Tongue, New 4 Mower Horse Drawn

[LiL' Red]

Don't know much about horse drawn equipment, but I do a lot of wood working. I can remember all the old neighbors using Red Elm as the first choice followed by White Oak, then Hickory. If you decide on Hickory work it green as it gets very hard when dry. Cedar and Pine are too soft and weak Hard Maple is very heavy and expensive Soft Maple is not very strong. Make sure whatever you use that it is free of any knots.

[Buggyscott]

I sell mower tongues for $46.50, brand new, solid ash, all tapred and squared, 14 ft long, 58 lbs apeace. New ones are out there, do not think you can make one for this. Have a Amish freind who makes them for me.

[Patbretagne]

Really my 2 cents worth.
Over here in Europe we don't have hikory etc, and in this sort of situation we use ASH. I am not sure if it is the same as american ash, but it is a white wood.
It is a smooth, clear grained fairly strong long fibre wood that resists stresses, it bends well under steam and it rots very easily if left out in the weather!
Ash is what we are using for the restoration of Noëlles trap, a lovely wood to work.
Pat

[George Willer]

Really my 2 cents worth.
Over here in Europe we don't have hikory etc, and in this sort of situation we use ASH. I am not sure if it is the same as american ash, but it is a white wood.
It is a smooth, clear grained fairly strong long fibre wood that resists stresses, it bends well under steam and it rots very easily if left out in the weather!
Ash is what we are using for the restoration of Noëlles trap, a lovely wood to work.
Pat

Pat,

I don't know if European ash is the same as the real ash over here. Ours is hard enough to machine well. I much prefer wood to be hard... it makes it easier to do a good job. Ash doesn't take stain very well, but if it will take a little it can be made to pass for oak in many people's eyes.

The days of having ash available here are numbered because of the emerald ash borer, which is killing all the trees.

[Patbretagne]

George, it is likely your white ash is the same as our ash. Nice wood to work with.
Sounds like your ash is going to go the same way as our elm did some years ago, we had what's called dutch elm disease, caused I believe by a fungus which starts at the top working down starving it of water which kills said tree making it useful for a slow burning fire only! There are very few full size elms left in Europe now.
Funny thing it doesn't attack young trees so the stock is building back up again, we have several that gave got to about 10" circ at chest height, am hoping they will keep going.
Pat
PS since writing this I see that you have same prob over there, good article:-
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/howto ... istinquish

[George Willer]

George, it is likely your white ash is the same as our ash. Nice wood to work with.
Sounds like your ash is going to go the same way as our elm did some years ago, we had what's called dutch elm disease, caused I believe by a fungus which starts at the top working down starving it of water which kills said tree making it useful for a slow burning fire only! There are very few full size elms left in Europe now.
Funny thing it doesn't attack young trees so the stock is building back up again, we have several that gave got to about 10" circ at chest height, am hoping they will keep going.
Pat
PS since writing this I see that you have same prob over there, good article:-
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/howto ... istinquish

Pat,

We have the dutch elm disease too, and it works the same here. There may be as many elms as there ever were, but they die when they are 4 to 6" diameter. An unusual thing about the elms... they seem to pop up from a common root system and grow in groves. One tree we have lost without fanfare or media coverage is the white birch. They seem to die before they are 10 years old.

[Patbretagne]

George would that be what we call SILVER Birch, has a bark that is very oily and when it burns it goes up very quickly, good for lighting fires?
See:-
http://www.british-trees.com/guide/silverbirch.htm
Pat

[George Willer]

George would that be what we call SILVER Birch, has a bark that is very oily and when it burns it goes up very quickly, good for lighting fires?
See:-
http://www.british-trees.com/guide/silverbirch.htm
Pat

Pat,

That looks like the same tree as I referred to as white birch. I think the site was very optomistic as to their life span.

Another tree that actually did become extinct is the American Chestnut. I think the chestnut blight happened in the early 20's. The chestnuts didn't rot quickly and I remember seeing many of them still standing well into the 40's.

[beaconlight]

Well past the 40's george. We had one that the corpse remained into the 1990's. It sat where a creek entered into the pond. Ospreys would sit in it lining up dinner. Sort of doing due diligence. After a while they would rise in all their brown and white glory on 4 or 5 foot win spans. After circling for a bit it was draw the wings in, extend the tallons, a huge spalsh followed by wings beating on water. Next it was slowly rising with large bass than I was able to catch and off to the west toward the Susquahana river. A true spectacle of nature in the raw.
As far a birch we have a few small white birch which I believe to be a first growth short lived species. There are nearbye a somewhat simiolar tree known as Eurpoean gray birch. This too is an ornamental. In the wood lot we have a number of massive yellow and brown birch. The yellow except for a slight off color could be easily mistaken for a slightly off color large white. Last year I cut down one 24" DBH (diamater breast heighth). It was on the side of a creek. I had mistaken some small rot at the base as more extended than it was. The yellow cut, split, and dried well. It was fairly dense and burns well too.

[mark1757]

Here's an update.
I found a International Harvester, McCormick-Deering #9 Horse Drawn Mower on a Virginia farm and made observations consisting of the following:

The tongue was intact with draft bracket, complete metal doubletree and two singletrees, however it was missing the neck yoke.

The #9, and Big 9 mower tongue is catalog/part # MA 22638 with the dimensions of the following: 3”x 4” – 2 ½”x 2 ¾” - 156".
(T" x W" - T" x W" - Length")
(Mower End) - (Neck yoke End) - (Length)

The draft bracket bolt is located 44" and centered horizontally from the mower end.
The neck yoke bolt is located 4" and centered vertically from the end.

Starting 48" (4') from the mower end, you commence the tapering of the tongue.
The tongue is tapered 3”x 4” – 2 ½”x 2 ¾” - 108".

The #7 and #9 Horse Drawn mowers use the same tongue, part # MA 22638.
Ash is the preferred wood, then fir.
I hope this helps anyone trying to make a new #7 or #9 horse drawn mower tongue.
The quest continues for the "New 4 Mower Tongue."

Model Manual Date Page Part # Dimensions
#7 Mower Mc-D 3233A 10M6-21-33 pg18 MA 22638 3”x 4” – 2 ½”x 2 ¾”-156"
#9 Mower Mc-D 5646 10-8-43-5B pg 31 MA 22638 3”x 4” – 2 ½”x 2 ¾”-156"

[George Willer]

The tongue was intact with draft bracket, complete metal doubletree and two singletrees, however it was missing the neck yoke.

Mark,

The missing neck yoke isn't surprising. On our farm, the neck yoke remained with the team, while the doubletree and singletrees remained with the implement. That, simply, was the easiest way to swap implements. The metal doubletree and singletrees were only on the newest equipment. Most of ours were wood. I've never seen a metal neck yoke, although there must have been some.