AlbertaChickensEtc

Well I'm a member of our local Historical board, & the one in the museum here says ice saw. There is plenty of info on the net that says so as well. Although I do notice the pic is actually called a hay saw in some links as well.

I think the jury is out on this one, & will go to a higher authority for the answer.

I have a solution.
Both LCRT and Shadewolf are invited out to my place with the respective tools to try out on my over grown pasture. I will photograph thier progress and post it all on ACE.

reneggaide roo wrote:

When I attended NAIT as a cabinetmaker we were trained in the principles of how cutting edges work.  The one with all the little teeth would be excellent at cutting ice or wood or some other dense material.  I have an old hay knife like shadewolf's and challenge anyone to come out here and show me how much ice they can cut with it.  There is a whole lake full of ice for us a couple miles down the road, Ill even give a chicken to the person who can actually cut a hole in the ice with a hay knife.   

Rofl, with sheer determination I'll cut a hole in ice with it, but I bet I'll put my back out doing it!!! The knife is only sharp on the parts of the blade that are angled as opposed to the bottom of the blade. In any case I found out about the history of this particular design, and when and who it was patented by:

Before hay was baled it was harvested long and placed in hay stacks, or it was lifted up into barn lofts with slings or forks.  When this loose hay settled it was very difficult to remove from the stack.  The hay knife was used to cut off small portions of hay that could then be feed to the cows.  The knife had two handles, both on the same side, so that one could work close to the face of the stack without hitting their hands.  The design for this style of hay knife was patented by George Weymouth of Dresden, Maine on March 7, 1871.  The patent was reissued in 1882 and 1886 and both of those patents were assigned to Hiram Holt.  His company, The Hiram Holt Company of East Wilton, Maine, sold them using the name of the Lightning Hay Knife.  The cost for a Lightning Hay Knife was 50 cents in the 1897 Sears and Roebuck catalog.

I'd be thinking if anyone uses this design as an ice knife, that would likely be a regional or possibly local tradition as opposed to the original designed use. Considering that I'm an avid historian-type person, I'm interested to pursue the whole idea of how these hay knives came to be used as ice knives if they are also used as such and how widespread that usage is.

Sweet! Can I bring my scythe too?

Arcticsun wrote:

I have a solution.
Both LCRT and Shadewolf are invited out to my place with the respective tools to try out on my over grown pasture. I will photograph thier progress and post it all on ACE.

There is some interesting reading on the subject if you google "book of the farm" volume 4 by Henry Stephens from about 1890 documenting common usage during that time period (on google books).

there's another mention of a hay knife that looks more like a scythe here:


There's some more info in this book: "Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary" by Edward Henry Knight, pg 1080 also viewable on googlebooks

Recently I've been watching a couple documentary series on farming in both the Victorian and Edwardian periods by 3 anthropologist historians in Britain. Absolutely fascinating stuff, and in some cases very momentarily jarring when they document a practice from way back then that I happen to be using on my farm today! Even at the antique auction I attended this weekend past had a few jarring anachronistic moments when the auctioneer would hold up something and ask the audience what it was, and no one knew but me, having just studied it perhaps hours or days before.

  Very cool!

Shadewolf, those silhouette pics of you were so cool. You are like Zorro with the ice saw carving the V in the hay. This has been such a neat thread, really enjoyed everyone's comments. I haven't watched tv in what... two weeks??? Way too boring, ha.

Schipperkesue wrote:

Fluffyfoofoo wrote:

You are like Zorro with the ice saw carving the V in the hay.

Shadewolf is Vorro!  Or is that "V for Vendetta"?

Sue

CORRECTION, CORRECTION: I'm aghast, I MEANT to type hay saw. My apologies. Must not anger Vorro, er: Vorro Vendetta.