What is this lifting ?? tongs for ??

[newbury]

That looks like a good possibility but it would have to be a small drum. The hooks wouldn't span a 55 gal drum which is about 35" tall. The hooks are only 14" long.

gg

Holding kegs of adult beverage?

 

[bcp]

I suspect it was used like the horizontal drum lifter, but made for wooden nail or RR spikes kegs.

Bruce

Bruce

 

[Raul-02]

My Ice tongs are about the same size and configuration.

A big drinker eh?

 

[Menagerie-Manor]

Found this in the woods. I can see that it is for lifting something like an I-Beam maybe. It looks like it has a specific purpose. It was near a high tension power line ???? Someone knows what it is, Thanks

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gg

Pretty sure the hooks just get hammered into a log or timber for lifting and dragging.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

A big drinker eh?

Now thats funny!

My grandfather and other relatives would cut ice on the ponds, then slip a long white oak dowel through the ring on the tongs. Two people could lift a 9" wide by 12" long chunk of ice out with it. The depth of the ice would depend on the freeze depth each year. Typical size we would harvest was 9"Wx12"Lx12"D.
Some years there was no ice so we stored food in coolers in a spring that was about 50 degrees F year round. Glacial run off spring from a Mt. Adams. We also, used "ice caves" for long term cold storage.

 

[66vette]

It is for lifting the wooden power poles, I have one also works great for picking up large pieces of tree trunks that are cut into 16" lengths and are 24" to 36" diameter for firewood. I lift them with a tractor front end loader with a chain run through the ring on the tongs.

 

[FERLING]

That's the thing. If you spread it wide enough for a log, never mind a barrel, the hook angle seems/is all wrong for it to bite in. And to hang a critter, like Cal suggested, I'd want the hooks going the other way and add a spreader. Most of those guys that could make tools back in the day were no dummies. They knew how to make things that worked to do job at hand. I was just wondering what that job might be.

gg

The way it looks is probably the reason you found it laying there. It dropped what ever it was used for, for the last time.

 

[Geunther]

I think ice tongs. Not for small blocks, but larger blocks that would be used to cool an underground storage unit. There are videos on Youtube with ice harvesting. The blocks I remember seeing were really large, as large as 2x2x3.5, with the 3.5 being the depth of the ice. They would cut the ice, then use tongs like those to drag the ice from the pond/lake onto a sled, drag the sled to the ice house and unload it there. As they needed ice, someone would cut the blocks down to a more manageable size and use them where they were needed. The entire operation, except for cutting the ice was horse drawn. Lifting, moving, unloading, all done by draft horse teams. It is well worth a look, if you have time.

 

[JWR]

I suspect it was used like the horizontal drum lifter, but made for wooden nail or RR spikes kegs.

Bruce

I think that is a good bet. All the other types of uses (like lifting logs or ice, etc.) are designed so that the lifting force translates into a pinching action by the tongs by having a pivot in the middle.

 

[MossRoad]

Found this in the woods. I can see that it is for lifting something like an I-Beam maybe. It looks like it has a specific purpose. It was near a high tension power line ???? Someone knows what it is, Thanks

View attachment 752443


gg

What’s odd about those tongs is they do not have a pivot point between the ring and the points. Most tongs have a pivot, so that the harder you pull the tighter the tong points get, due to a lever action on the pivot point.