Hay tong?

Is this a hay tong?

Among other barnyard  related activities.....

Doesn't look Chinese.

sure looks like one.

That's the purpose of it I'm not sure that's the correct name. The tines should be spread apart not together like that. They usually have three or four tines on each side, I've never seen one with two.

Grtechguy said:

sure looks like one.

Maybe an ice tong? Definitely  a tong

TRoglodyte said:

Grtechguy said:

sure looks like one.

Maybe an ice tong? Definitely  a tong

I'm thinking ice.

Appleseed said:

Doesn't look Chinese.

This comment deserves to be upvoted, but I couldn't upvote it, so I will quote it and upvote that instead!

Thanks for the info. 

Yesterday my friend dave was looking through the barn that  he inherited from his dad when he found it. It looks like a medieval torture device.

Opps my bad... I read it wrong.

pilotbraden said:

Thanks for the info. 

Yesterday my friend dave was looking through the barn that  he inherited from his dad when he found it. It looks like a medieval torture device.

 Does the barn have an overhead trolley system into the haymow?

In reply to TRoglodyte :

Yes it does, that's why we jumped to the conclusion that it's a hay moving device. 

I would venture that it's an ice tong that was repurposed for use as a hay tong.  Very subtle distinction if you ask me.  Almost interchangeable.  The hay tongs I've seen around here have tips that turn up instead of just straight in.  Ice tongs are straight because the ice is solid.  The more you lift, the more it squeezes.  Hay tongs have the "barbed" tips so that as they slip in the bale they're drawn inward.

But if you google it, they're almost all listed as both ice and hay.  Sometimes also logging and timbering.

I think of a hay tong as having the upturned teeth.  Like this:

Whatever they are they are huge. Dave is about 5'9" and standing right next to them in the photo. The pointy parts are pushing 3'. I'll take more pictures this afternoon.

It looks like a tong for loose hay, not bales. All our local hip roof barns had them on a rail when I was a kid.

Grandparents had one in their Michigan barn as well.  2 solid teeth.

I'd venture to say it was used for both ice blocks (they had an Ice storage house on the property) and hay over the course of its life.

the term "Hay Grapple"  found one almost identicle to yours

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-antique-hay-fork-hook-grapple-254480479

It has 4 tongs

The added a fourth?

pilotbraden said:

That's trust right there. Your buddy lets go and it's tong time. Probably right in the tonker.

Back before hay was baled in any of the forms it is today (small square bales, large square bales and round bales) it would have been stacked and this hook would let you pick off the stack and drop it in a feed wagon or truck to haul around and feed.

Although balers have been around since the late 1800's, they were immobile,  and it would be later before farmers were baling their own hay.

This would have been a handy way to get large amounts of hay out of the upstairs hay loft, and out to the animals.

Keith Tanner said:

That's trust right there. Your buddy lets go and it's tong time. Probably right in the tonker.

I'm giving you an A+ for creative use of language.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

That is exactly what was being said as I was taking the photograph

In reply to mechanicalmeanderings :

I never considered it could be from before balers. Interesting.

The barn is definitely old enough to be from a time before balers were common