New hay rake tine cutter

I've been making wooden hay rakes for several years now. To make the rake teeth, called 'tines', a cleft ash billet is knocked through a sharpened steel tube called a tine cutter. As the wood is split from a larger log, the fibres run along the tine intact making each one very strong.
Hay rake tine cutter

Recently I've been thinking about my rakes and that I would like to have a tine cutter to make slightly smaller  tines. While I was at Beamish Museum the other day, I mentioned this to Bill who was helping on another stall. The very next day he turned up and gave me a perfect new tine cutter which he'd made the evening before. The generosity of makers never fails to amaze me.

Comments

  1. René10 October 2017 at 12:59

    So amazes your generosity to all of us by sharing your way, your words and your wisdom.

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  2. Mark Angelini10 October 2017 at 18:17

    I love how things work. I'm going to make one of these as well as a couple rakes this winter!

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  3. Matt10 October 2017 at 19:40

    Do you leave the raking end of the tines square cut, or round them off?

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  4. Steve Tomlin16 November 2017 at 18:44

    I cut front and back so each is a blunt taper, like this in cross-section: \_/
    Hope that makes sense.

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  5. Will Poyntz13 December 2017 at 23:18

    We have found that tine tend to split as they are hit through the tine cutter. How close to finished diameter should they be? We have used one inch square(ish) dry ash, at 5 1/2 inches long, thinking we are leaving a lot of margin for error. Is closer to finished diameter (1/2 inch) better?

    Thanks, Will

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  6. Steve Tomlin14 December 2017 at 17:14

    hi Will
    I split my blanks 5/8" square so I'm just shaving the corners as they go through the tine cutter. I use green wood and the best quality ash that I have. I also make the blanks a bit longer than I need so that, if they do run off a bit, I can often still use them. Finally, there is a knack to hitting them through straight but try it with really straight, green blanks and see if that fixes it for you.
    Cheers, Steve

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