(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y55/gpritch/tools/johnnystools004.jpg)
I was up at a buddy's house today and he showed me this crowbar he found on his land.
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y55/gpritch/tools/johnnystools007.jpg)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y55/gpritch/tools/johnnystools008.jpg)
The thing is huge, 4 feet long. And it's straight-I mean, it's a little bit bent from abuse, but it seems like it would be awkward to use as a crowbar, must be for some special use.
hehe, I like it.
My guess would be that some bored blacksmith used a scavenged piece of wrought iron fence rail to make up a crowbar....
Or you have the worlds best self-defence walking stick...
I think that, that section in wrought iron wouldn't be strong enough to be of much use!? My guess is, that it is made from a piece of early steel "reo" bar? I think I remember seeing some similar twisted reo bar in one of the early "Lincoln" welding books?? I will try and chase it down later.
Graeme
Couldn't find anything in my books! But I found this on the web!
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=81796 Not sure if the url is live? but I guess some one can fix it for me.
Graeme
Wow it is! Alway something new to learn with puters!
Thanks for the link interesting stuff
Given the length and cross section (looks like 3/4" or larger compared to that tape measure) of that bar, and the nice even twist all along the length, I would say that bar was machine twisted.
Probably a length of old lightning rod grounding rod. Some of the old barns around here still have the lightning rods intact, and a lot of them have long lengths of bar such as this that go from the peak to the ground. I don't know why they used twisted, other than for looks, probably.
I used to live beside one such barn, it had an intricate system that tied all the lightning rod "points" together, with an elevated "runner" across the peak on brackets. I assume that was so they only had to use one drop to the ground.
After looking through anglesmith's links, I'm inclined to think that it is an old piece of twisted rebar that someone made a home made crowbar out of. Actually, at the time it was probably a NEW piece of twisted rebar:)