Pitchfork

A pitchfork or a pitchfork with prongs provided, about 170 cm long agricultural tool, which is mainly used for recording and short-term transport of manure and bedding. A pitchfork is different landscape also called fork, mulch or manure fork. The fünfzinkige fork is now known often with the trade name of compost fork.

Structure of the pitchfork

The pitchfork consists of a fork-shaped head, which is provided with four or five very slightly curved tines of about 30 to 40 cm in length. The handle is stronger and shorter than that of the pitchfork and also only slightly or not bent. The prongs are sharpened, but due to the use of scratching and scraping. They were also historically made ​​of wood, but there are now made ​​of steel.

In contrast, the pitchfork has a long, thin and curved stem and two or three strongly curved tines. Like all forks is also the pitchfork a constant source for industrial accidents.

There is also a running with bent at right angles tines form as heck hoe.

Use a pitchfork

The pitchfork is still used in all farms as a universal tool for many tasks, even if the importance due to the mechanization of agriculture has decreased. It is used both for mucking out a stable, that is to remove the litter associated with animal droppings in a wheelbarrow, as well as for spreading the manure as fertilizer on so-called hot-beds or fields. When mucking out is often scratched with the tines perpendicular to the concrete or stone floor, to solve the excrement. Much like the digging fork, the pitchfork is suitable to be stuck deep in solid material. The arrangement of the tines allows nachzutreten with his foot. Also it is used for distributing and transporting feed and bedding.

The fire department performs such a device in the firefighting vehicles with it. It serves the loosening and pulling apart of the burning material.

Production

Pitchforks were formerly carved out of wood. The wear was very high. Today the crown is metal forming by forging of steel. The durability is much higher. The fork is secured in northern Germany by means of a spring clamp or in central Germany by means of a forged duels and nail or screw on the handle. The spring clamp is a separate two -part component from sheet metal which consists of jacket and cap. It surrounds the wooden handle completely at the end and is secured with two nails in the wood. The fork is then driven tightly into the spring clamp by means of a mandrel from below. In the picture above, a compost fork is seen with a spring clamp.

Unlike pitchforks pitchforks have a thicker slightly curved stem which was preferably made of flexible wood or other woods. Pitchforks often have a handle made ​​of ash, beech and oak.