[AT] Pitchforks - new vs. old.

[Indiana Robinson]

	I was cleaning out an empty horse stall that the horse owner had neglected badly and 
learned a new lesson about pitchforks. The stall had not been cleaned in several months 
and was matted tightly with manure and old hay. I grabbed her pitchfork, a decent looking 
brand new manure fork with about 6 tines. I thought the silly thing was going to work me 
to death. I have forked a lot of manure over a lot of years but this batch was work... I 
was not in a hurry so I did about 1/3rd of the stall and quit. The next day I did another 
third of it but used an old pitchfork I had. With the old fork it was much more pleasant 
work. The difference??? the new fork had good sturdy tines but they were straight in 
diameter from the back to almost the end then the ends were sharpened down to a point. 
Basically a straight rod with sharpened ends bent to a curve. The sharpened part was only 
about an inch of the tine. My old fork on the other hand had tines that were tapered the 
full length of the tine. They were quite heavy at the back then tapered smoothly to the 
point. I was forking over a gate and with the new fork I could not just toss the manure 
over the gate. It clung to the fork and most of it I had to rake off by dragging the fork 
back over the edge of the gate. When pitching (that's why they call them "pitch" forks)   
:-)    I could feel the load move maybe an inch or two then hang on the tines. With the 
old fork since the tines were tapered once the load had moved any at all the tines were 
loose in the load and it would slide easily off of the fork.
	That is one of those simple things that you normally don't give a lot of thought to but 
can make a huge difference in use. If the stall is cleaned daily or even weekly the new 
fork would work fine but for packed stuff you might want to watch for a good old fork 
with tapered tines. I have not had a chance to look at farm stores to see if any of the 
new forks come with tapered tines.
	Now you have the "straight poop"...   ;-)

-- 
"farmer", Esquire
At Hewick Midwest
      Wealth beyond belief, just no money...

Paternal Robinson's here by way of Norway (Clan Gunn), Scottish Highlands,
Cleasby Yorkshire England, Virginia, Kentucky then Indiana. Here 100 years 
before the revolution.


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net