Tools of the trade

Hi Wendell,

The polite name (seldom used) was a "gad".
The technical name I do not know.
Lo Ink calls them a "bull point".

Scott

In addition to the slang term to which you alluded, I've heard it called a frost pin, gad and moil point.

When I was on a job in Nome the one I was using disappeared in the snow so I had a welder guy cut my iron digging bar into three pieces and crudely sharpen one with his cutting torch so I could continue too set out stakes. When my relief guy in Anchorage asked what he might need when he came up I said.....well...you might need to bring a digging bar up as I've kinda damaged the one here.... he was like..."how do you damage a digging bar?"

Drift pin.

I think I've heard most of the names, but how about design?
I have one I had made up for frozen ground - I'm curious what the rest of you
use for what kind of surface, and why?

Tools of the trade By gad Scott I concur! Gad it is

We used to use the old jack hammer pins.

RADU

round here they're known as a "peg bar"

In Scotland and probably the rest of the UK it's a 'piercing rod' or 'piercer'. There's a bigger version known as a quarry spike or quarry bar - still used if you want to break solid pieces of rock out of a quarry without the cracks caused by blasting.

In the NE corner of NJ they were a "bull pin." I used to use the jack hammer tip Radu mentions, until a piece of the hard steel flew off and I was in the ER with a piece in my leg.

They are not used just for frost. I had a job last summer where a ridge of hard shale was hammered into small pieces and spread across the site and rolled as fill. Sometimes I could get away with setting a nail in the hard dirt, but often had to set a hub. Almost every stake required the bull pin.

KS

I used to use old jackhammer bits until one day a piece chipped off and went into the rodman's leg. The temper is wrong on the ends of those things to be hitting them with a sledgehammer.

I'm glad you asked the question Wendell because I used the same term.

"Bull pin" or "bull point" here as well.

I've heard them called a "Bull Pin" and "Bull Punch"

Carl

So then one of these tools in electronic form would be "E-Gad"?

While watching an episode of Stuntbusters with my youngest, they referred to it as a bull *****.

> ....a frost pin

...is what we always called them back in the frozen world of MI. I'd hadn't heard of Bull Winky Dinky until I became a transplant to sunny AZ. Personally, I'd rather drive it into the frost, than some of the rocks & caliche around here. (maybe I'm just old)

In the old days, my bossman carried a propane torch in the truck. He'd get that sucker dang near red hot, and it would cut right through the frost.

I have also used bull organ, but I have gone PC, I now use Barack.:-O 😉 🙂

Tools of the trade By gad Scott I concur! Gad it is

amen on the jack hammer tips, tougher than the others. anything torch cut can be a fragmentation risk when struck, esp. in the cold

A good friend of mine went through the U of MI surveying school, and worked up there for a winter or two.

He said they would carry diesel fuel around when excavating for Mons. They'd pour diesel on the ground, light it, and scrape away the mud.

Then they'd pour diesel on the ground, light it, and scrape away the mud.

Then they'd pour diesel on the ground, light it, and scrape away the mud.

Then they'd pour diesel on the ground, light it, and scrape away the mud.

Then they'd pour diesel on the ground, light it, and scrape away the mud.

Then they'd pour diesel on the ground, light it, and scrape away the mud.

Then they'd pour diesel on the ground, light it, and scrape away the mud.

Then they'd pour diesel on the ground, light it, and scrape away the mud.

Then they'd pour diesel on the ground, light it, and scrape away the mud.

Then they'd pour diesel on the ground, light it, and scrape away the mud.

Then they'd pour diesel on the ground, light it, and scrape away the mud.

Then they'd pour diesel on the ground, light it, and scrape away the mud.

Then they'd pour diesel on the ground, light it, and scrape away the mud...

frost pin if it was something you hammered, spud / spud bar if you simply wielded it free hand.