I've been looking for some hooks like in the picture. The small set a coworker loaned me. I bought the large one off the internet real cheap. Didn't realize it was that big. I'm used to seeing the small ones used around here. CM used to make forged hooks like this but apparently no longer produces them. I found a company selling cast ones but I don't know what alloy of iron or steel. The wrong type of casting will look like the old forged ones but break and will be brittle. The old ones are malleable forged iron and the hammer surface mushrooms and gets broader. Shop — Horse Logger Supply
haven't seen any like that. Logging tongs are widely available. Seems like it wouldn't take much to fabricate some hooks.
It does date back to horse or mule logging. The hooks are hamnered into the log. The hooks go to a master link for a logging chain or rope to grab. At animal speed and power they don't rip out. Very useful for smaller tractors too. To skid several logs you drag in series, one behind the other, trailering. First log gets two hooks on the animal side. At the end of the first log one hook is driven and then the second hook is driven to to the leading end of the second log. Big logs get 2 on each side of the trailer hook up.
Remember as a kid going with my dad to see the big horses in Masten, PA. State forest land and they used big draft horses to pull the logs out, then load the logs on the carts and the team would take the logs to the mill. Masten is an old logging town with only 3 or 4 cabins left now.
The local legion has draft contests each year. Now the drafters are pulling cement blocks but they are amazing to see how much they can pull.
