doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OFF topic: FARMING but you guys have answers

Any idea what these are? Marked "cockshult plow co. ltd " and "6B upper el" and "6B lower" there are 8 of them. Found in barn rafters. I thought removable roof for a tractor cab, but not sure how 8 would be needed.

Does it look to be made of canvas, with reinforcing slats or ribs?

SRH

I can almost remember a steam powered grain winnower at a fair that had something like those on it.

Can�t exactly recall, but they reminded me of an umbrella sorta.

But I took a good whack on the head today, and that memory might be mixed up.

Stan - exactly

How wide are these? Early grain binders, as well as combines, used canvas with slats to move the material from the cutter bar up to the tyer on a binder or the threshing cylinder on a combine. Sure looks like that may be what these are.

Okay, here's my guess. Somewhere in the dim recesses of what's left of my memory I think I saw a binder/harvester that had those sheets on it. The harvester was used to cut wheat, oats, etc. and tied bundles, or sheaves, of the entire stalks of cereal grain, which were then dropped off the machine on the ground to be picked up by hand labor and hauled in to the barn.

Cockshult made such a binder, as did most of their competition. All such harvesters fell out of favor quickly when the threshing function was added. They were the forerunners of our modern day grain combines.

They might be quite valuable to old farm equipment restorers and collectors. You can go to YouTube and watch them in action. I just did so.

Best, SRH

It appears Miller beat me to the draw. Maybe we are both right.

Definitely binder canvas. Repaired, installed, and used similar for years. Even into the 1960's on swathers.
The name is actually spelled Cockshutt.

You guys never disappoint, l�d love to come hang out with you for a few days and learn about things.
My uncle found them in a barn on his new property.

maybe after social distancing is not such as hot item.....
right now you might learn a bit too much....

Just a bit more history here. Both the reaper & the binder were used to bundle grain with the stalks intact. Sometimes they were carried to the barn as Sta said while at other times they were stacked upright in the field. Many old-time threshings were done directly n the field. The thresher would be brought in & set up & the sheaves of grain hauled up to the thresher where they were pitched into the feeder.

The difference in a reaper & a binder was the binder had the knotter for tying the bundles. n a reaper the grain was either pulled to the end with a rake or had a pusher for the purpose. It was then hand-tied into the bundle & several bundles stacked into the sheaf.

When I was very young my Dad still had an old McCormick-Deering binder. I have n idea what became of it but think he sold it at some point. I recall being at one old-time threshing which was set up in the field. My Dad & his younger brother were working there helping load the sheaves o the wagons to haul up to the thresher & I went with them. I don't recall the exact point in time, but I had to be less than 8 yrs old.

Incidentally, in spite of your history books, Cyrus McCormick did "NOT" invent the reaper. He invented A reaper, but not "The" reaper. He in fact had to wait 13 years after his reaper was ready for another man's patent to expire before he could place his on the market.