A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to the garden fork. While similar in appearance, the garden fork is shorter and stockier than the pitchfork, with three or four thicker tines intended for turning or loosening the soil of gardens.
In some parts of England, a pitchfork is known as a prong. [1] In parts of Ireland, the term sprong is used to refer specifically to a four-pronged pitchfork. [2]
The typical pitchfork consists of a wooden shaft bearing two to five slightly curved metal tines fixed to one end of a handle. These are typically made of steel, wrought iron, or some other alloy, though historically wood or bamboo were used. Unlike a garden fork, a pitchfork lacks a grab at the end of its handle.
Pitchforks with few tines set far apart are typically used for bulky material such as hay or straw; those with more and more closely spaced are used for looser materials such as silage, manure, leaves, or compost. [3]
In Europe, the pitchfork was first used in the Early Middle Ages, at about the same time as the harrow. [4] These were made entirely of wood. [3]
The pitchfork is occasionally employed as an improvised weapon, [5] as in a mob or riot.
Paintings by various artists depict a wide variety of pitchforks in use and at rest. [6] A notable American work is American Gothic (1930) by Grant Wood, which features a three-pronged tool.
Because of its association with peasantry and farming, the pitchfork has been used as a populist symbol and appended as a nickname for certain leading populist figures, such as "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman and "Pitchfork" Pat Buchanan.[ citation needed ]
The Gangster Disciples, a street gang in the Midwestern United States, use a three-pointed pitchfork as one of their symbols. [7]
Venezuelan far-right political party, New Order use three-pointed pitchforks as their symbol.[ citation needed ]
The pitchfork is often used in lieu of the visually similar weapon, the trident, in popular portrayals and satire of Christian demonology. Many humorous cartoons, both animated and otherwise, feature a caricature of a demon ostensibly wielding a "pitchfork" (often actually a trident) sitting on one shoulder of a protagonist, opposite an angel on the other.[ citation needed ]
The Hellenistic deity Hades wields a bident, a two-pronged weapon similar in form to a pitchfork but actually related to the trident in design and purpose.[ citation needed ]
A tuning fork is an acoustic resonator in the form of a two-pronged fork with the prongs (tines) formed from a U-shaped bar of elastic metal. It resonates at a specific constant pitch when set vibrating by striking it against a surface or with an object, and emits a pure musical tone once the high overtones fade out. A tuning fork's pitch depends on the length and mass of the two prongs. They are traditional sources of standard pitch for tuning musical instruments.
A spoon is a utensil consisting of a shallow bowl, oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery, especially as part of a place setting, it is used primarily for transferring food to the mouth. Spoons are also used in food preparation to measure, mix, stir and toss ingredients and for serving food. Present day spoons are made from metal, wood, porcelain or plastic. There are a wide variety of spoons that are made of a variety of materials and by different cultures for many different uses and foods.
In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods either to hold them to cut with a knife or to lift them to the mouth.
A trident is a three-pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm.
A fork is a utensil for eating and cooking.
A lucet is a tool used in cordmaking or braiding which is believed to date back to the Viking and Medieval periods, when it was used to create cords that were used on clothing, or to hang items from the belt. Lucet cord is square, strong, and slightly springy. It closely resembles knitted I-cord or the cord produced on a knitting spool. Lucet cord is formed by a series of loop like knots, and therefore will not unravel if cut. Unlike other braiding techniques such as kumihimo, finger-loop braiding or plaiting, where the threads are of a finite length, lucetted braids can be created without pre-measuring threads and so it is a technique suited for very long cords.
The sai is a traditional Okinawan melee weapon used for stabbing and striking. It is primarily used in ninjutsu and kobudo, as well as in southern Chinese martial arts. The basic form of the weapon is that of a sharp metal prong with two sharp and curved side prongs (yoku) projecting from the handle (tsuka). There are many different types of sai with varying prongs for trapping and blocking.
A jitte or jutte is a specialized weapon that was used by police in Edo-period Japan.
A military fork is a pole weapon which was used in Europe between the 15th and 19th centuries. Like many polearms, the military fork traces its lineage to an agricultural tool, in this case the pitchfork. Unlike a trident used for fishing, the military fork was rarely barbed and normally consisted only of two tines (prongs) which were straight compared to the original pitchfork. The pair of tines usually ran parallel or slightly flared. This weapon was relatively easy to use compared to a sword, which could take years to learn how to wield effectively. It was usually used in absence of a spear. Like a spear, the military fork could be used in tight formations and was often made with various minor customizations to improve use; in the example of the image above, the fork has a hook parallel to the prongs intended to "catch" the blow of a weapon, as well as two "hooks" intended to dismount a knight from his horse.
A garden fork, spading fork, or digging fork is a gardening implement, with a handle and a square-shouldered head featuring several short, sturdy tines. It is used for loosening, lifting and turning over soil in gardening and farming, and not to be confused with the pitchfork, a similar tined tool used for moving loose materials such as hay, straw, silage, and manure.
A pickaxe, pick-axe, or pick is a generally T-shaped hand tool used for prying. Its head is typically metal, attached perpendicularly to a longer handle, traditionally made of wood, occasionally metal, and increasingly fiberglass.
A rake is a broom for outside use; a horticultural implement consisting of a toothed bar fixed transversely to a handle, or tines fixed to a handle, and used to collect leaves, hay, grass, etc., and in gardening, for loosening the soil, light weeding and levelling, removing dead grass from lawns, and generally for purposes performed in agriculture by the harrow.
Okinawan Kobudō (沖縄古武道), literally "old martial way of Okinawa", is the weapon systems of Okinawan martial arts.
Tines, prongs or teeth are parallel or branching spikes forming parts of a tool or natural object. They are used to spear, hook, move or otherwise act on other objects. They may be made of wood, bone, metal, or similar materials.
A bident is a two-pronged implement resembling a pitchfork. In Greek mythology, the bident is a weapon associated with Hades (Pluto), the ruler of the underworld.
Listed here are the weapons of pencak silat. The most common are the machete, staff, kris, sickle, spear, and kerambit. Because Southeast Asian society was traditionally based around agriculture, many of these weapons were originally farming tools.
The trishula is a trident, a divine symbol, commonly used as one of the principal symbols in Hinduism.
The tekpi is a short-handled trident from Southeast Asia. Known as tekpi in Malay, it is called chabang or cabang in Indonesian, siang tépi in Hokkien, and trisul in Thai. More than a weapon, it was also important as a Hindu-Buddhist symbol. It is comparable to the Okinawan Sai.