Homemade or factory built?

[Matthew]

Has anyone ever come across one of these in thair travels? I bought it about five or six years ago when a friend of the family’s father died. Walking in to his barn was like going back in time it was un touched for at least 100 years. I bought as many things as I could aford thair was so mutch great stuff but only so mutch you would really use. This was a horse drawn ice scribe used to put a groove in the ice that would then be sawed lengthwise and withwise into blocks. I figure the seat was for weight or maby you could ride it after you made your first grove? Do you think it was manufacted or made buy a blacksmith? I have no use for it and it is not safe to use the wood is old and dry. I was thinking of donating it to a local farm equipment museum.

[Donn Hewes]

Please consider finding someone that wants to rebuild it for their own use on their farm. Much better than a museum in my opinion. It is a beautiful piece. I would take it if you were closer.

[j_maki]

@Donn Hewes 20764 wrote:

Please consider finding someone that wants to rebuild it for their own use on their farm. Much better than a museum in my opinion. It is a beautiful piece. I would take it if you were closer.

I agree with Donn. Around here every thing that is in decent shape usually ends up as a lawn ornament or scrap. It really sucks when you go to an auction and you get out bid by someone just looking to decorate their yard. Or you see a trailer full of scrap going down the highway with a load full of “scrap” with some very salvagable pieces except the owners didn’t bother trying to sell it for what it is and just had some scrap guy come and take it all away. Most of the time you find out later so and so past away and their kids just sent it all for scrap. I have even given my name and number to a few scrap guys at auctions and told them I would pay them a higher price than the going rate for any salvagable items but I have yet to ever get a call from them.

Jeremy

[mitchmaine]

Matthew, when we were in grade school, this old man used to come around every once in a while and give us a talk on the ice industry. I never paid close attention and maybe he didn’t know what he was talking about, but if he did and I remember right, what you have is a scoring plow. Gifford and wood made lots of ice tools. It might say that somewhere on it. Its job was to score the ice a couple inches deep one way and reset to make it wider the other way making a rectangular cake that wouldn’t jamb in the chutes. Then they had a single row plow that took the cut to about 6 -8’ deep. They tried to get about 2/3 through the ice and then saw it from there. They would wait for the ice to get a foot thick, but there didn’t seem to be a standard size. It weighed about 60 pounds per cubic foot and the cakes were huge. They would sweep the chips back into the grooves they made to keep the water from flowing back in and refreezing the ice field. Horses and men were always falling in the water. There was a choker of some sort on the horses and when drawn tight kept their lungs inflated if the fell in. we are near the Kennebec river and the ice houses have been gone for a long time, but tools like yours show up all the time. I agree with donn. Before I put your plow in a museum I’d find someone who could use it, but before I did that I’d keep it. its a real corker. You might need it someday.

We have a unique type of horse shoe around here. I still have some. They aren’t specific to the ice trade, but were popular in it. They were cast with four tapered holes in the face that took the toe and heel caulks. There was a special tool that set and pulled the caulks in or out. You could set your shoes once and keep replacing the caulks or pulling them out anytime you chose.

mitch

[Mark Cowdrey]

@j_maki 20765 wrote:

I agree with Donn. Around here every thing that is in decent shape usually ends up as a lawn ornament or scrap. It really sucks when you go to an auction and you get out bid by someone just looking to decorate their yard.
Jeremy

Listen to “John Deere “B”” by Fred Eaglesmith on his “Balin'” cd

[Carl Russell]

Here is a picture of an Ice Plow, as Mitch describes cutting deeper into the ice. We plowed here without a scribed line, and it is very difficult. The neither the scribe nor plow would do the job without the other.

I think it is a great piece, and looks like it would be easy to rebuild. I’m not sure you’ll get too rich, but someone would probably like it.

Carl

[Donn Hewes]

I hate to admit it but a chain saw with veg oil for the bar does a great job of cutting ice. Just in case any one was wondering.

[Matthew]

I have looked a little online and find quite a bit about harvisting ice with horses and hand tools but all I see are ice plows nothing like what I have. The closest I have found is a picture of a ice plow with a guide off set the plow to keep the size blocks uniform. I had a change of heart after reading some of the other coments and I have tucked the scoring plow away in a shed untill I can find someone who can use this or I get the balls to work a team on a frozen lake.:eek: Check out this picture I found online you can see the calked shoes, the ropes I am gessing is incase the team falls in. The harness is missing a few parts the back pad is missing and belly band is just hanging between the horses legs. I wounder if this was done to get the harness off in a hurry if the team went through the ice or was the harness just junk?

http://drc.ohiolink.edu/bitstream/handle/2374.OX/1379/57.41.P11613790.jpg?sequence=2

[grey]

The harness is for a much larger horse; they are downright swimming in their collars. Rather than buckle the belly-band shut and have a low loop sagging down for the horse to step on or through, they left it loose. Not sure why they didn’t just remove the belly band instead of working with it on. A very rough-looking outfit, that’s for sure, but a fascinating photo.

[Big Horses]

Looking at their feet and the rest of the outfit, I’d say it’s just a “use what ya can find” sort of outfit! Very interesting picture to say the least!
My Dad tells of a horse going through the ice on the lake near us, and having cut a “channel” (just in case) to get him back up before they did much ice cutting, then heading to the barn as fast as possible with a whole crew, armed with gunny sacks to get him dried off before it was too late. He said they used the same horse the next day, back out there and he wasn’t too jumpy, but wasn’t all too sure about heading out on that lake at first!
JH

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