The Rural Voice, 1991-10, Page 32his is a lesson on how to
replace the broken handle
of an ordinary stable fork.
You may hear rumours that
such a project is not for amateurs, or
anyone with a skimpy workshop.
Ignore such gossip. If you can con-
struct a self-propelled wheelbarrow
from scraps found at the township
dump, you can put a handle on a fork.
The job will take maybe three to
four hours, depending on your back-
ground, education, stubbornness,
ability to follow instructions, and
work stoppage due to glitches and
head scratching. It's a straightforward
job, tool handling is, something like
overhauling a transmission.
Take a wooden fork handle, for
example. (These instructions can also
be adapted to rakes, shovels, hoes, and
other hand implements.) If the handle
isn't broken yet, you can treat that
deficiency as follows: leave the tool
of choice out in the weather all sum-
mer, and then overwork it in some
stiff clay. This is effective but slow.
It's quicker to break a tool handle
directly by using it to pry out a frozen
rock, or running over it with the truck,
as I did last night. People have private
techniques for doing these things, and,
out my way, they don't talk much
about them. Use your normal method
for breaking handles — it's nobody's
business but your own.
As for repair equipment, if my own
recent experience is any guide, then
you need only a vise, sledgehammer,
tactics, electric grinder, electric drill,
logic, hacksaw, and punch; also an
analogy, a piece of wood, and some
strategy. This list may be inadequate
for some problem cases, which are the
norm, but it's a good starter kit.
When buying a replacement
handle, you may reap a certain amount
of public abuse, heckling, and other
forms of advice from people who walk
right up and ask, "Why not just buy a
new fork?" Well, each must deal with
this in his/her own way, but the best
answer is that there are new handles
right there in the store, and they must
have been intended for something.
With everything in perspective,
and your logic in place, proceed
confidently.
Step one: remove the broken fork
TRYING TO
REPLACE
THOSE
CONFOUNDED
FORK
HANDLES
by Mervyn Erb
handle and install the new one... Too
simple? Ah, but a world of wisdom
and experience is there to help. Take
note of the intricate setup before you:
on the fork, the tines end in a steel
prong about six inches long, that is
driven up into the wooden handle;
then there is a steel sleeve that fits
over the handle to keep it from split-
ting as the prong is forced into it.
Then a steel pin (this is crucial; re-
member the pin) goes through the
sleeve, the handle, the prong, and out
the other side, holding everything
together. That's your basic, modern,
one-step handle -attachment design.
The Romans invented iL
Now, concentrate on that steel pin,
the one with an expanded head on
each end, that holds things together
like a permanent cuff link, only worse.
Try to remove it!
I couldn't get that pesky pin out
either, by golly; it had grown in, sort
of, and rusted there. So I cut the head
off with a hacksaw and tried to drive
the pin out with a hammer and punch.
It was a proper tactic, but nothing
budged. I sawed off the other end and
tried to pound it through from that
side. Nothing budged again.
I adjourned to the grinder and
ground the head off closer to the
sleeve, then ground off the neck and
everything else flush with the sleeve,
and pounded some more, emitting
oaths of eloquence and passion. Still
it didn't budge. The steel pin was
firmly rusted into the steel prong
which, remember, is inside the wood-
en handle.
What to do? Blast those tines out
of the handle by sheer force, of course.
I put the thing in a vise and ham-
mered it with ferocity: a piece of
wood cushioned the savagery of my
blows. I got the pin, tines, and steel
sleeve out in just less than an hour and
a half. As a beginner you may not do
quite as well.
It's now dismantled, but for one
small problem: You have to re -use the
sleeve, and hunks of the wooden han-
dle are wedged up inside it — I mean
wedged. The wood stuck in there is
bony and hard as rock. So how do
you get the stuff out? I'm not sure.
Okay, so maybe I made a wrong
turn back at step one: I should have
sawed the handle off at the top of the
sleeve and then burned out the remain-
ing wood by sticking the tool in the
furnace.
But that didn't seem like a good
idea, because it might have ruined the
strength of that thin steel sleeve,
making the tool worthless. Maybe,
with luck, it could be done gently
enough. You could try that.
Me, I've got another idea. If I
store the thing carefully for about 10
years in the tall damp grass behind my
barn, that sucker might just rot out of
that sleeve, and I could be back in
business. I may try that and let you
know.
Meanwhile, I'm keeping an eye
peeled for a fork sale at Sills Hard-
ware store.0
(Mervyn Erb is an independent
crop consultam and agronomist from
Brucefield, Ontario.)
28 THE RURAL VOICE