Snowball hammers and coal hammers

[Frank Turley]

The snowball hammer, sometimes called a "snow knocker," was found mostly in New England. It was used to knock built up snow from the hoof bottom. The built up snow pack could cause the horse to stumble or slip, so every now and then, the horse was stopped so each foot could be picked up and cleaned of its snowball. I have one, pictured, in my collection of iron goodies. It has a 3/8" round, iron haft and a swivel snap on the end. The other end was tenoned through the head and peened up a bit. The head, 3 1/4" long, has a pyramidal point. Overall length is 11". The snap was often attached to the harness to be within easy reach.

I first encountered coal hammers when I visited Mike George's place in Alva, Oklahoma. Mike was one of the founders of The Saltfork Craftsmen and had a collection of coal hammers. The ones he had  were all cast iron, most with raised lettering indicating an advertisement of a coal company, hardware store, or suchlike. I suspect most of these hammers were from the Midwest and were giveaways, much like wooden yardsticks were giveaways. I found one in a second hand store and sent it to MIke as a present. We think they were used domestically to break up large lumps of coal to better feed the coal burning stoves.