Hazard A Guess: Week of May 9, 2002

Hello from Hazard!

Is it too early to hope for balmier weather in the wake of last weekend? Let’s hope not.

Item No. 648 could put a chill in the air, when you discover what it was used for. It is a block mover used to move blocks of ice when “harvesting” them from a lake or pond, in the days before electric refrigerators. You used this tool to move the blocks from the water and on to a skidway, or skidder, from which the block was then loaded on to a sled or wagon to be taken to the ice house. The hook end is to pull the block and the pointed end pushes.

Several readers correctly identified the tool, and were quick to point out that our specimen had a broken handle or replaced handle, as the tool had about an 8-foot handle. Thanks to the following readers: John Six of Brady Lake, Ohio; Marvin Fenwick, Wakeman, Ohio; and Wally Krauss of South Madison, Ohio.

And many thanks to Ralph Anstine of Alliance, Ohio, who shared the tool with hazard.

Cleaning up the mailbag from Item No. 647, Bill Hardin of Mansfield, Ohio, also correctly identified our wrench used to tighten a slotted nut on the bottom of a bench vice.

This week’s item comes from longtime reader R.G. Rauhauser. It’s a rather crude, primitive piece, but can anyone hazard a guess as to its use? (Rauhauser said the antique dealer who sold it told him one story, but he’d like to know from others, and so would we!)

Send your responses to: Hazard a Guess, P.O. Box 38, Salem, OH 44460; or via e-mail: editorial@farmanddairy.com.