Don't laugh...

[Seamus]

Woman with Haflingers wants a "bitch hook"
No, that's what she said, honest.

Looked it up, and found

 

bitch hook n. a curved metal device used with a chain

to hold or secure lumber or other things,

or to brake a sled on descents. Also bitch link.

 

Editorial Note: The unpublished manuscript for the Lexicon of Trade Jargon

(circa 1938-39, now at the Library of Congress) includes in its section on

“Lumber Workers’ Slang and Jargon” an entry for bitch chain

and defines it as a “Heavy, short chain with hook and ring,

used to fasten the lower end of a ‘gin pole’ (q.v.) to a sled or car when loading logs.

 

bitch link, “In logging: a pear-shaped link on the end of a chain,

larger and heavier than other links.

When the chain is run through an opening

a choker can be looped through this link to secure it

 

Okey.  Anyone have one, or can direct me to a picture of same?

[John McPherson]

http://ancientpoint.com/inf/10916-18th_century_blacksmith_hand_forged_iron_chain_11__4__ring__hook_old_farm_tool.html

[Nobody Special]

http://books.google.com/books?id=6O8OAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA141&lpg=PA141&dq=bitch+link+chain+logging&source=bl&ots=v3sMf3_hSn&sig=5F_530t3XPB0ZxuVz-vGc-lgcyc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9epIVNTKCorGgwTQ8YGwCA&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=bitch%20link&f=false

 

Try this, illustration on page 55 & 60. Couple of pics on this illustration to show use, but looks like the pic above. A curved hook with the eye perpendicular to the hook end instead of parallel, but same idea.

 

Oh yeah, and too late. I laughed. :D

[notownkid]

If I'm understanding the descriptions correctly and Here we go again with locales and wording of the same thing.  Your "Bitch Hook" are known in my area or within our family as a" sled chain"  or "brake chain" and were used as long as we logged or made Maple Syrup with Oxen or Horses.  It was a heavy U type piece that rode over the top of the runner just ahead or the forward cross bunk and  had a short chain 24-30" attached to one side and a hook and slip ring to fasten the hook once you ran the short chain under the sled runners and back to the hook.  Stopped at the top of the downgrades and attached unhooked on the flats.  The short chain was allowed to drag on the inside of the runners until needed.  I Have a number in my collection usually picked up in Yard sales as junk chain.

 

I have a picture of one somewhere but to date haven't been able to get anything to go onto IFI.

 

Now the bitch link in our area was always known but with a Religion Name I don't care to use here.  I have a number I use all the time on my tractors.  Today you find them on the back of Cable Skidders used in Logging.  Used to attach the Choker Chain to the Cable, it slides up and down the cable as needed in the hitching up of the logs. 

 

As I say IF I understand the question correctly.  Another interesting Hook is the" Choker Hook" used in logging that makes it hard for the chain or fall out of the hook but easy to attach to the logs. 

[Seamus]

Okey, obviously got the right guys to talk to here.

Thanks for the image link G.O.G. 
What I see looks like a choker chain with a hand made

grab hook on one end and a large link on the other.

I'll show her that and see what she says

Googling about a bit after I posted here, I did find

 

http://store.chainsawr.com/products/keyhole-chain-hook-loggergrab

 

and

 

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_479598_479598

 

No way I can make them that cheaply, but I'll see if that's what she wants.

Maybe we can trade something.  She's got an industrial Singer sewing machine

and I have canvas I'd like to mend.

 

Nobody, I followed the link, but my Google Book skills aren't that good.

All I can see is an excerpt from pages  141 and 148
How do I get it to show me the pictures on pages 55 & 60 ?

Notownkid, got your email.  You're on the right track.
She does wood turning, and uses the ponys to haul logs

now and again.  Nothing big/heavy she said.  I expressed my

concerns about liability, and that she'd be better off with genuine

logging hardware, but she's a fairly small woman and on the north

side of 50, so she's not about to get involved with anything over 200 lbs

or so she says.  Anywho, it's an interesting project for me, nothing ventured

nothing gained.  Go ahead and send the pictures to my email if you can.

I had thought I had set up things so I'd get emails telling me when someone

answered my question, but it doesn't seem to be working.  Maybe I did it wrong

or maybe Yahoo dropped the ball.

More anon