for! We also teased him for his trips to the dump where he'd find old tools that were "just too good to toss out". Thank you for this fascinating visit to little-known tools we "need". :) He also showed me block planes that produced contours that were the trademark of the craftsman.
The weighing device is called a Steel Yard in the UK. They are not uncommon here. I share your fascination for old tools. Craftsmanship and the evolution of tools to serve a purpose is a window in to the life of our forbearers and an inspiration for making today. ‘Keep up the good work’ thanks .
8:58 horizontal set. Used in wheel setting. You are correct that it hangs from a chain, however you don’t bash things with it. The flat end is beat up because you hit that end with a hammer after positioning the taper end where you want the force to go. This allows you to drive wheels onto axles, etc. source: 3 generations of railroad engineering
@ sometimes the ballast shifts and the sleepers (aka ties, aka cross-ties) shift the rail. Each railroad would have their own story stick for both laying and maintaining their rail lines. I collect old railroad maintenance tools. If the story sticks shows your off, you’re going to need to get out the tie plug punch, a box of tie plugs, a spike puller, and hammer. After pulling spikes, shifting the rail, plugging any holes where the spikes will be reset, you set the spikes (replaced if too warn) and be on your way
I think you're spot on. It looks like a giant punch. You hang it to position it where you need it, then hammer on the flat side to focus force on the narrow part.
I was also thinking a massive sized drift… but wouldn’t the bulk of kinetic energy be absorbed by the mass of the tool unless you are swinging a larger than wieldable hammer?
Long time viewer from Bulgaria here. I was pleasantly surprised to see the tesla, it's pretty ubiquitous around the Balkans. It was the go to tool for my grandfather, just because it allowed him to hammer nails and chisel wood with the same instrument. Not the most precise tool but quick and convinient for rough work.
Here in Oklahoma. We call it a cotton scale. The weights come in different sizes for different weights. The weights are called peas here in southern Oklahoma. I enjoy your channel so much.
The second item is probably a wheel/ tire gauge, the distance between the center of the rails is 48.5 inches. So that tool would be a go-no-go gauge for train tires and flanges.
I was thinking the same thing, I vaguely remember such an item being mentioned during rail car inspection training about 35 years ago for my job unloading rail cars at my work.
I love this man, thank you for all your gifts of knowledge it seems like you were hatched from the same morass of stoicism and nearing silent magic that gifts to the lucky ones as we sit and listen to the clitter of bones that’s dance gave rise to our own, I miss you dad love you, your face lights the dark of my own
Hey Scott! Thanks for another Great Video, all these tools are very interesting. I like old tools also. I have a scale like the one you have, here in Georgia they were known as "Stillyard Scales". You are correct that it did have a weight. Mine is pear shaped, probably cast iron. It was used on farms in the south to have a quick weight to pay day laborers. It could be used for most anything. in my experience it was most often used for weighing cotton. When I was about 5-6 ? yrs old, my parents who lived through the Great Depression wanted me to have the experience of picking cotton. My Mother sewed me a child-sized "pick sack" and after school and after supper, we went to the only farm in our area which still raised cotton. I was just a kid and didn't really want to pick cotton. We picked until dark. The farmer's stillyard scale hung from his porch roof. He weighed my little sack of cotton and said "15 cents"... wonder of the triple=gauge with the pins might be for checking the wear on train wheels ? Just a thought.
I can’t even put into words how much I love old shops full of clutter and still in use! I love old tools that were built and designed for old world problems. I’m doing my best to try doing some blacksmith work. I can’t do much but I so want to be good at any of it! I broke myself when I was a younger man, so I physically can’t do much at all. I’ve wanted to do metal lathe and cnc work(non computer types of work). Where we live now, I don’t know anyone. No old Barnes and buildings that belong to family and friends. Or people with similar interests for that matter.
Regarding your Mammoth tusk, I also own somethings that came out of the ground. They're fairly worthless in the UK, but as a bricklayer I've pulled countless Roman coins out of the ground. Chucked loads back that were unrecognisable but have kept, cherished and had dated all the clearer examples. Oldest was dated at AD. 49, six years after the invasion of Britain.
@@BCVS777 I had a horse years ago who needed a twitch everytime we trimmed his hooves. Used properly they are very effective and do not harm the animal. It places the animals entire attention on the nose. He eventually didn't need it.
I’m a machinist at University of Alaska. Several times I have cut Mammoth tusk lengthwise so then they can do sampling lengthwise inside the mammoth Tusk, for carbon, nitrogen and strontium, and strontium is interesting because that tells the migration of where the mammoth was living and eating Over its life
It amazes me the tools and ways we develop to complete various tasks. If those counterweights continue to cause embarrassment you could hide them away in A pouch of some sort.
the balance is also called steelyard or Roman scale and uses the principle of the lever to determine the weight of an object. The hook at the top acts as a fulcrum, the goods to be weighed are hung on the one hook at the bottom then by moving the "weight" (probably you miss this...) along the rod one tries to find the equilibrium point. I got one in my garage...in the north of Italy we call it "Stadera". 🙂
Great job. I also love old tools as well as old stuff my grandmother used on the farm. Many aren’t used anymore but I still have them. Great stuff from a buy gone era. Thank you 😊
I agree, I LOVE old tools. May sound strange but it feels like they have a soul to them sometimes. I also just love the feel and the craftsmanship built into them. Spend a fair amount of time looking for them at yard sales, flea markets and such. Can never seem to have too many, ha ha. I'm guessing at that gauge but it seems like it could be a go - no - go gauge of sorts. Almost like the perfect dimension and the plus and minus tolerance dimension for a part.
The thing with the hooks is called Kantar here in Serbia, While we were under the bloody Ottomans, it's unit for measure was Oka. 1 oka was 1,28 kg. There are beautiful examples of Kantars with the ingrained art on it and the cross in the head of the Kantar. Yours is beautiful also... There are still old ladies here on our green markets in Belgrade who use this device very skillfully. Only in kilograms.
A comment on repurposing a tool. I'm a retired Stationary Engineer, started out as a Boiler Tender in the Dept of Corrections, later promoted to a State Residential Hospital Facility. Each facility would have a population ranging 3 to 6 thousand. Plant operations would have a staff of 50 to 80 folk. having shops representing all the trades and each would help with whatever problem arose. In my shop we ran the Boiler Room and Chiller Plant 24 / 7. In maintaining / repairing Steam and Condensate Valves we had to repack them w/ new packing and sometimes the old packing was pretty tough to remove, sometimes the commercial packing pullers wouldn't cut it. The Never-fail Packing Puller we prized were Pitchfork Tines. After the landscapers had worn them out and replaced them ( which was rare, pitchforks are tough) we got the old forks, cut off the tines clean & sharpen, maybe bend a tiny hook in the tip of 1 or 2 of the tines. Best darn packing puller for those extra ugly jobs. - Bill B. been enjoying your videos for years and thank you very much, Happy Thanksgiving!
3:43 It's a nose lead. It's not just for bulls (it's for cows, too), and it's not just for leading. Every veterinarian had one of those in his truck. Its most common use was to restrain the head of an unruly cow for veterinary procedures such as administering oral medication, injections or an I.V. that went into the jugular vein. The rope allows you to tie the cow with her head facing one direction or another, by tying to the bars of a pen or a stantion frame. If a cow was unable to stand up, you could turn her head around and tie it to her back leg for ease of inserting an I.V. needle in the jugular.
Seeing your door closer reminds me of a problem we had in the kitchen of our previous house. one cabinet door, forehead high for my 10 year old daughter, opened into the doorway and was stopped by a fixed wall. That door took her to the floor enough times that I had to come up with a reliable automatic closer. I came up with a cord, fishing weights, a plastic pulley, and gravity to make sure it always closed. My daughter reminded me of it recently, 25 years later.
Good morning. About your counter wheights. The Tranvaal Rugby team in South Africa are nicknamed the Blue Bull's. One can buy a certain ornimant that you hang from the towbar of your pickup. They are blue of coarse.
I had a friend from the Medford area just give me 2 of those scales, along with some other neat old hand tools. When I started watching this video it made me think of the scales and how they actually worked! Now I know!
I would wager, that last one is a go-no-go gauge for the more common tire sizes in that day. I wish I could go back in time and work in a roundhouse. Absolutely neat.
Love your show I have the same old scale mine is all there I will send you a pic if you would like let me know ! I’m almost 80 years old ranched and farmed all my life so have a lot of old tools can’t seem to throw anything out.
That is a steelyard scale. I think the original weights were cast iron roughly spherical with a loop to fit over the beam. The one I saw in use the weight was a scrap of pipe with a U shape of wire welded on it. To make it work, the loop portion has to be filed quite sharp and be a very easy fit over the beam. To calibrate, hang known weights and adjust the beam weight with a file. If you measure it carefully, you should be able to work out the ratio for the levers.
The counterweight for the steelyard can take a couple forms. I've seen small, basic ones with a - well it looks like a cube with the centre drilled out. Mid sized with a counterweight shaped like a grain shovel or one of those cement pourers they hang from giant cranes. But often they look like a heavy plumbob on a couple links of chain. If you were to make your own, I'd start off by doing some math on the forces involved, make a weight, then tailor that weight by using known masses, like a 50lb bucket of water or something.
Having moved away from Balkans i was missing the teslá on few occasions. Great to see you appreciating its ‘beauty’! To make a weight for the handheld scale just attach known weight at the business end and start adding heavy nuts on the stick starting from the matching marking. Weld them together. To make it short but thick add nuts on top of the nuts. To make it match perfect add smaller nuts. You’ll figure it out. Hope this helps.
Thanks for another great program. My great-grandfather was a machinist/mechanic for probably a railroad roundhouse in Kansas. Unfortunately none of his stuff made it to my generation.
that battering ram you have there i use something similar for taking the pins out of excavator buckets/sticks or even some hydraulic cylinder pins to get the cylinder off the machine. works fantastic! and barely anyway to bust your knuckles!
As stated the steel gauge is a go no go for railroad gauge . In this day and age we have fancy tape rulers that have the gauge marks on them so they can be recorded . This was especially important in control points and yard switches . Trains on the ground are an expensive call …. Fun fact RR gauge was derived from Roman cart wheel gauge
We lived in Eastport, Maine for 17 years. It’s an old fishing community with lots of history. There was a run down shed behind the house we bought. It was torn down and went to the landfill with all it’s meager and useless contents. One item I found I just couldn’t throw away. I asked a bunch of people what it was but no one could identify it. It was a cube of some sort of natural or man-made stone. It was about 6x6x6” with 4 sides beveled. On both ”ends” there were random grooves worn in & going every which way. All I can imagine was it was used to sharpen fish hooks but I just don’t know. We’ve moved several times and I don’t think I have it any longer but I sure wish I did. It’s probably the most interesting worthless item I’ve ever owned!
In Great Britain we call it a tup we had 10 in the shop I worked in there raged from the you have up to a six man tup it was about 12 foot long and it was as heavy as a Monday hammer on a Monday morning 😅,we use your size tup to knock out the wedge pin that held the steam hammer blocks on .
My memory is a bit frazzled because I may have been three or four when my granddad told me and my Dad what that one thing was. The large weight with a loop attached and huge round head and long tail. It was used by the old wagon makers who seldom had help - to knock those hot pins into the tongues and other wagon parts. No way to fit them to a drill and too big to drill by hand. A red hot piece of steel like a railroad spike or larger could be driven through those big logs to make holes for the tongues and whiffletrees on the massive cargo wagons. It burned its way through with a little help from that heavy iron being swung on a chain or heavy rope hung through that loop from a tree or other device rigged to hang it just right. Didn't take ten men - just one ingenious man,, a helper and a lot of sweat. I was fascinated and for such a young child actually listened to most of what granddad said but ... There were other ways it could be used but I forget most of it. It all involved using that hoop to hang it and swing it with.
Some very cool tools in your collection. I think I’ll have to make one of those square fences. The nose tongs are not fool proof though. I’ve seen an animal tear them right out of their nose. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
Hello, I think that the item from the Round House is a hanging sledge used to upset the ends of the tubes inside a boiler. Each end of those tubes gets hammered over to create a seal for the steam pressure, as the fire roars through the tubes heating the water. Just my guess. Thank you as always you do great work, stay well.
That’s a rail gauge used in conjunction with a Jim Crow rail bender usually use when making a mixed gauge junction under ground or narrow gauge rail way .
That old scale is 100% an old, I'd say late 1800s, beam scale. Also known as a cotton scale. You're missing the "pea"; which is the weight used to tell the weight of the thing you're weighing. Still an amazing piece! There's some folks that have taken high def pictures next to a ruler of them if you wanted to re-create the markings! and the "pea" weighs about 2.25 pounds if I remember correctly! Thanks for sharing, love the old tools! I'm also in Oregon! same as my father, both in construction!
It is called a balance scale. It has two different sliding weights for different weights measuring. I can remember my grandfathers had those on there farms.
It’s called steel yard because it’s made of steel and it’s a yard long 😄I was brought up calling it a skiff .The weigh is like a cannon ball on a shore piece of chain with a wash attached to the other end of the weight,the was is big enough to slide over the rod and it as a thin section file on the inside ID to fit in the groves on the rod 👍.
I have a complete set of weights for your scale in my shop at home. Came off the farm years ago. I'm no good with computers ,i have a better chance of useing the scale but will try to send you a picture tomorrow when I get off work😮
I would also add they might not be as old as everyone thinks. My family settled here in Nebraska in the 30's. The set I have was used around here even in the 50's you could weigh anything g you wanted anywhere you wanted. Heck my father used it in the 90's the weigh deer he shot. I'm sure someone will send youictures soon if not PM me and I will
A clean room style shop is definitely not my style either. I like to be surrounded by tools that I use, old tools that are worn and used, and materials. That is what gives me inspiration in the shop. Any chance you or anyone else reading this has a link to that hammer? Would love to get one. You can never have enough different types of hammers!
I do love old tools, inherited a few from 'up on the farm' in Maine, want to use a few of them, just to see what it was like, but I have no desire to hay an entire field with a scythe, or go ice farming on the lake . . .
Center wall of the nose is a "septum" , all those kids with the piercings might not know tools but the know the names of every place you can jam a needle through 😂
The scale looks like a steelyard scale I see in the "Dictionary of American Hand Tools". The picture shows a weight hanging from a chain that moves along the arm.
I have a tool that no one I've shown can quite figure out what it is. I've had it for probably 10 years and still to this day , curiosity strikes me when I open my toolbox. Maybe I could send you a picture and you could have a go at it.
It's incredibly interesting to consider these tools historically, against the backdrop of conventional history, which weighs the efforts of kings in their exploits, counts the outcomes of battles as the important numeracies of change, whereas these inventions, and the men who not only birthed them, but their adherents who went on to implement and tweak and perfect them; they are the true movers of history, and their untold efforts linger on in more ways than any warrior's.
The tusla is actually a specialality tool it was used in Israel in the early part of the last century for on site ,in the orchard, building of packing crates for citrus produce you would have a bundle of thin slats that you would cut to length with the adze edge then flip it around to hammer the nails at the corners thus making a crate for shipping to market. I have a few of them and was told this by the old folk who used them.
I think the word you wanted was septum. Those weights to close the door reminded me of the South American throwing weapon whose name I can't call t mind!
I knew what the nose tongs were when I saw the rope on them. Grew up on a cattle farm, and I'm pretty familiar with using them. Ironically, our bulls were the most cooperative ones. It was the cows that needed the nose tongs!
If I had to guess I would guess that the stick with a whole bunch of bars is a measuring stick for railroad ties spacing them out, depending on the circumstances.
what you called a pitch fork we called a grape in Scotland mostly used for forking out cow dung mixed with straw the provide natural food for potatoes to grow in. Ones with more flat rather than square section tines (teeth) were actually used to harvest the potatoes as they lifted rather and pierced the spuds !
@@Mike1941-r8y we had spades like flat shovels for turning over the earth..for potatoes for example you would dig out a trench to plant them in then the earth from the next row was turned over on top of the planted seed potatoes
When I was a kid, a cow wandered off of a neighboring farm and a few of us kids tried to maneuver it back home. After a getting nowhere, one of the dads in the neighborhood came over, stuck his thumb and forefinger in the cow's nostrils and led the cow back home without any struggle. While that showed that fingers do the the job, those nostril pliers probably keep the hands much cleaner. 🙃 In my experience, we'd call that "pitchfork" a manure fork. Our "pitchfork" was much more delicate with only three tines and was used to separate and pitch sections of hay from bales.
You do realise that a window weight looks exactly like another part ....... it might make her even more uncomfortable! Definitely do not combine the two or yT will be banning you!
The weighing scale is called zigari in Greece, my grandfather has one in the weighing system of oka it is the previous system to kilos used in Greece but it is steel accurate even after so many years, but my new scale just malfunction after two years simply to put it in perspective.
I’ve seen a beam scale like that before, and the counterweight looked like an iron bell designed to hang from the detents along the arm. One suggestion is to provide ChatGPT with every detail, including markings, dimensions, and other unique features. With enough information, it might be able to identify the scale’s origin or help you figure out how to replicate the missing counterweight.
I was born in Greece, live in the US, contractor for 35 years, right now vacationing in Greece. I grew up with those "Greek" hammers, I am looking at one right now on my shelve my father brought to America and I brought back to Greece. I wouldn't say it is a "framing" hammer, as there was not much wood framing in Greece (Still isn't, my neighbors thought I was weird when over the summer I framed a couple of big storage sheds), they were used more as a combination regular hammer and...chisel hammer(?) to remove wood and thin down planks.
Just trying to remember and figure out what looks like a 1/2 scale track guage, If my memory is any good track width is based off of the original wagon trails with a 54-inch inside width of track made by 2 oxen side by side pulling a cart that follows in their foot path. there are two or three different somewhat standard track widths based on that basic 54-inch number also several different top of track profiles. All of this information was presented to me in the early 80's as a factory trained railcar mover technician
I grew up wandering around my Grandfather's wood shop in Vermont, and marveling at all the well-warn tools lining his walls. I loved figuring out what each tool was used for! We also teased him for his trips to the dump where he'd find old tools that were "just too good to toss out". Thank you for this fascinating visit to little-known tools we "need". :) He also showed me block planes that produced contours that were the trademark of the craftsman.
The weighing device is called a Steel Yard in the UK. They are not uncommon here. I share your fascination for old tools. Craftsmanship and the evolution of tools to serve a purpose is a window in to the life of our forbearers and an inspiration for making today. ‘Keep up the good work’ thanks .
8:58 horizontal set. Used in wheel setting. You are correct that it hangs from a chain, however you don’t bash things with it. The flat end is beat up because you hit that end with a hammer after positioning the taper end where you want the force to go. This allows you to drive wheels onto axles, etc. source: 3 generations of railroad engineering
That was my guess. I was thinking a hanging drift and something to do with measuring for the track gauge.
@ sometimes the ballast shifts and the sleepers (aka ties, aka cross-ties) shift the rail. Each railroad would have their own story stick for both laying and maintaining their rail lines. I collect old railroad maintenance tools. If the story sticks shows your off, you’re going to need to get out the tie plug punch, a box of tie plugs, a spike puller, and hammer. After pulling spikes, shifting the rail, plugging any holes where the spikes will be reset, you set the spikes (replaced if too warn) and be on your way
I think you're spot on. It looks like a giant punch. You hang it to position it where you need it, then hammer on the flat side to focus force on the narrow part.
I was also thinking a massive sized drift… but wouldn’t the bulk of kinetic energy be absorbed by the mass of the tool unless you are swinging a larger than wieldable hammer?
@@devinteske Awesome! i own a spike puller, what an incredible chunk of iron. It moves boulders with ease. Definitely my favorite yard sale find.
Long time viewer from Bulgaria here. I was pleasantly surprised to see the tesla, it's pretty ubiquitous around the Balkans.
It was the go to tool for my grandfather, just because it allowed him to hammer nails and chisel wood with the same instrument. Not the most precise tool but quick and convinient for rough work.
Here in Oklahoma. We call it a cotton scale. The weights come in different sizes for different weights. The weights are called peas here in southern Oklahoma. I enjoy your channel so much.
My mamaw picked cotton god rest her soul I live by tenkiller
The older I get the more I appreciate old tools! Thanks for sharing Scott!
The second item is probably a wheel/ tire gauge, the distance between the center of the rails is 48.5 inches. So that tool would be a go-no-go gauge for train tires and flanges.
I was thinking Go/No Go gauge but did not know the application.
I was thinking the same thing, I vaguely remember such an item being mentioned during rail car inspection training about 35 years ago for my job unloading rail cars at my work.
I was thinking it might be a gauge for narrow gauge track. Knowing what railroad the shop was for might be able to help figure it out.
I love this man, thank you for all your gifts of knowledge it seems like you were hatched from the same morass of stoicism and nearing silent magic that gifts to the lucky ones as we sit and listen to the clitter of bones that’s dance gave rise to our own, I miss you dad love you, your face lights the dark of my own
Seeing your joy for old tools and equipements makes me so happy ! I relate so much to that feeling
Hey Scott! Thanks for another Great Video, all these tools are very interesting. I like old tools also. I have a scale like the one you have, here in Georgia they were known as "Stillyard Scales". You are correct that it did have a weight. Mine is pear shaped, probably cast iron. It was used on farms in the south to have a quick weight to pay day laborers. It could be used for most anything. in my experience it was most often used for weighing cotton. When I was about 5-6 ? yrs old, my parents who lived through the Great Depression wanted me to have the experience of picking cotton. My Mother sewed me a child-sized "pick sack" and after school and after supper, we went to the only farm in our area which still raised cotton. I was just a kid and didn't really want to pick cotton. We picked until dark. The farmer's stillyard scale hung from his porch roof. He weighed my little sack of cotton and said "15 cents"... wonder of the triple=gauge with the pins might be for checking the wear on train wheels ? Just a thought.
I love to find old "whatcha-ma-call-it tools and items and finding out what they are and how they were used. Thank you for sharing.
I can’t even put into words how much I love old shops full of clutter and still in use! I love old tools that were built and designed for old world problems. I’m doing my best to try doing some blacksmith work. I can’t do much but I so want to be good at any of it! I broke myself when I was a younger man, so I physically can’t do much at all. I’ve wanted to do metal lathe and cnc work(non computer types of work). Where we live now, I don’t know anyone. No old Barnes and buildings that belong to family and friends. Or people with similar interests for that matter.
Regarding your Mammoth tusk, I also own somethings that came out of the ground. They're fairly worthless in the UK, but as a bricklayer I've pulled countless Roman coins out of the ground. Chucked loads back that were unrecognisable but have kept, cherished and had dated all the clearer examples. Oldest was dated at AD. 49, six years after the invasion of Britain.
Wow, for us in the US, that sounds incredible! I'd love to have even an unrecognizeable one!.....
Thank you so much for the video.
Those nose tongs are usually called a "twitch". They do work.
I've been tempted to try 'em on a few humans during my lifetime!
A twitch is a similar device but used for restraint in horses. Tongs for cattle, twitch for horse.
@@BCVS777 I had a horse years ago who needed a twitch everytime we trimmed his hooves. Used properly they are very effective and do not harm the animal. It places the animals entire attention on the nose. He eventually didn't need it.
I totally agree this man could write a book on his life and travels and all the in between
Yea, before America became communist and he mooched off the most productive and efficient time in human history.
Would be great as an audio book. Scott has a radio voice that rivals anyone out there!
That door closer really has some balls behind it!
I’m a machinist at University of Alaska.
Several times I have cut Mammoth tusk lengthwise so then they can do sampling lengthwise inside the mammoth Tusk, for carbon, nitrogen and strontium, and strontium is interesting because that tells the migration of where the mammoth was living and eating Over its life
Thanks a lot for the square fence. I've been needing that idea for years.
Great video. I have some of my dad's Crescent tools, Proto, S-K . Priceless to me. I've added more to my collection. Thank you ! 👍
It amazes me the tools and ways we develop to complete various tasks. If those counterweights continue to cause embarrassment you could hide them away in A pouch of some sort.
the balance is also called steelyard
or Roman scale and uses the principle of the lever
to determine the weight of an object.
The hook at the top acts as a fulcrum,
the goods to be weighed are hung on the one hook at the bottom
then by moving the "weight" (probably you miss this...) along the rod one tries to find the equilibrium point. I got one in my garage...in the north of Italy we call it "Stadera". 🙂
Great job. I also love old tools as well as old stuff my grandmother used on the farm. Many aren’t used anymore but I still have them. Great stuff from a buy gone era. Thank you 😊
I agree, I LOVE old tools. May sound strange but it feels like they have a soul to them sometimes. I also just love the feel and the craftsmanship built into them. Spend a fair amount of time looking for them at yard sales, flea markets and such. Can never seem to have too many, ha ha. I'm guessing at that gauge but it seems like it could be a go - no - go gauge of sorts. Almost like the perfect dimension and the plus and minus tolerance dimension for a part.
The thing with the hooks is called Kantar here in Serbia, While we were under the bloody Ottomans, it's unit for measure was Oka. 1 oka was 1,28 kg. There are beautiful examples of Kantars with the ingrained art on it and the cross in the head of the Kantar. Yours is beautiful also... There are still old ladies here on our green markets in Belgrade who use this device very skillfully. Only in kilograms.
Your door weight story had me in tears! A very adroit choice of words.😅
A comment on repurposing a tool. I'm a retired Stationary Engineer, started out as a Boiler Tender in the Dept of Corrections, later promoted to a State Residential Hospital Facility. Each facility would have a population ranging 3 to 6 thousand. Plant operations would have a staff of 50 to 80 folk. having shops representing all the trades and each would help with whatever problem arose. In my shop we ran the Boiler Room and Chiller Plant 24 / 7. In maintaining / repairing Steam and Condensate Valves we had to repack them w/ new packing and sometimes the old packing was pretty tough to remove, sometimes the commercial packing pullers wouldn't cut it. The Never-fail Packing Puller we prized were Pitchfork Tines. After the landscapers had worn them out and replaced them ( which was rare, pitchforks are tough) we got the old forks, cut off the tines clean & sharpen, maybe bend a tiny hook in the tip of 1 or 2 of the tines. Best darn packing puller for those extra ugly jobs. - Bill B. been enjoying your videos for years and thank you very much, Happy Thanksgiving!
3:43 It's a nose lead. It's not just for bulls (it's for cows, too), and it's not just for leading. Every veterinarian had one of those in his truck. Its most common use was to restrain the head of an unruly cow for veterinary procedures such as administering oral medication, injections or an I.V. that went into the jugular vein. The rope allows you to tie the cow with her head facing one direction or another, by tying to the bars of a pen or a stantion frame. If a cow was unable to stand up, you could turn her head around and tie it to her back leg for ease of inserting an I.V. needle in the jugular.
Wouldn't it make more sense to have two leads from the pincer, so as to be able to secure the animal's head half-way between two anchor points?
A great way to spend 12 minutes on a cold rainy Saturday. 🇺🇸👍
The pitch fork is a digging fork on the UK. you can tell because its so straight. Love your work. X
Seeing your door closer reminds me of a problem we had in the kitchen of our previous house. one cabinet door, forehead high for my 10 year old daughter, opened into the doorway and was stopped by a fixed wall. That door took her to the floor enough times that I had to come up with a reliable automatic closer. I came up with a cord, fishing weights, a plastic pulley, and gravity to make sure it always closed. My daughter reminded me of it recently, 25 years later.
Scott! Whoever convinced you to start your TH-cam journey, please give them a hug and a high five from me. Love what you do
Repeat that for me!
Fills a hole in my soul
His son Nate
Good morning. About your counter wheights. The Tranvaal Rugby team in South Africa are nicknamed the Blue Bull's. One can buy a certain ornimant that you hang from the towbar of your pickup. They are blue of coarse.
Really enjoying your channel, so far. I found it a few weeks ago or so.
I had a friend from the Medford area just give me 2 of those scales, along with some other neat old hand tools. When I started watching this video it made me think of the scales and how they actually worked! Now I know!
I would wager, that last one is a go-no-go gauge for the more common tire sizes in that day. I wish I could go back in time and work in a roundhouse. Absolutely neat.
Love your show I have the same old scale mine is all there I will send you a pic if you would like let me know ! I’m almost 80 years old ranched and farmed all my life so have a lot of old tools can’t seem to throw anything out.
Great video! I could sure use a battering ram every so often.
That is a steelyard scale. I think the original weights were cast iron roughly spherical with a loop to fit over the beam. The one I saw in use the weight was a scrap of pipe with a U shape of wire welded on it. To make it work, the loop portion has to be filed quite sharp and be a very easy fit over the beam. To calibrate, hang known weights and adjust the beam weight with a file. If you measure it carefully, you should be able to work out the ratio for the levers.
Check Wikipedia for "Steelyard".
Is also known as a Roman steelyard or Roman balance
The counterweight for the steelyard can take a couple forms. I've seen small, basic ones with a - well it looks like a cube with the centre drilled out. Mid sized with a counterweight shaped like a grain shovel or one of those cement pourers they hang from giant cranes. But often they look like a heavy plumbob on a couple links of chain. If you were to make your own, I'd start off by doing some math on the forces involved, make a weight, then tailor that weight by using known masses, like a 50lb bucket of water or something.
Having moved away from Balkans i was missing the teslá on few occasions. Great to see you appreciating its ‘beauty’!
To make a weight for the handheld scale just attach known weight at the business end and start adding heavy nuts on the stick starting from the matching marking. Weld them together. To make it short but thick add nuts on top of the nuts. To make it match perfect add smaller nuts. You’ll figure it out. Hope this helps.
Hi Scott That scales we call it a stillard I have one a bit more modern used it to weigh carcase meat great channel
Thanks for another great program. My great-grandfather was a machinist/mechanic for probably a railroad roundhouse in Kansas. Unfortunately none of his stuff made it to my generation.
Outstanding today EC love it
that battering ram you have there i use something similar for taking the pins out of excavator buckets/sticks or even some hydraulic cylinder pins to get the cylinder off the machine. works fantastic! and barely anyway to bust your knuckles!
Scott, I think the missing counter weight for your scale was in the shape of a pear, made from cast iron/ steel.
What you have at 6:15 is what we British would call a steelyard. Yours is a very elegant two-sided Version. I've never seen one like that.
At the Parthenon I watched archaeologists using a tool very much like the one you first showed. They were using it to cut through a stone surface.
Well Scott, that door reminds me that the older we get the lower our weights hang.
As stated the steel gauge is a go no go for railroad gauge .
In this day and age we have fancy tape rulers that have the gauge marks on them so they can be recorded .
This was especially important in control points and yard switches . Trains on the ground are an expensive call ….
Fun fact RR gauge was derived from Roman cart wheel gauge
Great video! I’m really into old tools.
The counter weight on the door gave me a good laugh!😂 love the vids scott. Happy Thanksgiving to you your family and freinds!
We lived in Eastport, Maine for 17 years. It’s an old fishing community with lots of history. There was a run down shed behind the house we bought. It was torn down and went to the landfill with all it’s meager and useless contents. One item I found I just couldn’t throw away. I asked a bunch of people what it was but no one could identify it. It was a cube of some sort of natural or man-made stone. It was about 6x6x6” with 4 sides beveled. On both ”ends” there were random grooves worn in & going every which way. All I can imagine was it was used to sharpen fish hooks but I just don’t know. We’ve moved several times and I don’t think I have it any longer but I sure wish I did. It’s probably the most interesting worthless item I’ve ever owned!
In Great Britain we call it a tup we had 10 in the shop I worked in there raged from the you have up to a six man tup it was about 12 foot long and it was as heavy as a Monday hammer on a Monday morning 😅,we use your size tup to knock out the wedge pin that held the steam hammer blocks on .
Here in Sweden that type of scale/weighing device is called a "pyndare" or "besman" depending if you move the handle or the counterweight.
My memory is a bit frazzled because I may have been three or four when my granddad told me and my Dad what that one thing was. The large weight with a loop attached and huge round head and long tail. It was used by the old wagon makers who seldom had help - to knock those hot pins into the tongues and other wagon parts. No way to fit them to a drill and too big to drill by hand. A red hot piece of steel like a railroad spike or larger could be driven through those big logs to make holes for the tongues and whiffletrees on the massive cargo wagons. It burned its way through with a little help from that heavy iron being swung on a chain or heavy rope hung through that loop from a tree or other device rigged to hang it just right. Didn't take ten men - just one ingenious man,, a helper and a lot of sweat. I was fascinated and for such a young child actually listened to most of what granddad said but ... There were other ways it could be used but I forget most of it. It all involved using that hoop to hang it and swing it with.
Some very cool tools in your collection. I think I’ll have to make one of those square fences. The nose tongs are not fool proof though. I’ve seen an animal tear them right out of their nose. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
Hello, I think that the item from the Round House is a hanging sledge used to upset the ends of the tubes inside a boiler. Each end of those tubes gets hammered over to create a seal for the steam pressure, as the fire roars through the tubes heating the water. Just my guess. Thank you as always you do great work, stay well.
That’s a rail gauge used in conjunction with a Jim Crow rail bender usually use when making a mixed gauge junction under ground or narrow gauge rail way .
square fences have been around a long time. This got forgotten but they are good
nice set of door weights
That old scale is 100% an old, I'd say late 1800s, beam scale. Also known as a cotton scale. You're missing the "pea"; which is the weight used to tell the weight of the thing you're weighing. Still an amazing piece! There's some folks that have taken high def pictures next to a ruler of them if you wanted to re-create the markings! and the "pea" weighs about 2.25 pounds if I remember correctly! Thanks for sharing, love the old tools! I'm also in Oregon! same as my father, both in construction!
The gauge with multiple lenghts. Just a guess but possibly gauge for wheel roundness?? As always great work.
It is called a balance scale. It has two different sliding weights for different weights measuring. I can remember my grandfathers had those on there farms.
It’s called steel yard because it’s made of steel and it’s a yard long 😄I was brought up calling it a skiff .The weigh is like a cannon ball on a shore piece of chain with a wash attached to the other end of the weight,the was is big enough to slide over the rod and it as a thin section file on the inside ID to fit in the groves on the rod 👍.
I enjoyed that very much
I have a complete set of weights for your scale in my shop at home. Came off the farm years ago. I'm no good with computers ,i have a better chance of useing the scale but will try to send you a picture tomorrow when I get off work😮
I would also add they might not be as old as everyone thinks. My family settled here in Nebraska in the 30's. The set I have was used around here even in the 50's you could weigh anything g you wanted anywhere you wanted. Heck my father used it in the 90's the weigh deer he shot. I'm sure someone will send youictures soon if not PM me and I will
Great episode! Thanks.
A clean room style shop is definitely not my style either. I like to be surrounded by tools that I use, old tools that are worn and used, and materials. That is what gives me inspiration in the shop.
Any chance you or anyone else reading this has a link to that hammer? Would love to get one. You can never have enough different types of hammers!
I do love old tools, inherited a few from 'up on the farm' in Maine, want to use a few of them, just to see what it was like, but I have no desire to hay an entire field with a scythe, or go ice farming on the lake . . .
I, too, have an old scale like that mine also are missing the sliding wt.
Mine hangs on my exterior garage wall with a few other old tools
Center wall of the nose is a "septum" , all those kids with the piercings might not know tools but the know the names of every place you can jam a needle through 😂
Every time I see a young woman or man with a nose ring I just shake my head in wonder.
@@Mike1941-r8y I often wonder if their friends clip a leash on them.
The scale looks like a steelyard scale I see in the "Dictionary of American Hand Tools". The picture shows a weight hanging from a chain that moves along the arm.
Dangly bits are funny.😂
Awesome stuff
I have a tool that no one I've shown can quite figure out what it is. I've had it for probably 10 years and still to this day , curiosity strikes me when I open my toolbox. Maybe I could send you a picture and you could have a go at it.
Send it to us! Essentialcraftsman@gmail.com
It's incredibly interesting to consider these tools historically, against the backdrop of conventional history, which weighs the efforts of kings in their exploits, counts the outcomes of battles as the important numeracies of change, whereas these inventions, and the men who not only birthed them, but their adherents who went on to implement and tweak and perfect them; they are the true movers of history, and their untold efforts linger on in more ways than any warrior's.
The tusla is actually a specialality tool it was used in Israel in the early part of the last century for on site ,in the orchard, building of packing crates for citrus produce
you would have a bundle of thin slats that you would cut to length with the adze edge then flip it around to hammer the nails at the corners thus making a crate for shipping to market. I have a few of them and was told this by the old folk who used them.
That scale is called 'steelyard balance'. The weight on it would look just like those fishing weights on the door.
I think the word you wanted was septum.
Those weights to close the door reminded me of the South American throwing weapon whose name I can't call t mind!
I knew what the nose tongs were when I saw the rope on them. Grew up on a cattle farm, and I'm pretty familiar with using them. Ironically, our bulls were the most cooperative ones. It was the cows that needed the nose tongs!
You have a beautiful soul.
One of the weights off the door could be used on the steel yard it looks to be about the correct size 👍.
If I had to guess I would guess that the stick with a whole bunch of bars is a measuring stick for railroad ties spacing them out, depending on the circumstances.
what you called a pitch fork we called a grape in Scotland mostly used for forking out cow dung mixed with straw the provide natural food for potatoes to grow in. Ones with more flat rather than square section tines (teeth) were actually used to harvest the potatoes as they lifted rather and pierced the spuds !
Another thing the fork could be is a “Spading” (spade-ing) fork for digging up the garden to prepare for planting.
@@Mike1941-r8y we had spades like flat shovels for turning over the earth..for potatoes for example you would dig out a trench to plant them in then the earth from the next row was turned over on top of the planted seed potatoes
When I was a kid, a cow wandered off of a neighboring farm and a few of us kids tried to maneuver it back home. After a getting nowhere, one of the dads in the neighborhood came over, stuck his thumb and forefinger in the cow's nostrils and led the cow back home without any struggle. While that showed that fingers do the the job, those nostril pliers probably keep the hands much cleaner. 🙃
In my experience, we'd call that "pitchfork" a manure fork. Our "pitchfork" was much more delicate with only three tines and was used to separate and pitch sections of hay from bales.
you should hang a window weight between those two fishing weights. it would work faster, and maybe? she would be more comfortable with it?
You do realise that a window weight looks exactly like another part ....... it might make her even more uncomfortable! Definitely do not combine the two or yT will be banning you!
@totherarf pretty sure that was funny point he was making.
@@stevenschneider7443 Yeah .... but only the bottom half! ;o)
We use old windows weights for trollies lol
Trot lines sorry
That Tool, most likely used for setting engage on track inside a switch so the rails are consistent so the train don’t fall off
I live in B C Canada My Dad would have called that a beam scale because you could hang it from beam possible in a barn
The weighing scale is called zigari in Greece, my grandfather has one in the weighing system of oka it is the previous system to kilos used in Greece but it is steel accurate even after so many years, but my new scale just malfunction after two years simply to put it in perspective.
I’ve seen a beam scale like that before, and the counterweight looked like an iron bell designed to hang from the detents along the arm. One suggestion is to provide ChatGPT with every detail, including markings, dimensions, and other unique features. With enough information, it might be able to identify the scale’s origin or help you figure out how to replicate the missing counterweight.
I was born in Greece, live in the US, contractor for 35 years, right now vacationing in Greece. I grew up with those "Greek" hammers, I am looking at one right now on my shelve my father brought to America and I brought back to Greece. I wouldn't say it is a "framing" hammer, as there was not much wood framing in Greece (Still isn't, my neighbors thought I was weird when over the summer I framed a couple of big storage sheds), they were used more as a combination regular hammer and...chisel hammer(?) to remove wood and thin down planks.
Just trying to remember and figure out what looks like a 1/2 scale track guage, If my memory is any good track width is based off of the original wagon trails with a 54-inch inside width of track made by 2 oxen side by side pulling a cart that follows in their foot path. there are two or three different somewhat standard track widths based on that basic 54-inch number also several different top of track profiles. All of this information was presented to me in the early 80's as a factory trained railcar mover technician
The fork looks like the one we had also for digging potatoes
Every old tool has a story and character
That is a cotton scale. Used to weigh the pickers sack as thy picked by the pound. My grandparents had several of them.
my grandfather worked in a roundhouse on the L&N in eastern KY.
What kind of button down t-shirt are you wearing in your logger pants video ? And where can I buy them ? Thank you
Hi is there a particular way to post a picture in the comments section ,we do have a scale with the original weight on it as you ask for
Well, at least you don’t have those weights hanging from the back of your truck!
😂