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Peavey - what's it used for??

Started by Bibbyman, March 18, 2005, 09:35:28 PM

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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?

smiley_headscratch
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

sprucebunny

Bibbyman    A friend sent me this the other day.... may answer that question
http://www.ruralheritage.com/logging_camp/peavey.htm
MS193, MS192 and an 026  Weeding and Thinning. Gilbert Champion sawmill

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? :o :D :D
I eat a high-fiber diet.  Lots of sawdust!

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! ;)
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

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.  ::)
I eat a high-fiber diet.  Lots of sawdust!

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.


Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

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.

Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

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
Grandchildren, Bluegrass music, old tractors, trees and sawmills.  It don't get no better'n that!

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
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

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?
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

Buzz-sawyer

    HEAR THAT BLADE SING!

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. :)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

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
A very wise man once told me . Grand children are great, we should have had them first

Frank_Pender

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

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.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Ed_K

 Mines a modified peavy, no point  :(. sits in the corner next to the mill. its only good for rolling logs on to the mill  >:(.
Ed K

DanG

My brother-in-law is an old-time forester, and he calls it a cant dog.  Most everybody around here calls it a peavey, whether it has a point or a claw on it.  Probably couldn't find one out of forty that know's the difference.  Why not build one that has both? ??? :P
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

MemphisLogger

I call em all sorts of things when they don't bite, but I have a couple of Peavey brand cant hooks  ;)
Scott Banbury, Urban logger since 2002--Custom Woodworker since 1990. Running a Woodmizer LT-30, a flock of Huskies and a herd of Toy 4x4s Midtown Logging and Lumber Company at www.scottbanbury.com

Frank_Pender

Well, Urban, with a Log Rite you would sure 8) ;D  Call Kevin and have him send one to you, makesure I get the credit for the sale. :D :D :D
Frank Pender

MemphisLogger

I tried to steal Arky's A.S.S. yesterday but he sicked his ferocious hounds on me  :o

Scott Banbury, Urban logger since 2002--Custom Woodworker since 1990. Running a Woodmizer LT-30, a flock of Huskies and a herd of Toy 4x4s Midtown Logging and Lumber Company at www.scottbanbury.com

Jim_Wahl

Hi Folks,

I don't know that Logrite sells the tips seperately or not, but it looks to me like
they are interchangable, so it would be easy to switch back and forth if needed,
depending on wheather you need a cant hook or peavy. Their website does not
list the tips seperatley,so maybe I am mistaken. Anyone know for sure?
1997 Peterson 9" WPF since 1998
2004 Baker 3667D since 2014
Cooks Catclaw sharpener and setter



I am from Iowa, but I seem fine.

Hokiemill

So it looks to me like anyone who doesn't have a peavey probably has lots of hydraulics and log loading equipment.  For those of us who have to man-handle logs quite a bit, a cant hook alone just won't do.  Gotta have that peavey for lifting, leveraging, sliding, poking, pushing, and prodding.

RSteiner

I have several peavy's and the best one is one I just purchased from a forum sponser.  The tools invention is credited to Joe Peavey from whom it got is't name.

The spike in the end was very useful for the river drivers when picking a jamb or ferrying across the river on a couple of logs.  I use the spike when I want to slide a log along in a pile.  By sticking the spike in the log below it and hooking the hook on the log you want to move you can kind of winch the top log along.

On the mill I use it to do a similar movement.  On the Mobile Dimension mill the log sets on bunks that have holes in them and the spike of the peavey fits in them.  By hooking the log with the hook a little behind the bunk then placing the splike in a bunk hole you can pull the log along.

It does make a great prying tool also.

Randy
Randy

Engineer

Hokie,

You got that right.  A cant hook and a peavy, and a ten-foot ash 4x4 are the tools I have around my mill, because that ORANGE antique has only a hand winch for rolling the log up on the bed.  Even that's a chore.  And for flippin' the cant and rolling a log, it's nothin' but people powered.

Now if I had a nice Bobcat T250 and some forks, and a new Woodmizer Super HD, then maybe the peavey and cant hook would be hung on the wall.  But they get used and abused and sometimes they still aren't enough.  I got a pair of 28" dia. x 16' long green white pine logs that I have to saw in the next two weeks, and everytime I look at them I try to think how I'm gonna roll 'em and flip 'em once they're up on the mill.


Cedarman

You can stab your foot with a peavey, but with a cant hook there is no need to try to stick it into the ground so I am a lot safer with a cant hook.
I am in the pink when sawing cedar.

bull

I have all the hydrallics etc..... Still have two peaveys w/ the mill at all times one at each end...... No live deck ....  also smaller logs need to be postioned and it's quicker to use the peavey,than to kick the log off the mill trying to jockey it with the log turner,board dracg back and or rollers. It can be don either way... sometimes its fun to show off but I really need to get the sawing done 8)......    Both are 4 footers..
Oh yeah the spike works on rats and chipmunks >:(

neslrite

My experience:
My Grandfather was a logger in Maine all his life, so up until 2 years ago I had never seen a cant hook.
He always called them peaveys, the French Canadians in CT call them cant dogs.

As far as LogRite sales go we sell a lot more cant hooks than peaveys, although peaveys have been very popular lately. There does seem to be a regional trend, peaveys are primarily used in the North East and the North West.

Functionally both the LogRite cant hook and peavey are identical except for the tip.
FAQ

1. Are the tips interchangeable? NO to make the peavey point strong enough, it needs to have a larger dia. and to make the cant hook tip that large would add unnecessary cost. The first 100 or so production units had interchangeable tips.

2. Why don't you make a tool that has both? I looked at that early on and decided not to go down that road for 2 reasons. We would then have to market a third type of tool that could add confusion to the buyer, and it would cost more to manufacture.

Kevin
rule#1 nobody ever puts just one nail in a tree  LogRite Tools  www.logrite.com

SwampDonkey

Hey Kevin:

I just delivered the new peavey I got from you folks to the local Woodlot Owner Association, to be used as a door prize. They were quite taken by how rugged it looks and feels. The annual meeting is toward the end of next month and I'll try to get a picture of the recipient for the forum. If I was to do any amount of log handling I'de definately have one handy enough to get my hands on. Excellent Product. ;)

cheers
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

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