Tool Talk

What's-It Forum => What's-It Forum => Topic started by: chuckchili on May 28, 2016, 04:54:21 PM

Title: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: chuckchili on May 28, 2016, 04:54:21 PM
I found this at a garage sale and thought it was cool so I bought it.
Could someone help me to figure what is is/was?
Owner said it was an antique coal tool but I'm not too sure how reliable that is.
It's about 7' all metal (iron) with no markings I could find.

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn82/chuckchili/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpscra9clnb.jpeg
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: Papaw on May 28, 2016, 05:27:18 PM
Welcome to Tool Talk!
I guess that could be a coal tool. I have no experience with coal.
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: mikeswrenches on May 28, 2016, 05:28:22 PM
Kind of looks like the ones used to pull the ashes out of coal furnace's. Or, given its length, maybe an industrial coal fired boiler.

Mike
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: turnnut on May 28, 2016, 05:29:00 PM
it looks like it may be an ash pan scraper for a big wood or coal boiler.

while I was typing my take  on it, Papaw & Mikeswrenches were quicker.
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: chuckchili on May 28, 2016, 06:53:05 PM
Thank you for the responses. It's size is what's throwing me off.
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: gibsontool on May 28, 2016, 07:51:36 PM
I agree with mike and turnnut, ash scraper for a big boiler or a coal and wood furnace.
 When I was a young kid we lived in a huge old farm house that had a coal and wood furnace and the ash rake looked very close to what you have but the handle as I remember it was only about 4 or 4 1/2 feet long.
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: wvtools on May 28, 2016, 08:16:17 PM
It could be a tool for pulling the coke out of a coke oven, and that is why they said it was a coal tool.  The handle looks similar to some other coke tools (shovels) that I found on a google search.
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: chuckchili on May 28, 2016, 09:05:23 PM
I can't seem to find any info on it whatsoever. I tried a Google search from "coke tool" and all I get is Coca Cola stuff and tools for cocaine lol.
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: bill300d on May 28, 2016, 10:56:32 PM
Have seen them used in coal fired commercial boilers to clean out ash and clinkers.
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: chuckchili on May 28, 2016, 11:22:20 PM
is there any value to it?
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: bill300d on May 28, 2016, 11:40:03 PM
I'll venture a guess that there isn't much value there although there is one a little smaller than yours on the bay for 99.99. But I would think that the real value of it is a quarter of that or less.
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: chuckchili on May 29, 2016, 08:37:35 AM
Thanks for all the help everyone!
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: turnnut on May 29, 2016, 10:00:52 AM
hang it up in your garage or work shop, and see how many peoples ask you what you use that tool for.
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: bill300d on May 29, 2016, 12:14:50 PM
I like that idea.
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: Bill Houghton on May 29, 2016, 12:53:54 PM
hang it up in your garage or work shop, and see how many peoples ask you what you use that tool for.
Then, when they look blank, tell them you're doing a home study course in proctology and have been having trouble finding time for your lab work, and would they mind helping out?  But do that only to people that you kinda wish would leave so you can get back to the project you're working on.
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: wvtools on May 29, 2016, 09:33:26 PM
Here is the link that I found.  You have to put Coke Oven Tools in your google search and then click on the images tab and then scroll down quite a bit.  Then when you click on the tools, you have to go to the page they came from (the one linked below) and then scroll down again to Coke.

https://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/gutenberg.org/4/9/4/8/49489/49489-h/49489-h.htm (https://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/gutenberg.org/4/9/4/8/49489/49489-h/49489-h.htm)
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: moparthug on May 31, 2016, 10:50:32 AM
I saw a very similar tool hanging on the wall at a railroad museum several years ago, that could be another use for it.
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: bill300d on May 31, 2016, 05:44:52 PM
Certainly could.
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: turnnut on May 31, 2016, 08:43:10 PM
locomotives, yes,  I can remember the old coal fired trains going thru town and dropping clinkers between the tracks.
some of the poor folks would poke through them and collect the good sized ones to use in their stoves.

some of you may remember the porter telling you not to flush the toilets while the train was sitting at a station
picking up more passengers or parcels..
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: Papaw on June 04, 2016, 10:52:36 AM
Watch this video of a Steam powered fire fighting unit. About 39 seconds in, you will see a similar tool/
https://www.facebook.com/1531776583754542/videos/1705983169667215/ (https://www.facebook.com/1531776583754542/videos/1705983169667215/)
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: gibsontool on June 07, 2016, 08:55:46 AM
Thanks for the link,nice old machine.
Title: Re: Help ID- Antique 7' Metal Hoe?
Post by: 51cub on June 07, 2016, 03:59:51 PM
Never fails. I get one I have a good answer for, and I'm late to the party. Apparently, it's the way I roll