Friday, October 03, 2008

From Dave Price


Hammer, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Buckles:

These wooden hammers or mauls or mallets crop up on eBay from time to time and are always attributed to some circus. This one is described as "... a rare and wonderful vintage wooden mallet or hammer that according to it's prior owner, was used by staff working for the Ringling Bros & Barnum Bailey Circus around the early 1900's or late 1800's. I purchased the unit approx 30 years ago from a friend who said it had been originally owned by his great grandfather who worked during his youth, as a laborer for the Ringling Bros. Circus then located in Bridgeport Ct. According to it's (then owner)...The wooden mallet was primarily used to hammer tent stakes as well as perform other related duties as needed, by circus staff..."

Overlooking the obvious errors above, my question is: Was this type hammer ever used on stakes?

Posted by Buckles at 10/03/2008 06:21:00 AM

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dave,
Doug Holwadell had one of these wooden mallets also, he told me that it was used to drive the chocks under the wagon wheels on the flat cars. I don`t know but I wouldn`t think they would last long driving stakes.
Hal Guyon

03 October, 2008 10:11
Anonymous said...

I only remember seeing them soaking in a Bucket of water...next to a High-Striker...

03 October, 2008 10:29
Anonymous said...

The mallet that Doug had was only about 3" in diamature, all the High-Striker mallets I`ve seen are about 8". I`ve seen High-Striker mallets in water also Jim, why do they do this is it to make them heavier.

Hal Guyon

03 October, 2008 11:08
Anonymous said...

Hal, perhaps you are right...I've always wore glasses and I got D's in math...they soak them in water to keep them swelled up so the Handle and bands don't fall off...

03 October, 2008 12:22
Anonymous said...

Using a wooden-headed mallet to drive wooden stakes reinforced by a metal band around the top edge doesn't make sense. Check out vintage photos of stake gangs and you'll see steel-headed sledge hammers. The 1894 Ringling route book shows them. Also look at old circus sale ads and auction catalogs, which would mention the hammers, grubbing rakes and whatever other tools were utilized by a circus.

I think someone has a cottage industry making these big old wooden things. If they were used 1825-circa 1870s, I doubt that many would have survived. I would surmise that the development of the sledge hammer as we know it was fueled by the development of spike hammers for railroad track construction.

A wooden headed hammer would have been deformed quite readily under circus stake use, just like the head of a wooden stake without a ring or ferrule. It made more sense to have a metal headed hammer, and thereby increase their longevity.

The steel heads resisted deformation under load. The inertia imputed to them by the man swinging them in a circle was transfered to the stake head upon impact. That was the real basis of their use; their inertia, not the driver's arms actually forcing the hammer down. The energy is directly proportional to the mass, so making them of steel rather than would increased their effectiveness.

03 October, 2008 13:22
Harry Kingston said...

Jim,
I agree with you on the wooden hammers and as far as I know were used for the high-striker.
I have a large one in my collection and has two steel bands on the outter ends. The wood is burned where they forged the bands together.
I always thought 20 pound steel hammers were used on a circus for the large wooden stakes with metal bands. And fols yuo got to be a real man to swing a 20 pound hammers as I did it in my yuonger days but not now.
All the photos I have ever seen there were like 8 blacks driving the stakes with steel hammers.
I just cannot see them driving all those stakes with wooden hammers as they are not that heavy to do the job.
I cannot wait to see the rest of the answers on this to see what is right.
Harry

03 October, 2008 14:07
Anonymous said...

Harry, I first was introduced to 20# sledges when I worked for "Big John Strong" They had a crew of at least 6 guys swingin...One time in Weaverville Ca. we had 11 on 1 stake..I still carry 4 20#'s ...although because I am startin to feel the miles...I mostly use(Forgive me)a "Wacker"...Yet I still break out a 20# on ocassion swingin figure 8's and 1 handed when I see a jointy strugglelin with a 8# ...(common on Carnivals)...Anonymous is correct..in that the 20# steel head does the work...I weigh 150 soakin wet, smoke and have never claimed to be a physical specimen...Yet with proper technique, even a fella like me at 47 can still make it around a Bigtop with ease....I once saw a old High-striker guy lay this line on a muscled up dude with a drop dead girlfreind after he failed to ring the Bell on his first swing.."Hold on pal..let me help you out!..You're Wife's cheatin on ya...and So is your GIRLFREIND!" needless to say...The dude rang it on his second swing....

03 October, 2008 17:14
Anonymous said...

Hey Harry, if you still live in Beaumont...Why don't you load up some scrapbooks and head over to the LA State Fair (Shreveport) on Oct 20 - Nov 9...(fair is dark on Mon. and Tues.) I believe they have a Circus...We could cut-up jackpots...and if you call me to let me know when you arrive..I'll try to square you in the gate...Best JZ.. 847-840-5118 Anyone is invited also.....

03 October, 2008 17:30
Anonymous said...

The handle on the pictured hammer would hav lasted about 10 swings, before it broke from hitting the state. Today, many use 20# hammers with very short handles, to drive the stakes inside the tent, for guying out the rigging for high acts. Those of you that have seen C&B setup, have probably noticed this.
Bob Kitto
PS, Harry how did you weather the deluge of rain where you live?

03 October, 2008 19:58
Anonymous said...

I was taught to stand the Hammer next to your right side...Let your arm hang down with your hand straight...then mark the handle where the tip of your middle finger ends..and thats where you cut off the handle...If my memory is correct,Henry Crowell is the one who told me this...and I have sized them like this ever since...

03 October, 2008 23:13
Anonymous said...

Jim: Are Henry and Delores still around?

04 October, 2008 00:17
Harry Kingston said...

Hi Jim and Bob,
I will try to make the fair but we are cleaning up after Hurricane Ike. What a real mess around Beaumont, Texas. It took 14 days to get power back on and many still do not have it.
Poor Galveston caught hell and Port Bolivar where we catch the ferry for Galveston is all gone with the wind.
Trees are stacked up as high as an elephants eye.
We must be living wrong here as we had Hurricane Rita and 3 years later got Ike. It sure is no fun.
I guess I need to buy a semi trailer and store my circus collection in it and when a Hurricane comes this way haul out of here or move to Colorado and buy a cave and fight 10 feet of show or a cave in.
Bob, I remember the short handle 20 pounders on Beatty Cole but you still got to be a real man to swing one and in shape. I try to find them at flea markets as a gift from me to the circuses but they are hard to find now in that size. The handles at flea markets used to $1 but no more as prices have gone way up.
But in all my years of circusing I have NEVER seen a wooden hammer used. I try to tell the ebayers about a wooden hammer but some just will never lean the truth.
Great answers on this question fans.
Harry in Hurricane alley

04 October, 2008 06:43
Buckles said...

Hard to know what people will find interesting.
I tossed in Dave's mallet picture as an afterthought and it topped the day.

04 October, 2008 09:21
24-HOUR-MAN said...

The stakes we used on the outdoor Kimris rigging were steel, 2" in diameter, & 5' long, we drove them 4' into the ground. In Flemington, N.J. the ground was so hard it took 20 hits with a 16lb hammer to move the stake 1". Using a wooden mallet, I believe we would still be there.
We had to use a wrecker to pull them out, and a couple of them lifted his front wheels off the ground.

04 October, 2008 10:03
Anonymous said...

These wooden mallets are used by timber framers so that they don't ruin the wooden handles of their chisels. Would think that is why so many turn up as most older buildings and barns are post and beam constrution (mortise and tenon). Also used to drive the plug into wooden barrels for everything from pickles to beer.
As to Hurricane Ike, it has made a real mess out of southeast Texas. From Houston to Beaumont it looks like someone took a weedeater to all the trees. Just lucky it was Sept with cooler weather and no power for 2 weeks. We still have 200-300 people missing from the coast.
P.J.Holmes

04 October, 2008 11:15
Anonymous said...

I have not seen Henry and Delores in close to 15 years or more...However they joined Circuspace...I left a message when they joined...yet have not heard back from them..(they may not remember me)...I presume they are fine tho....

04 October, 2008 12:20
Anonymous said...

Pullin stakes is a problem (unless you have Elephant) I found this chainsaw motor driven stake puller on the internet last winter but did not buy one as I wanted to see it operate in person first...When I played Fargo this year...A guy with a Educational Reptile Show had one for pullin his tent stakes and let me try it out...I must admit it worked very well..and one must realise I was pullin stakes with it on a VERY hardpacked Fairgrounds (which most are)..At $2400 it would be a good investment for someone like myself with about 64 stakes to pull and only 3 guys to pull them..Yet with Fuel prices and a iffy economy..I'll stick to my Hand pullers for now...You can veiw this Gas powered puller on a short video at http://www.thestakepuller.com/

04 October, 2008 12:40
Anonymous said...

All genuinely interesting, but also sort of sad that a wooden mallet garners more comments about it than do photos of so many good and highly regarded people.

PG

04 October, 2008 12:42
Anonymous said...

PG...I dissagree...The Highly regarded folks get their due..Yet many folks/fans find the unsung aspects of the Bigtop facinating...In a time when tops have moved from canvas to vynl...and from rope to ratchets...many techniques involving tents are becoming a lost art...My guys for instance (except Mark) Have No idea what a baseball stitch is yet know all about HH66,its proper use, and medicinal use.., or don't how to tie a rope off to stake (we use ratchets)or as discussed, How to properply swing a 20# sledge...How many folks out on the road today even know what a "Georgia Buggy" is?...I believe the "Unsung Heroes" of the Big Top...and their techniques should be disscussed and their lengend and contribution remembered...

04 October, 2008 13:07
Harry Kingston said...

Hi Jim Z,
Keep those answers coming as this is getting great man.
Yes, God bless them, the unsung heros of the circus that got it up and down and moved to the next town.
D. R Miller showed me how to throw a hitch on a stake and man it works great when I need to stake something out here at the house.
Every time the movie comes on the greatest show on earth I am looking at every aspect in the back ground to see something I have not noticed before. When Heston and Hutton are talking just before they load out in the tent there is a quarter pole with the rope tied around it and it is art work how it is tied.
They are laying out the center poles and rigging it wow, what a show in it's self.
If we are on same page a Georgia buggy is a stake puller. Pete Luvas gave me the steel one off of the old Dixieana Circus. All steel with heavy wheels and chain in the front and you insert a pipe in the rear for leverage.
Get 2 or 3 real heavy guys for the back.
Raise the back up and wrap the chain around the stake tell the guys to pull down and the stake comes right out the ground.
I remember when they had a chant for guying out the tent and do you hear that any more.
Johnny Pugh used to get the biggest kick out of me as I loved that Beatty Cole canvas tent with the flags flying in the breeze and the tent moving in the wind. I would get goose bumps when it was raised and what all it took to get it up and guyed out and what a show it was.
Yes alot is gone now for ever never to return but in our photos and memories of how it was.
But I can go in my circus room and see my Beatty Cole big top flags that Johnny Pugh took out of a safe and gave me, stakes, bales rings, one off of Dailey Bros rr show, pieces of Beatty Cole canvas tents with a peice of the hood with CB on it, Vargas tent pieces, Vargas center pole lights Jerry Braa gave me, also pieces of the Vargas center poles, Beatty Cole wooden seats and remember this was the way it was.
Frond memories the way it was.
Harry

04 October, 2008 16:19
Anonymous said...

Harry, last week in Fort Smith..Steve Lyle the ole waterman on David Rawls KM...came by with Terry White (mud show guy) I pulled out some chairs and we jackpotted over putting up tops...Steve told a lot of colorful stories...As the LA Times billboard ads a decade ago used to say "Everyone has a Story...We intend to tell them all..." I admire The Greats and near Greats of the Circus...Yet at the same time Admire the "Backbone" of the Circus as well...As I can admire a innovative act or rigging...I also admire the tools of the Bigtop...mudshoes, bailrings, sewing palms,fid ect. These things had to evolve and be dreamnt up..and created...DR will be remembered more for his innovations on moving a Show...Then say, the tricks he did performing as "Don Steele"....I have a set of wooden CBCB seats in my LQ...and the elephant tub Rani (trained by Mac Macdonald)used as a punk sits in the Entrance way of the SS...

04 October, 2008 19:03
Anonymous said...

Joe Suttons '62 scrambler sets to my right here...They told me his Father trailer mounted it years ago and the front steel on the trailer comes from the original Ferris Wheel of the Columbia Exposition (Chicago) .....I know this isnt circus related..but never the less thought some might find it interesting as I did.....

04 October, 2008 19:12
Anonymous said...

Hey Guys,
Jaime Garcia of CBCB built a great stake puller that mounted on the front of the JD fork lift. It worked great and never had a problem. Jaime is one of the greatest inovators of the modern era. The device also would straigten the steel stakes that were necesswary at times. God Bless Jaime. Does anyone know how he is doing. I think and pray for him every day.
Bob Kitto

05 October, 2008 20:03

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