Peavey vs. Cant Hook... and why?

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For firewood felling and scrounging (multiple responses permitted)


  • Total voters
    23
....as are bows, as it turns out!
.I've been using riven wood for years, but didn't know it was called that - thanks joful. most of us have wedges, and would only need a drawknife to make our own handles. Here's a good explanation I found:

pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/theres-oak-then-theres-riven-oak/

yep. gotta follow one continous growth ring on the back of the bow.
 
I made the mistake of buying a cheap cant hook with timber jack from Northern Tool. THe tip never did seem to want to grab the logs, and after rolling a couple dozen logs (none of them particularly large) the tip of the hook broke off at the weld. From the reviews on their site, I was not the first to have this problem with that tool (though they kept rejecting my review where I mentioned the problem). I replaced the hook with one from another company, and have found it a much better design overall - not weld to break, and better hook geometry, so it grabs better.

Cant hooks seem to be more useful on flat ground, or around a log deck. IMO, Peaveys are better in the woods, especially on hilly ground. I'm about to buy a Logrite peavey with 48" handle - that length is plenty for my needs. Once I get this I'll sell my old Norther Tool Cant Hook/Timber Jack.

I debated getting the timberjack attachment for the Logrite, but decided not to. I've found it's quicker to just cut most of the way through, then roll the log and cut the rest of the way, as opposed to jacking up the log, cutting some pieces the repositioning and jacking it up again to cut more pieces. If I did more work on a landing, or in other clear, flat places, I might have more use for the timber jack.
Sometimes there are branches or forks in a section, making it impossible to roll. That is where a timberjack comes in handy. I prefer the one made by Woodchuck to the 3 others I had before. the Woodchuck has more leverage and can handle about 30" logs if you can push down hard enough.
 
I use a cant hook all the time. We call them cant dogs though. My dad got me an antique snow and neally one with a believe a 48 inch handle. It's pretty cool it was made in Bangor. I have quite a few older logging tools that were passed down to me from my grandfather when he was a logger in northern Maine.
Cant dog is an amazing tool especially for large heavy oak rounds.
To be honest I've never used a peavy my impression was they were more for industrial settings such as a sawmill, loggers rearranging or stacking logs, or the old days of river driving. I think having a point would be more work or frustration in most settings
 
I use my old peavey with a straight point on it, and I think it is better than the cant hook with the right angle point on the end. Two reasons.

One, I can use the straight point to jam into a cut when I am bucking and do not have a wedge with me. Two, when I am rolling a big log and it starts to go over, I can jerk the peavey out quickly so that it does not get rolled over with the log and subject to breakage. I would think the right angle point on the cant hook would be harder to disengage quickly.
 
I use my old peavey with a straight point on it, and I think it is better than the cant hook with the right angle point on the end. Two reasons.

One, I can use the straight point to jam into a cut when I am bucking and do not have a wedge with me. Two, when I am rolling a big log and it starts to go over, I can jerk the peavey out quickly so that it does not get rolled over with the log and subject to breakage. I would think the right angle point on the cant hook would be harder to disengage quickly.

Good points. Like I said I've never used one, but I am sure if they did not serve a purpose they never would have made it out of the woods in the first place! Never thought of using it as a wedge though that's a good idea in a pinch
 
The right angle on most can't hooks is a squared-off chisel, not a point that will jam into or stick in a log.

"Bangor? I hardly know her!"

Yeah, it's pronounced Bang-gor . . . there's no -er in Bangor.



Maybe this link will help? :)
 
Like this Pickoon ?
Lf96DQl.jpg
 
Sometimes there are branches or forks in a section, making it impossible to roll. That is where a timberjack comes in handy. I prefer the one made by Woodchuck to the 3 others I had before. the Woodchuck has more leverage and can handle about 30" logs if you can push down hard enough.
I carry a little Stihl 170, call it my de limber, any log will have an upside, cut all the limbs and slash off a side and the log will roll at least 90 degrees with a cant hook and you can do it again if necessary. I used to think a peavey and cant hook were the same thing and many still confuse the terms but a true peavey, named for the man who designed it, was a tool used to separate logs on a river drive, the point was for shoving, the hook for rolling. Not many river drives anymore so a cant hook is more useful n the woods. I have two of them, one I got 40 yrs ago from a sawmill in Walden, Co. and the other a Northern Tool 48" fibreglass handle one with a steel core, I can't imagine being able to bend the handle and the point of the hook is not welded on but machined from a solid piece of steel still I won't be around in forty more years to see if it lasted like the old one.
 
Here's where someone will post a photo of a bulldozer. ;lol

IMG_0598.PNG
Somebody call me?
:)
I use a cant hook only because PECO left it on a job I was on a few years back. I left it there the whole next day, they never came back so in the back of the truck it went