What is this hand tool? Link to photo within.

[Anonymous]

I found this somewhere, probably in a residential street. What is this? The metal _hook_ is steel and swivels VERY freely in the plastic handle.

Dan

[dpb]

Rebar tie hook.

Rebar is tied together using ready-made wires w/ a small loop at each end. Put the wire around the joint, put the hook in the two loops and twist...

--

[Steve Barker]

Is this a test? Or do you not know?

This tool is used to twist the tie wires used to tie rebar together. The tie wires come with loops on each end, they are wrapped around the intersection of two re-bars, then the tool inserted in the loops and spun with a twist of the wrist.

I'll see if i can find a pic of the operation of said tool.

steve

[Johnl]

[Steve Barker]

ok, here's a pic of the ties:

Here's one way they come packaged:

Hmmmmm. can't seem to find a pic of one of those tools actually being used.

steve

[dpb]

On Jan 12, 5:59=A0pm, "Steve Barker" wrote: ...

... I don't need no steenkin' pitchure... :)

Spent _FAR_ too much time over several summers at the bottom of trench and elsewhere becoming all too familiar w/ their being used... : ( ( :) )

--

[Don & Lucille]

[Anonymous]

:Is this a test? Or do you not know? : :This tool is used to twist the tie wires used to tie rebar together. The :tie wires come with loops on each end, they are wrapped around the :intersection of two re-bars, then the tool inserted in the loops and spun :with a twist of the wrist. : :I'll see if i can find a pic of the operation of said tool. : :steve

That's cool, no I can envision it. Thanks. Makes total sense, and no, I wasn't putting you on, I didn't have a clue. I asked a friend who I think now should have known. He's owned two houses and done a ton of work on each, including doing a foundation job on one, including pouring concrete for a basement. He told me he loves to work with concrete, too. I guess he did his ties without the benefit of this tool.

:>

:> Dan :

[Rose]

Jewish nose pick?

[Ed Pawlowski]

For relief of constipation.

[G. Morgan]

Ouch!

[Rose]

Well said. For a polack.

[Red Green]

Dan Musicant ( [e-mail]) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Aside from what others have ID'd it as, it also looks like some of my screwdrivers, awls & icepicks.

[Tom Kendrick]

[mm]

I used one of those for about an hour 40 years ago. Fortunately, there was another guy on the crew who liked doing it, even though he had to bend over all the time.

This was a 6 block section of the new West leg of the Dan Ryan Expressway on the south side of chicago. Around 80th or 120th street. It might have been given a name by now.

The asphalt was already down, and iirc steel walls on each side of the area where the concrete road would be.

There were 6 or 8 of us and I and some others spent the start of the day putting down the little 8 foot rods with 2 or 3 inch legs.

Then later we put down the 40 foot rebars that clipped into clips on the first rods. For the last hour or two, in order to make 2 4-men crews, our foreman Leon Daniels would work too.

That one guy spent all day tieing the two kinds of bars together with your too.

He had to finish, iirc, or vandals might come by and tear things apart.

One guy felt sorry for him and urged him to get the foreman to put him on another job part of the day, but he said he liked it. He was rather tall and thin.

I haven't seen the tool in use since then, or I wouldn't know what it was either.

[Fred Farkle]

:>

It looks like a tool used in carpet installtion of in weaving.

HtH [e-mail] Want to Fix Something?

download after purchase

[Jimw]

I thought it was a cotter pin remover but you're probably right. It could double as a cotter pin removal tool though, at least for the larger pins.

Jim

[dpb]

On Jan 13, 12:28=A0pm, Jimw wrote: ...

The loose swivel handle is the giveaway for the intended use...while the hook works to grab the cotter, it would be a pita because of that for the use other than simply a straight pull; the levering action doesn't work well at all w/ one of these puppies.

[Jimw]

OK, I guess the picture dont show the swivel part of it, but the hook is similar to a cotter pin puller, but from the looks of it, probably thicker.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I've seen re-bar mentioned a couple of times, but it was also used to close bags with a wire tie. Feed bags, seed bags, etc.