I know what this is, but I don’t remember how to use it. It is used to pull a shock of corn tight, and then you tie the shock with twine. It is handmade from a piece of oak measuring 2 by 2 inches; it is 15 inches long.
A rope is attached long enough to reach around a shock of corn. You throw it in such a way that the gizmo swings around the shock and you catch it. Then you tighten the shock with the gizmo. Then twine is tied around the shock to keep it from coming apart.
As a teenager in the early 1950s, I only used it two years before we got a corn picker.
Editor’s note: Our expert believes the wood piece is used as a rope lock once the rope is in place around the shock. The wood arm may have been used to help squeeze the shock. When it was squeezed to the limit, perhaps the rope was placed into the end slot and wedged into the side groove to keep the rope tight. When the twine is secured, holding the shock tight, the rope tyer is removed and used on the next shock. Readers, can you help? FC
P.J. Ranck, email: nancyrpj@windstream.net
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