[Hesse2509]

Ok, so the original intention of this thread was to name a tool that my Brother-in-Law donated to me at the weekend, and to find out what it might be used for. However, I thought that it might be a bit of fun for people to post their own mystery tools so that beginners like myself can learn about new tools, and the more experienced guys could share some of the curiosities hanging around the back of their sheds.

So onto the tool that I have been given. I am guessing that it might be some kind of pitch fork used for muck spreading, but all feedback and knowledge would be appreciated. To give an indication of size, I would say the handle is just over 3 1/2 feet long (and in need of replacement).

Let the games commence!!!!! 

[grendel]

potato rake?

[pipfit]

Its a chrome as we call them in norfolk
pipfit

[8doubles]

Ditching or muck fork, used for clearing vegetation from drainage ditches (with 8ft long handle) or as you said spreading dung.

[Hesse2509]

Having used the replies and Google images as a guide, it would seem that Grendel's response of a potato rake fits the bill. The question now is, what do you use it for? (nil points for the rather obvious 'raking potatoes'!)

Anyone else have any curiosities they need identifying or wish to share? 

[Gwiz]

See pipfits answer,
It's definitely called a croomb (or so an old boy from Norfolk told me when he saw me using one )

Mind you, it seems that the spelling might be different.

[Growster...]

One or two of the guys from here a few years ago, had them made up by re-welding an old fork head at right angles to a shaft.

It's easier to use than a Canterbury Hoe, as the tines are that much sharper - or so they said...

[savbo]

from my old BTCV days I can attest it's a crome, many days spent dragging cr*p out of ponds and going home stinking...

In Northern Ireland they call it a bent grape

a purtie grape (potato fork) is flat and has up to 10 thin tines...some lovely old ones around the dad-in-law's farm

[Spana]

OH has stuff like this saved from generations of wheelwrights, coffin makers and farmers in his family

He says they are called  muck chromes but have several uses.

One use was to fill a horse drawn cart with muck, as the horse pulled the cart across the land you say WOH[sp] to the horse to stop, then using the chrome pull the muck off the back of the cart.  At 'walk on' the horse would move on to the next bit to be mucked.
Happy days

[Growster...]

I made one to drag the coal from the back of our coal bunker to the front, so we could get the stuff which was beginning to set like concrete from the previous year's piling up...

It was (is) my famous Canterbury Hoe, which now graces the Growster Patch at times when the topsoil needs a damn good seeing to...

And it does - many, many times...

;0)

[RichardA]

the version I have was my dad's - we call it a drag in North Lincolnshire - old digging fork with tines heated and bent over but with a longer handle probably ex pitch fork.
Used to break up ground such as clay after digging over and before a conventional rake would be be able to get through the lumps.
My soil although only a mile or so from where his garden was, never needs it as it is more loamy but I cant quite get round to throwing it out.
R

[lmpd]

When I had my allotment in Cambridgeshire, one of the old fellas on the plot loaned me one and he called it a drag too!!!

[Flatcat]

We use one for pulling out the rubbish after rotavating, and also for clearing the gunge from ponds

[Growster...]

They're very useful for a final 'comb' through a patch of recently dug topsoil, to get the last bits of weed root out.

'Comb' - 'Chrome' - 'Croomb'...

[vegypete]

hi ya i had one of these tools , it was  great for nocking lumpy soil about pryer to raking it,i new it as a drag, when i went to norfolk and see one used the guy said he called it a chrome