HA, the wife questioned my knowledge of that “hay fork” by asking “Did you check Google?”
So to prove it to her I went looking and found this
great site with all kinds of old farm tools, many I have never seen before now, to wit:
This blogger called it a “hay harpoon” – see picture
#8 here:
http://toolanswers101.blogspot.com/But he is wrong in saying it was used for lifting bales of hay. It is used to lift the “loose” hay off the hay wagons with. One summer in my teen years I helped my friend and his father put up hay and one was used to off-load the wagon.
The wagon was pulled around the field and the loose hay was pitch-forked onto the wagon. The loaded wagon was pulled back to the barn and the load of hay was “harpooned” and in one fell swoop the entire load of hay was lifted up and into the hay mow via rope & and pulley ….. and when an attached rope was given a “yank” the harpoon let go and the hay fell to the barn floor. There was a “carriage track” that ran the full length of the barn ceiling, thus the hay could be “dropped” anywhere underneath it.
A vunderful labor saving invention, it was
