Help ID this thing

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fugawee

Joined
Jul 7, 2008
Messages
4,585
Howdy
Was going through some old stuff and ran across the following,
I found it many years ago while working at a sewage treatment plant
which was along the Chicago River.
I think its somehow marine related (maritime)
Its iron,blunt edged,
the poll seems to have been made for whacking
and does show some signs of being well used and hit.
Overall length is about 10 inches.

Any Clues?

DSC_0132.jpg


DSC_0122.jpg


thanks
 
SWAG here... I'm thinking some sort of stake that one could tie a boat or barge off to.
 
fugawee said:
Howdy
I found it many years ago while working at a sewage treatment plant
which was along the Chicago River.
Its iron,blunt edged,
the poll seems to have been made for whacking
and does show some signs of being well used and hit.
Overall length is about 10 inches.
Click to expand...



Jimmy Hoffa murder weapon? :confused:
 
I wonder if it's some sort of stop pin. The ring attached to it suggests that it was tied to something else for use with that other thing.
 
That's what I was going to say, an old-school piton or carabiner... Especially heavy duty for belaying lines and such.
 
OP, a guess at the weight?

Have no clue but if not a piton, close relative. Any signs of wear on the interior of the ring such as a rope or line might make?

Cool find in any event.
 
Sorry so late!
Thanks everyone for the replies!
Climbing piton! never heard of that.
Wonder what it was doing there where I found it,
no climbing anywhere near here.
Perhaps from some kind of quarry or something,
but the area it was found in,had other relics from
about 1900. I found an old fishing reel
and an iron spike/hook that looked like something
you would put on a long pole to hook a rope in the water,
or poke logs etc.
Archeology is fun!

Thanks again!
 
its not a piton, why?
the welds are to ruff--hanging your *** on a rope is bad enough, you don't want to worry about your equipment cutting your ropes.

it shows signs of being hammered on or into something---if they came out easy they wouldn't be much good, would they. pitons are usually one time use items, that's why the chocks and expandable pieces of protection were invented.
people didn't like the pitons sticking out of the walls on the more popular climbs. pulling a piton out is dangerous, there are climbing and mountaineering clubs that go around and pull them out of walls. because once you pound them in or set them that's where they stay unless you set more pieces of protection to be able to safely remove the old ones.

i could be wrong.
i think its a tie down for some kind of trailer or barge. the shape could be hammered or slipped between boards or pieces of a load. the weight of the load would hold it in place to hold tarps or tenting to cover the load in shipment. that would explain the ring so lines or ropes could slide through to tighten them up.
 
Tool used for waterproofing wooden planked boats by hammering the tarred hemp twine used for caulking between the planks? The ring to tie a lanyard to keep from losing it while working over water/--KV
 
Sure it's a piton, but not the type carried by individual climbers for ascents. From the mass and size of the ring, it looks like an older design used for anchoring permanent lines or cables.
 
Here's some more. Lots of variety isn't there?

Like I said, probably for anchoring permanent lines and cables, not carried by climbers. I swear I've seen similar used around Yosemite.

171921_11158_L.jpg

172023_20031_L.jpg


fig2-113.jpg
 
Piton sound right to me to where on the river did you find it ? There is a quarry near the river on the south side also there was a bunch of boat yards all along the river could have been used as a anchor to tie up to the bank very intresting find . When i was younger we used to go exploring all along the banks we found all kinds of crazy stuff !
 
Heres a link to a picture with some old school pitons, looks like there might be a pretty good match.

051ethics-1932pitons.jpg
 
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