I’m looking for someone who might still have one or more of these old-time chains - perhaps in an attic. Specifically, I need a 200-link surveyor’s chain, the type that is a continuous steel tape and which is coiled and given a twist (the “throw”). I doubt anyone uses these for surveying work any more - and when a tape is used at all, I expect it would be coiled on a spool, and measured in feet or meters instead of links. The desired tape measures 200 “links” (i.e., two “chains”), with each link demarcated with slightly-raised numbers. At each end is a small loop for a leather tie.
I'd like to obtain one or more such chains for use in intercollegiate lumberjack competition called Woodsmens' Weekend, which has had "chainthrow" as an event for over fifty years. Many schools have lost or broken their chains, and I can't find a source of new tapes measured in links, rods, and chains!
For some photos of last spring's chainthrow event, see this photo and those that follow it.
thanks!
David Kotz
Lyme NH
Do you have to have exactly a 200 link chain, or would a longer/ shorter one do? Are you able to purchase the chain, or do you need a donation?
-Nathan
Great lot of photos.
Looks like they have fun. Good to see.
Seriously though, if I ever caught my chainman handling a chain (steel band) like that he wouldn't be my chainman.
For me they were precisions bits of gear, to be handled with care.
We had 1/12" and 1/16" bands, 100, 200 & 600' and a 100 metre one.
I smiled at some of the 'splitters'. Appeared some need a lesson in holding the axe. They were choking the poor thing and not letting the axe and the swing do the talking.
NDrummond, post: 325835, member: 1865 wrote: Do you have to have exactly a 200 link chain, or would a longer/ shorter one do? Are you able to purchase the chain, or do you need a donation?
Thanks Nathan. Yes, I need exactly 200-link chain because the event has been run with 200-link chains for decades; to change to another unit or length would require outfitting a dozen or more schools with equivalent chains. I want to donate chains to those teams (colleges) who have no workable chain (or create a pool of loaner chains to circulate every time the meet includes chainthrow as an event). So donations would be most appreciated; if needed, though, I would buy chains from current owners and donate them to the schools myself.
- dave
Richard, post: 325839, member: 833 wrote: Great lot of photos.
Looks like they have fun. Good to see.
Seriously though, if I ever caught my chainman handling a chain (steel band) like that he wouldn't be my chainman.
For me they were precisions bits of gear, to be handled with care.
We had 1/12" and 1/16" bands, 100, 200 & 600' and a 100 metre one.I smiled at some of the 'splitters'. Appeared some need a lesson in holding the axe. They were choking the poor thing and not letting the axe and the swing do the talking.
Yes, some of the competitors are not particularly skilled. My photos focus on the Dartmouth team, which has a mixed range of experience and skill. Not being particularly competitive, they focus on fun - hence the crazy outfits. I hope you have a chance to visit the meet sometime - there are some truly outstanding competitors if you know who to watch.
I'm sure the original chains were indeed precision gear. Like any skill that becomes a competitive race, the rules are constructed to enable a safe and fair (and fun) competition even if that means abstracting the original activity a bit beyond recognition (like logroll, pushing a large log back and forth along the same course several times; or firebuild, boiling 12oz of soapy water in a coffee can until it foams over the top; or h-chopping, in which one stands on a carefully groomed square piece of pine maybe 3' long and chops it in half). Some of the competition equipment is incredibly precise and finer than anything you'd see used in the woods - especially the chopping axes and crosscut saws. None would ever be used on wood other than fresh knot-free pine; I know some competitors who, like golfers, have a range of axes for different woods and conditions (e.g., one axe for frozen wood, one for pine, one for ash).
Lots of fun.
