Update on Hay Knives

My article, "A Compendium of Hay Knives," in the June issue of The chronile generated some useful additional information from our readers. I present this information here now along with a few more knives recently found.

Using Hay Knives

KAIA member O. M. Kamsey sent in a short article about hay knives that he had published in the Midwest Tool Collectors Association publication, The Grsitmill (no. 6i2, March 1991). The main theme of his article was about liow various crops were stored in the barn mow and how hay knives were used to cut sections from the stack or mow. His article included an illustration often different knives. I believe nine of them were covered in "A Compendium," but the tenth had a very large saw cut blade (perhaps six to eight inches wide and at least three feet long) fastened to a large wooden in-line handle, like a carpenters' wood saw.

More Articles Uncovered

In re-reading old issues of The Chronicle, I found two additional references for what 1 think are hay knives, one by Silas Wheeler1 and the other by Milton Makepeace.

In his article, Wheeler showed what lie called a cider cheese cutter from Massachusetts, which he said was for cutting the cheese off the burlap after pressing the cider out (Figure 1 ). Having worked in a cider mill, I never needed a cutter to get the cheese off the burlap-I just turned it over and shook it oft. I believe Wheeler's knife, shown in Figure 1, is probably a spade-style hay knife that found its way into a cider mill.

Makepeace showed what tie thought may be a bogroot cutter from a farm in Connecticut. It may have been used as such, but it looks like a combination handand spade-style hay knife. Such combinations were patented and probably made. For example, Slusscr's patent of 1913 is for a combination saw-cut and spadestyle knife. Makepeace's knife is shown in Figure 2.

Comparing Turner, Keen Kutter, and Iwan

In my earlier discussion of Kellogg's patent knife (shown in Figure 15 of the June article), I mentioned that the markings on my knife were not readable. Recently, I saw an exact copy of my knife in almost unused condition with a very clear marking on the rear end of the blade, "PAT JUL 20 1875," which is Kellogg's patent date.

I have recently obtained an unmarked Turner's patent spade-style hay knife (1878 patent) and an Iwan's patent spade-style knife (1914 patent), which gave me the chance to lay the three spade-style knives (Turner, Keen Kutter, and Iwan) side-by-side and compare them. Figures 3 to 9 show various views of these three knives. Turner's is unmarked, Iwan's is marked "IWAN'S SOLID SOCKET HAY KNIFE," and the Keen Kutter is marked "KEEN KUTTER." The blades on Iwan's knife arc long-ago replacements and have been put un backward (the edge bevel should be on the back). The handle grip on the Keen Kutter may be an old replacement, for it is marked "PAT JAN 7 1919," which is probably a patent for the handle style.

True to Turner's patent, his knife does not have the handle brace extended from the back of the blade that the Keen Kutter knife has. Iwan's knife has a socket for the handle. Turner's blade tips are "squared" instead of pointed as on the Keen Kutter knife. The grooves on Turner's and Iwan's footrests are perpendicular to the rest, while those on the Keen Kutter are parallel to the rest. The metal handle support on Turner's is a cast piece, while the other two handle supports arc formed from sheet steel.

Ariel Sprout's Patent

EAIA member Carl Sprout commented that his great-great-great-grandfather's brother, Ariel Sprout, was the patentee of the combination hay knives/forks shown in patent 54,431 ( 1866) and patent 64,163 ( 1867). Carl has newspaper articles concerning their manufacture. According to Carl, Ariel's father, Ebenerer, and mother, Meriam, had eight hoys and three girls. The hoys in order of age were: Asa R., Aerial R., Erastus T., Charles, Zebina E., Amos B., Samuel E., and Louis B. Carl's third great grandfather was Amos Burrows Sprout (1826-1904). Ariel was the patent holder for the hay knives but sold the rights to manufacture them to his younger brothers Samuel B. and Louis B. The company they formed in 1867 is still in existence today under the name Andritz Sprout-Bauer, although he is sure they no longer make the hay knife/fork. At least three of the brothers were inventors: Ariel the hay knife/fork, Amos an iron fence post, and, the most prolific of them all, Asa, with at least eight patents. Carl has the original copies of the patents. Carl also has articles from the Muncy, Pennsylvania, weekly paper documenting the history of the hay knife manufacture and the various industries the brothers started.

In the "A Compendium," I showed an example of Sprout's 1867 patent knife, and I asked Carl if he knew if the first Sprout patent ( 1 MOO) was ever manufactured. Carl said that according to the history of the company there was an 'American Hay Fork" manufactured at Picture Rocks, Pennsylvania, from the spring of 1866 until November of 1867, when production was moved to Muncy, Pennsylvania. This would have apparently been the 1866 model, shown in Figure 10.

Also according to the company history, the hay fork, a labor-saving device that was new to the market, gained acceptance by farmers after a contest that took place on April 13, IHGG. The Sprout ibrk was pitted against A. K. Hurst's Keystone ibrk. The event was reported in the Muncy Luminary of April 17, 1866.

An interesting trial took place at the barn of Dr. Hugh Montgomery in Clinton Township on Friday last (April 13) between Sprout's American hay knife and fork coinbined, under the management of Mr. S. K. Sprout of Muncy, and the Keystone hay fork under the management of Mr. A.K. Hurst of Mechanicsburg, this state. We understand Mr. Hurst came to this place on Thursday, expressly to test the superiority of the Keystone fork over the American fork, the latter being a recent invention of Mr. Ariel H. Sprout, of the firm of Sprout Brothers, at Picture Hocks, this county, and meeting with Mr. S. K. Sprout of the firm, arranged for a meeting and trial of the forks at the barn of Dr. Montgomery at the time stated. The trial was witnessed by a number of our citi/.cns and the result was that the American fork lifted a ton of hay from the barn floor to the hay mow in less than one half the time, and in less than one half the number of forks full than the Keystone fork did, when Mr. Hurst gracefully acknowledged himself badly traten and the test ended.3

When the Sprout brothers moved to Muncy, the company had 1,400 hay forks on order. By 1867, the local newspaper reported that the company was the city's leading enterprise and that their product was marketed nationally/ The company history does not note when it stopped manufacturing hay knives.

Brooks Patent

EAIA member Art Gafiar sent a copy of several pages from the book "Maine Made Guns & Their Makers" by Dwight H. Demeritt, Jr. One of the makers discussed in the book is C. C. Brooks, in the "Compendium," 1 included a hay knife patented by Brooks in 1888, and a slightly different version is shown in the "Maine Made Guns" book. According to the book, Brooks was associated with the North Wayne Tool Company of North Waync, Maine. The company had offices in Hallowcll, Maine, where Brooks lived from 1883 to 1801. His hay knife, and corn, bread, and other knives utilizing his patented serrated edge became standard products of the North Wayne Tool Company. The items were produced in large numbers and apparently sold well.

Notes

1. Scias M. Wheeler, "Cheese Cutter-For Cider," The Chronicle 14, no. 2, (1961): 20.

2. Milton Makepeace,"Bog-Root Cutter and Balling Iron," The Chronicle 14, no. l, (1.96l): 8.

3. Thomas T. Taber, III, "History of Sprout-Waldron & co., Inc., Muncy Pennsylvania, 184-8-1961," Now and Then 13, no. 3 (Muncy Historical Society, 196M): 56.

4. Taber, 57.

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