What is this?

Thet thar is a brandin' iron from the big "S" ranch up yonder...

Hard to say… That was brought up already before I posted…

I reckon you hit it right on...

Doesn’t look antique, but I willing to leave it as a branding iron…

No, wouldn’t be a wood fire or propane heated branding iron. They are pretty short (two foot long, more/less) and get way too hot to have wooden handles. Not electric, and not a freeze brand. Not really heavy enough, either.

I have a fuzzy memory of something along that size and shape hanging on the barn wall, but I don’t remember ever seeing it used.

Vintage 29" Long BRANDING IRON - Great for Display WOOD HANDLE lots of age

Ah, ya found one.

Thet there hickory stick on tha end looks to be sorta burnded.

They used hardwood as a thermal insulator.

but that’s is a pretty big brand in the picture I posted…

But from the picture below, or maybe it’s normal…

BINGO! I think you nailed it!

Wood handle may have been and ‘after-market’ that was added later..

now if we can get a ‘consensus’ on this… it’ll be set. Right?

Depends on the type of branding iron and the type of animal being branded....I believe each state has its' own rules...

Ah, branding day. Delightful.

Burning hair, almost always muddy, a half dozen riders dragging bawling calves to the brand pit, ear tags, veterinarians doing the meds, hot irons in the fire, blood from dehorning the bull calves, the inevitable cowpoke (or two) trip to hospital, the smell of sweaty horses... the fried chicken and homemade bread and beef roast and rhubarb pie and pickled eggs and tater salad and fresh squeezed milk and lemonade... I have a vague memory of beer cans at the end of the day.

Don't forget about a room full of flatulence....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1oRQgjF1xM

Here is an answer that wills satisfy nearly everyone:It is a multi purpose purpose branding iron,cheese cutter,used by ranchers that made their own cheese,and used by the wife on her husband when he "cut the cheese" under the covers at night and pulled the covers up over her head.

Google is stumped and so am I.

About the only thing I could envision might be some sort of tool to furrow the soil for planting?

If I had a picture of the other end, if it’s a straight or a tee handle it would help.

otherwise it could be a branding iron.

The metal seems a little thin for a branding iron, but I'm all hat and no cattle.

Oh, oh…

There does seem to be a large variety of branding irons that were used....I don't think specifics such as wooden handle, thickness of metal, or size can be used to rule out the possibility that this was an actual branding iron...since we have an example posted that looks quite similar and is a known brand, I believe the evidence points in that direction more than any other....

Interesting…

going in a different direction/perspective…

I use screw drivers as a pry bar… maybe the same could be said here…

I’d use it to make up a batch of mash for the chickens, add water until it’s about the consistency of concrete.

Looks like it could be a potato digger.Pull it down the row,one side uproots the potato,rotate it to kick out the potato to the center of the row.

Never thought of that… but using it for that, seems laboring…

when they a potato fork…

I'd like to see the other end to see if it has levers to enable you to rotate the tool in the ground.

Where did you get the picture, if you are unable to see the other end yourself?

I notice that the spade and fork are fixed permanently to the wall, which seems strange. Also there is no support for the unknown tool in the area we can see, which leads to more speculation about what's on the other end.

Yes a full picture would help…

I saw that, it must be a display or a museum,

My brother text my siblings, and the only response was a branding iron. And other smartaxx comments.

So that's where it's gone. People have been looking for that.

I agree that the metal is too light for thermal branding.

Reminds me more of a valve turning tool for underground pipes where the valve access is through the inside of a riser pipe to ground level.

Also too light gauge for release tool for bottom valve in draw-plunger (windmill) pump and that was usually incorporated into the bottom form of the piston.

Maybe a stirring tool for mash inside a still. Push to break up solid rafts, spin to stir. Just a guess.

If it had a tee handle…

pill find out where they got the picture. If we can get a full picture of it.

it is a cheese curd cutter. for after the first pressing.

Cheese curd cutter was normally type of a harp on the make tank., or in a drain table a type of agitator….

But, it is a carbon steel. So it’s before that time.

I believe we have a winner.

GA voted accordingly, both comments.

Can you explain how to use it?

GA, but, why do you think the one in the OP has such a long handle?

"Facts are stubborn things."-- John Adams

I don’t think it would work for that. It would cause too much damage, and be difficult to maneuver. Good catch though. The guy on eBay was taking a guess as to its use, but that is I suspect the same tool, no Tee handle, so not really a stirring tool either. (I’m totally stumped.)

Yikes! This makes me feel old.

Searching unfruitfully the term ‘forgotten tools’ I came across many that I have used, even a few that I still have.

Most of us probably remember these.

I think I have some of these letter guides (sans metric scale IIRC) in a box somewhere. I forgot about them!

Never could really get the hang of good arrowheads on dim lines.

‘Forgotten tools’ would make a great section

I still have mine; used it quite a bit back in the day.

It's looks familiar but I can't ring the bell. I doubt a branding iron. But the metal stem implies heat or a liquid, perhaps a harsh, media. It has holes at the outer tops. Or bottoms....depending.

What would one stroke or tamp with such a device? What is a flat shovel and heavy pitch fork used for?

A flat shovel like that has lots of uses, including shoveling grain, sand, gravel, manure, etc.

I know the "heavy pitchfork" as a Potato Fork. I still have and use both of those items (shovel and potato fork). The potato tool shown in post 15 is OK in very soft soils, but you can't easily use a foot to push it into the ground, so the straight potato fork is better in harder soils.

The shovel looks as though it's been used for concrete. Given that the shovel and fork are fixed in place I'm surprised that they haven't been cleaned a bit better.

In the UK we would just call that a fork: maybe we have a lot more stones in our gardens, because you normally need a fork to dig the garden.

It's too thin to be a branding iron, and the wood handle wouldn't last long. Could be a paint stirrer or a potato masher - hopefully not the second after the first. Another use could be to remove horse hair snakes from the watering barrel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nematomorpha

I've been in my grampa's farm a number of times and I know he makes a lot of his own tools. So, I'm not sure if that's a commercially available tool or one that the farmer made himself for a specific purpose. If that's the case, it may be one of a kind.

regards,

Vulcan

See silvCrow’s post 31, that device was made for the same purpose, it seems.

I did see that. For me, the difference is enough that I'm not convinced it's the same tool.

Satan should get one tag of that hot and burning rod afterall he's a cow

Well, I'm confused. The S is too thin for a branding iron. It's not like any kind of hoe I can think of. It reminds me a bit of a drain channel clearer but it doesn't have any means of dragging debris back. It could be a stirrer but we can't see the other end of the handle so we don't know.

@OP. How did you come by this picture? Did you take it, & if so, where? If not, where did you see this picture? Is there anything showing the full length of the shaft?

How?,… well the usually way…. Lol

My sisters significant other took his truck into a dealership for service…and the salesman he knew well, asked him about this…

she then sent the picture and the questions to her siblings with the question… ‘what is it?…

Having a couple of responses similar to here, It was interesting enough that I then posted it here…. And that is the provenance…