Homemade iron pike

[tokashikibop]

Gents, Here is a interesting homemade blacksmith relic. Not sure what I have here. Any thoughts?
Best regards,
Bob

 

[Ralph Heinz]

Possibly a harpoon?

 

[major bill]

I lean more towards a harpoon than a pike.

 

[captaindrew]

That's what I was thinking, maybe a whaling harpoon

 

[tokashikibop]

Thanks fellas, I will see what I can find out about harpoons tomorrow and let you know if I run it to ground.

 

[mofederal]

I believe the bridle cutter on a pike to be somewhat different, a harpoon or some other weird farm implement.

 

[Larryh86GT]

It does look like a harpoon.

 

[ikesdad]

Certainly not a Joe Brown pike. And I reckon not a harpoon. The hook appears to be there to pull something.

 

[JOHN42768]

Harpoon, yes

 

[cwtalker15]

Hmmmm.....perhaps an early fireman's tool, for dealing with flaming timbers in a house fire? I have never seen another one though.....

 

[major bill]

A bridle cutter would be sharp to cut the bridle. This could be used to hook a cavalryman and pull them off thier horse. This seems like a long stretch.

 

[redbob]

I don't believe that it would be a pike or a boat hook, I believe that cwtalker15 might be on the right track with it being a firefighter's ceiling hook( for piercing and pulling down ceilings). I do like your background, it reminds me of my first shelter half that the Marine Corps issued me back in 1970.

 

[Larryh86GT]

It looks like a keeper to me harpoon or fishing hook.

 

[Jobe Holiday]

Interesting, as are some of the comments. To me, IMHO, this tool appears to be nowhere near strong enough for Whaling purposes. If you research Whale harpoons you will see they are quite large and very substantial in their construction. This was because it was not uncommon for a harpooned Whale to take off across the water pulling the whale boat behind it. Or worse if the Whale dove it would take the whale boat down with it, so pout of necessity they were very strongly constructed harpoons and tips.

The tool shown could be a gaff for a fishing boat to be used on some of the larger fish taken for commercial purposes. Commercial fishing in the Atlantic is hundreds of years old, so to me this is a viable possibility.

That it is hand made and shows evidence of forging, it is not a commercially made product. The end of the socket appears to have threads, as if it were constructed out of iron pipe which had been repurposed from something else. The forging is what I call "Farm Grade", utilitarian, but little finesse. What I can't see in the photos is any method of securing the socket to a shaft, other than just jamming it in, which wouldn't allow you to pull backwards with any amount of power.

Just my random thoughts from a different perspective!
J.

 

[tokashikibop]

Gents, I'm thinking with Jobe Holiday, that it was used for commercial fishing. Around here in the late 1800's they used to corral dolphins near the beach and harvest them. Maybe this was used for something like that. I am perplexed on how it was secured, maybe the bottom part with holes to pin it broke off.