Cant hook I made today, cherry wood handle

[motolife313]

needed one of these last couple times I seen some logs near the road but had to use my shovel to move the logs wishing I had one of these. The piece of cherry was the trunk of a young tree I And cut it up this morning in my yard. Doing some more testing tomorrow. Might have it a touch long for 18”-22” stuff but will see the cherry fell just the other day and I sealed the ends of the this handle and put boiled linseed oil oil on it. The stainless tube is 1 3/4 x 2”

 

[motolife313]

Some weld shots of anyone is into that kinda thing parts I made on my friends mill. The 1/2” round stock i tapered on the lathe hopefully I don’t get too much flex out if this super green cherry handle

 

[Franny K]

I can see you are pretty skilled at tig welding. Cooks makes a sort of similar device but the 2"x2" thing is longer and no wood, I think they call it indestructible. Wooden handled devices like that have a tapered much larger pocket for the wooden handle. On something like that pivot bolt I generally use a longer one so the part that has no threads goes as far as possible through the holes then trim the threaded end as much as possible.

 

[Mike Van]

Your welds will outlast that handle by about 100 years................

 

[motolife313]

I shortened the hook and I’m going to shorten the tube by about 4”. I made it for a huge log lol. Made the hook 12” instead of like 15”. I’m playing with the hook angle too. Needs little tinkering. But does work

 

[BB Sig]

Nice job!

 

[BobL]

Yeah real nice, love those welds.

One suggestion I will make is that although the hook does 90% of the work if you are going to use teeth on the base then I found they will grip better if they are sloped back towards the handle end.
So either tilt the conical ones back like the one shown on the left or grind the whole tips on a slope like the one on the right.



I actually found having teeth all the way along the base works best like ether smaller one show below

 

[motolife313]

I’m still tinkering with it. Thanks for the advice. I’m going to cut the tube off by 4” or so and try it with no points. Doesn’t seem like they do much after playing with it little bit

 

[BobL]

I’m still tinkering with it. Thanks for the advice. I’m going to cut the tube off by 4” or so and try it with no points. Doesn’t seem like they do much after playing with it little bit

Yep - unless the log is the right size for the hook the points may not even contact the log which is why I went for a serrated jaw all the way along the lower jaw.
Teeth on the lower jar do reduce the possibility of the whole cant hoot twisting when a rounded lower jaw or base is used but as your hook uses a lower jaw with a flat face that's less likely to happen.

FWIW the handles on the ones I made are made of Western Australian Karri which has an elastic strength of about 65% that of mild steel.
Here is my entire body weight (then 265 lbs) hanging on the end of my bigger one - it flexed about an inch at the end of the handle under that weight.