A Yoke for People?

[ivy]

Has anyone made a yoke for themselves? I’m not sure if there is another word of this item – it is a stick to help you carry buckets of baskets of items. It goes across the shoulders. When I was in China I saw people use them and they just looked like a single pole (like this: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yoke_china.jpg). Sadly, I was not yet hip to this whole yoked animals or people thing and didn’t really inquire about them. I’ve also seen drawings of them where they look like they are shaped to fit around your neck. (like this http://image64.webshots.com/64/7/40/70/2903740700071470434YQKZxM_ph.jpg, but perhaps a bit more functional in the bucket size department.)

Has anyone made one? Do they work well? Will a flexible pole really do the job (a piece of conduit might work well also?) or is something more form fitting better?

Cheers
ivy

[Carl Russell]

Yes I have made one and used it a lot over the years. I carved mine copied from an old one that my parents had picked up from an auction. Mine is cut from butternet, soft and light, but pretty strong. It is shaped for the shoulders, cupped out like a dugout canoe, with a semi circle cut out for the neck. The “arms” extend beyond the shoulders about 6″ I think, I’ll measure it, or take pictures, and then cords hang down to the point where my hands can hold the hooks.

I have carried as many as four 35lb square bales of hay, and I can also carry 4 buckets of water, 2 on the hooks, and 2 in my hands. I have found it to be a great tool for carrying those kinds of loads that are cumbersome and heavy, and which you may have to carry long distances.

Carl

[Vicki]

I have one carved by a fellow ox drover, from cottonwood. Traditional yankee style like Carl describes. I used it for a couple years twice a day to carry 2 5 gal. buckets of water to my small duck flock. I now use it at fairs and festivals to fetch water and to carry baskets of apples or anything else.

[Joshua Kingsley]

Does anyone know where I might get some patterns for these yokes from? I think they would come in handy like Carl mentioned and would be willing to give one a try on our farm.
Thanks Josh

[sanhestar]

Pictures:

http://www.markham.ca/mpl/history/images/pioneerkids_images/artifacts/neckyoke.jpg

a shop selling yokes

http://www.tealpaddles.com/prices.html

http://www.memorialhall.mass.edu/collection/itempage.jsp?itemid=5703

http://www.slowfood-hamburg.de/media/texte/handmelken3.jpg

http://www.heinrich-tischner.de/50-ku/technik/ldw/bilder/farb/f21.jpg

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