LysmachiaMoon's blog: The damned thing just won't come out...

I made the mistake of leaving my hay rake out during a rain a while back and don't you know, the darned handle down near the head, inside the metal collar, rotted. It snapped off when I picked up a heavy load of straw. Now, I'm faced with trying to wee-jee out the remnants of the handle that are still stuck down inside the long collar. I've managed to get a lot of the stuff out using a knife, a screwdriver, a rattail rasp, a knitting needle and you go ahead and name it I've tried it. There are just two thick slivers of wood still in there and the Damned.....Things....Just....Won't.......*heave pull grunt* ....Come ....OUT! I'm going to give it another try this evening and if I have no luck, my next plan is to take it to the local hardware store and put on the weak helpless woman act and hope some manly man is able to yank the fork head out of the collar for me. *tee hee * "oooo you're so strong! And Smart!"

I considered heating the collar with a propane torch to try to expand it, but I'm hesitant. I'm afraid to overheat the metal and have it lose its temper. (Once someone told me to put a broken handled shovel into a campfire to burn out the remaining handle. That worked just dandy, but the shovel blade lost temper and bent like a cooked noodle when I tried to use it *LOL*). Anybody got any ideas on what I could use to dissolve the wood fragments? Water is pointless...the wood will swell not shrink. Maybe a really teeny tiny beaver....? Or termites....?

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