The Tool For The Job
May. 26th, 2009 07:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fitzwAh, the joys of living on a farm. Even better, the joys of living on an older, family farm.
Quick question: What's the difference between a New England farmer and a pack rat?
I was helping my father by putting up some partitions in the barn to control the space that the new chickens have access to, and as I was coming out of the barn, I passed a collection of old tools leaning against one wall (there are a lot of such collections in the barn). I happened to glance down at just the right moment, and the light was just right, that I saw the head of a mattock lying on the ground.
As it happens, I've been using an old digging adze (as opposed to a woodworking adze) that I had replaced the handle on last year, for digging up some really aggressive weeds in one of the garden plots for the past week (it works really well at that task). I've been reshaping the haft that I got (there were no hafts in the hardware store specifically for this adze, so I've been reshaping a pick haft to fit the differently shaped eye of the adze). Seeing the mattock head, I thought that I should give that a try as well.
There are two primary differences between a digging adze and a mattock. Both have an adze blade (obviously the adze has an adze blade). The mattock also has either a pick or a narrow ax blade opposite the adze blade (this one has an axe blade). This mattock also has a narrower adze blade with curved corners, and can work in narrower spaces.
The mattock head has the same shape eye as a pick, and I knew that we have several picks available (as well as three or four pick heads with no hafts, and one pick with a broken handle — see my note above about collections of old tools in the barn), so I knocked the haft out of one of the picks and put it into the mattock, where it fit perfectly. Then I took it out to the garden to do some more heavy duty weeding.
It works just as well as the digging adze.
It's not pretty, like a newly made mattock, and has a certain amount of rust on it. The pick handle is old and weathered. But it does the job, and it does it well.
And if I happen to find a heavy root that has worked its way over from the trees, I won't have to go hunt up an axe to take care of it.
Answer to the quick question above: A New England farmer might actually find a use for whatever he's kept over the years.
Quick question: What's the difference between a New England farmer and a pack rat?
I was helping my father by putting up some partitions in the barn to control the space that the new chickens have access to, and as I was coming out of the barn, I passed a collection of old tools leaning against one wall (there are a lot of such collections in the barn). I happened to glance down at just the right moment, and the light was just right, that I saw the head of a mattock lying on the ground.
As it happens, I've been using an old digging adze (as opposed to a woodworking adze) that I had replaced the handle on last year, for digging up some really aggressive weeds in one of the garden plots for the past week (it works really well at that task). I've been reshaping the haft that I got (there were no hafts in the hardware store specifically for this adze, so I've been reshaping a pick haft to fit the differently shaped eye of the adze). Seeing the mattock head, I thought that I should give that a try as well.
There are two primary differences between a digging adze and a mattock. Both have an adze blade (obviously the adze has an adze blade). The mattock also has either a pick or a narrow ax blade opposite the adze blade (this one has an axe blade). This mattock also has a narrower adze blade with curved corners, and can work in narrower spaces.
The mattock head has the same shape eye as a pick, and I knew that we have several picks available (as well as three or four pick heads with no hafts, and one pick with a broken handle — see my note above about collections of old tools in the barn), so I knocked the haft out of one of the picks and put it into the mattock, where it fit perfectly. Then I took it out to the garden to do some more heavy duty weeding.
It works just as well as the digging adze.
It's not pretty, like a newly made mattock, and has a certain amount of rust on it. The pick handle is old and weathered. But it does the job, and it does it well.
And if I happen to find a heavy root that has worked its way over from the trees, I won't have to go hunt up an axe to take care of it.
Answer to the quick question above: A New England farmer might actually find a use for whatever he's kept over the years.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-27 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-27 03:41 am (UTC)Most of the time, I get a pretty big laugh just when I answer the question; I don't even have to give the answer.
Tell JM for me that I've been meaning to check with other farmers in the area to see what kind of caches they have. He asked the question when the two of you were visiting.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-27 03:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-27 04:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-27 04:54 am (UTC)Will tell him!