Peavey - what's it used for??

[Bibbyman]

I was blundering around the new sponsor's web site (Bailey's) and looked up the LogRite cant hook.  What they picture is what I'd call the peavey (has a spike).

Then where they have the peavey listed,  they had a picture of what I'd call a cant hook.

I think they've got their pictures mixed up.

But ...

It leads me to a question I've been wanting to ask..

What is the use of a peavey for logs on dry land?   I've never seen one in use by any loggers or sawmills in our area.

Is the peavey a regional thing?

What's the spike used for besides polling logs around in water?

[sprucebunny]

Bibbyman    A friend sent me this the other day.... may answer that question
http://www.ruralheritage.com/logging_camp/peavey.htm

[Tom]

While I've not seen a professional research paper on the subject, I know through my reading over my life that a pike pole has been a weapon of infantry for millenniums.   Sometimes called a spear, the medieval ones I've seen in drawings had two points, one straight at the end of the pole and one or more that stuck out the side of the pole and may have been either straight or curved.

I"ll bet the "Pike" evolved as a pushing or pulling tool used by militiamen well before its use as a logging tool was ever discovered.
'
It does seem to make a logical tool for pushing and pulling logs in water since the resistance is so much lower.

I've read the article above before and see how it would be convenient to have a single tool for rafters, especially when they are working on the shore as well as the water.

The spike, from the pike, is for pushing and the hook, from the cant hook, for turning.  prying with the pike can lead to a broken tool if it is a single spike driven in a hole in the end of the handle.

The only thing I've seen the spike on a peavey used for around here is to stick in the ground for a convenient storage device for the cant hook.

[Captain]

I can add nothing to Tom's post, other than to say that I buy only Peaveys for the exact reason he stated.  ;D  I can spike it in the ground, and don't have to go searching for it.  Also by the nature of the way we need to move logs around a swing mill, the logs get pried a lot. Having the spike on the end of the Peavey to drive into the ground is helpful when prying a log to center it up in the rails, for example.

Captain

LogRite Peavey Addict

[Minnesota_boy]

I have peavy and a cant hook (actually about 4 or 5 cant hooks).  The cant hook stays in the truck 95% of the time, only coming out if I need more leverage from the longer handle or because I broke my peavy handle.  The spike on the end lets me park it upright near the end of the mill where it is out of the way but right handy when I need it.  If the logs are frozen together or wedged, the point gets used for a short pry bar.  When I see a patch of mud in the bark of a white pine, the point if the peavy is what will reach into the crevices to knock it out.  If a log is coming crooked at the mill, the point of the peavy bites into the ground and lets me pry the end back straight.  I can hook the point of the peavy on a projection on the mill and use it to pry a log endways a bit.

How do you get by with only a cant hook? :D :D

[Bibbyman]

Minnesota_boy, I guess I've known no better. 

I can't say as I've ever handled a peavey or ever took after a log with one.

We've got a 6' rock bar we use to pry big stuff with.  Otherwise we take the cant hook,  jab the hook into the end of the log and pull/lift it around.

Anything that requires MORE POWER than that,  we get the Terex after it! ;)

[Minnesota_boy]

When I figure out a way to pull that Terex behind my sawmill behind my pickup, I'll probably give up my peavy.  Some peavys are so slick where they would bite the log that they slip.  When I got mine it had been welded up very poorly, but that made the grip so it doesn't slip on the log.  Looks pretty ugly, but it works great.

I carry a 6 foot steel pry bar too so I don't break the peavy handle.  Sometimes I can pry up one end of a log that has wedged down into the pile and then use a prop to hold it while I shove the pry bar under the log to hold it up while I roll it off the pile.  Occasionally I have to straighten the pry bar out again too.  :

[Pete J]

Bibbyman,

You are on top of every little detail. Bailey's got the pix backwards. I'm sure they can fix the website without much effort. I'll check the print catalog tommorow.

Pete

[Phorester]

About 25 years ago one of the forest wardens who worked in my office was whizzing by an antique store.  Out of the corner of his eye he spyed a 6 foot long peavey leaning against the corner of the building.  He went back, parked, pointed to it and asked the shop owner, how much you want for that?  The owner said, I don't even know what it is. Make me an offer.  The Warden said, $15.  The owner said, it's yours.  Been hanging on our office wall ever since.

Beautifully made.  A long handle tapering gracefully from about 5" diameter where it goes into the business end, down to a turned knob on the handle end.  The point is about 16" long and tapers up to the diameter of the handle, and the handle fits into it.  The swinging hook hangs from that same piece of metal.  Weighs about 15 lbs, I'd guess.  I suspect it's one made for the river drives.

[Brucer]

Well isn't that interesting? I was kinda noticing an anti-peavey bias on this forum

About 20 years ago my wife gave me a peavey for Christmas. Not at all what I was expecting, but she'd seen me trying to maneuver logs for my chainsaw mill. She knew I needed one, even if I didn't know it :D

Last summer I was working for a local Wood-Mizer owner. All he had for moving logs was a couple of cant hooks -- a 2-footer and a 4-footer. After a week on the job I got fed up and brought along my peavey. The boss seemed a little amused, but he sure didn't object -- I wasn't wearing out his tools.

By mid-summer I was running the saw and I soon figured out that the only decent tool for manipulating cants on the mill was a cant hook.

So -- use a peavey for shifting logs, and a cant hook for shifting cants. 'Course that reflects a personal preference, not some universal "rule". I just found there were so many things that point was useful for -- prying logs apart, anchoring the peavery into the ground, or another log, or (in the bush) a root. When a log won't roll just jam the point of the peavy under the log, kick a 4x4 wedge in behind it, and pry the log up.

As it turns out, my wife was pretty lucky. She'd just gone into a nearby logging supply outfit and asked for a peavey. What she got was a good one. It's 4 feet long with a 2-1/2" diameter handle where it enters the socket. That's 40% stronger than a 2-1/4" diameter handle of the same length, and twice as strong as a 2" handle. The turned nob on the end lets you cup your hand around it when you want to slam the hook through the bark of a log and the weight of the thing just adds to the momentum when you're slamming it home (when you're dealing with Douglas Fir the bark is often as thick as the bite of the hook).

The design of the hook point is important, too. If it's designed right, when it get's jammed in the wood a quick side-to-side shake will free it.

I sure wouldn't want to use my peavey on the water -- it's too DanG heavy -- I'd lose it for sure. Usually they'd have a long slender pole with a point and a hook. The point was for pushing and the hook was for pulling logs and fishing out the chains that connect the boom logs. Now they use "bumper boats".

I've seen quite a few peavey's that don't measure up -- handle's too small, hook is designed wrong, point is designed wrong, too light, you name it and they got something wrong. I don't  know how a LogRite peavey would compare It's a completely different approach and you gotta look at the thing as a whole . I'll do a comparison test is someone wants to lend me one  ;D  As for working on the mill itself, a 30" LogRite cant hook is right at the top of my wishlist.

[Bibbyman]

We have two of the LogRite 30" Mill specials - one behind the mill - one on the skidblock side.  We use them 99% of the time.

Just got the fourth 60"er Monday and leaned it aginst the post on the skidblock side next to the 30"er.  It's not been used ... yet.

I like the size and shape of the 30" handle.

[Fraxinus]

The word "Peavey" was not in our lexicon here in central NH.  We had cant dogs.   Still do.  At the sawmill, we have a cant hook or two for rolling logs onto the carriage and turning them.
A Peavey is what I use to amplify my guitar and voice so that all the square dancers can hear my calls.
8) 8) :D :D

[bull]

Guys:  Peavey is a company name, they were the most popular manufacture of all our handy dandy mill tools. Pike pole, hookeroons,pickerroons, cant hooks, pulp hooks, and much,much,more....... Somewhere around here i have a Peavey Co, Catalog....  not sure if they have a .com address  I think they were in NH or ME..... :P

[bull]

 8) Found it.   peaveymfg.co   po box.129 Eddington Maine phone 1-207-843-7861
  WWW.peaveymfg.com
in 1857 Joseph Peavey made the 1st tool known as the peavey  the event took place in Still water Maine.......  like many Forum members it sounds like old Joe got tick at something that didn't work the way he wanted and pulled his finger out of his rearend and did somethin about. And apparently quite a few times,seems he was quite smaatt aeh....  little maine acksient theah at da end....... :D :D :D

[populus]

When I learned logging as a kid, we only used peaveys. I never saw a cant hook until I went to forestry school. It may be regional (I grew up in Maryland). However, the original uses of the tools was different. I believe that both the cant hook and the peavey were invented by Joseph Peavey. The cant hook was primarily for sawmill operations. The peavey was developed for forestry operations.  I guess because I learned to roll logs with a peavey, I've never gotten comfortable with a cant hook.  But from what Fraxinus says, maybe the word peavey is just not used in some areas, but the tool is?

[Bibbyman]

There is a link to the Peavey company catalog on the Rural Haratage web page Sprucebunny posted.

Peavey Mfg Co

[populus]

Wow! They've been making the same products since 1857!  The history is clear - the peavey was invented for river rafting of logs.  The rural heritage site has this quote: " Used to roll logs, break jams, pry rocks, tighten chains, and push over trees, the peavy is the logger's all-purpose tool. "

[Bibbyman]

Anyone south of the Mason/Dixon line use a Peavey?

[Buzz-sawyer]

A whatzit?

[SwampDonkey]

Most woodlot owners in my kneck of the woods have peaveys, alot with broken handles. :D :D. We even had a peavey that had the Logrite blue paint on it 20 years ago. ;) But, I've seen the peavey used for leverage or turning logs. The log buyers here all carry peaveys to the wood yards.

[Engineer]

I'm on the fence.  I got a 4' peavey and a 2-1/2' cant hook.  The peavey is good for when you need to knock some crud or bark off a log, or pry something apart, or there's a lot of things that you find the point is helpful for.    The cant hook is best when the log is on the mill and you need to roll it.    I like 'em both, and I'd actually like to have a longer one of each - a nice LogRite 60" cant hook AND a peavey.

[Rockn H]

I don't know of anyone around here that uses a peavey.  It's all cant hooks.  I do have a 4' cant hook with a 4" scraper blade on the end to debark a dirty log, something like a shingle scraper for the roof of a house, does that count?  :D

[Ernie]

Our cant hooks were made for us by the outfit that made our mill, Rimu engineering here in NZ.  They are 2" pipe with the hook and a bolt near the end for gripping the log. Work well but for moving the end of the log on the ground to line up straight with the mill, we are going to weld peavey style points on the end to dig into the ground better to get the sideways leverage.





Ernie

[Frank_Pender]

Engineer, I can have Kevin send one to you, straight from Conn.  without haveing to come to the West Coast, first. 8)

[thecfarm]

We always called them cant dogs.We always had the one with the point on them.Of course I was bought up the old school way too.Probaly a country saying.I keep one on the tractor to help out.Don't use it to often in the woods.