Butcheing hogs and tools

When I was young, 60+ years ago we butchered our own hogs. We scalded them and scrapped the hair off with a sort of bell shaped tool with a handle, like a piece of broom handle sticking straight up to hold to. Around here we called this scraper a "candle" and this term was used in this area but I have not been able to find this term used any where else. Is this just a local name or is this the correct name for this tool. We even had a couple with a scraper on each end of different sizes to do large areas and small uneven areas. But what are they really called?

We just called them hog scrapers. Still have a couple around the barn and remember using them to scrape the hair off but we used a blow torch to sing them = I'll never forget that smell :-(

Roger: don"t know where in NY you are, but here in the Watertown/Thousand Islands region they"re just called a "hog scraper" assuming the Lehman"s link below is what you"re referring to.
Hog Scraper

Here in the North West corner of Ohio, hog scraper was the term used. When we butchered 60 years ago, before and after, we would have three or four family's get together to butcher. The last few I butchered I didn't have help so I skined them. That would have been around 40 years ago. Not near the mess.

Local guy used to use garden hoes with the blade tip ground straight and sharpened.

KEH

Thanks for the input guys. It looks like just a local thing here in central NY. Sorry TimV I couldn't get that site to come up. Might be my computor as it has been monkeying for a couple of days. Roger

I've heard them called "bell scrapers", but usually just "hog scrapers". We've got several around here, been passed down thru the generations. I remember using an old spoon to scrape around on the head and ears. Some of the old time spoons had a real sharp edge. Our family didn't mess with the head, but several neighbors did, and I got in on a couple head cleanin's.

Had an old lady from church that heard we were butchering some hogs, and wondered if she could have the head for head cheese. I put the head (big sausage sow) in a wash tub and put it in the truck seat so it wouldn't get dirt blown on it in the back. It stared at me all the way to town. Time I got there she had the water hot. We scalded it and scraped every single hair off, even out of the ears. Then she poked her thumb in the eyes and popped them out. Then she took a hatchet and split the skull open. Then I left! I've never eaten head cheese since!

By the way - you must get the water temp just right or you will "set" the hair. The way you tell: If you can zip your fingers through the hot water THREE times but not four, it's just the right temp. Any less than three times and it's too hot - any more than three and it's too cool.

By the way again - you can skin a hog quicker than you can heat the water. . .

I'll never scald another one. . .
Paul

When we have the time and help we still scald and scrape. Otherwise we skin. We always called them hog scrapers

Wow! I thought this was a lost art. {scalding}

Roger: it was just Lehman"s--the Amish-oriented site for hand tools, non-electric appliances, etc. etc. Great site but pricey--here"s their home page and you put "hog scraper" into the search field these should pop right up. If not, throw "hog scraper" into Google and you"ll pull back thousands of hits.
Lehmans home page

Hog Scraper, cleaned the skin up for cracklins, MMMMMMMMMMMM

We still butcher hogs every year. Last year we butchered 6. We scalded them until sometime in the 80's when no one wanted the lard anymore. It still makes the best pies. The local butcher shops would skin them for $10.00 each so we let them do it. They kept raising the price so we went to skinning them ourselves. Hog scrapers is the only thing I remember the scrapers being called. We always kept one cleaned up to use to push down the lard chunks when filling the lard press. It seems like there wouldn't be much lard on the hogs to render anymore with the carcusses being so lean.

Ah, that explains it...scalding to get the lard. I was wondering what the difference was. I did find the interesting link below last night reading up on it, and the author pretty much said the same thing -- much less lard was coming off the carcasses by the time they stopped slaughtering them.

Next time I see my Uncles/Aunts, I'll have to ask if they had any livestock on the old family farm; it was a truck farm (after selling the original chicken farm and moving) and I don't remember any stories about critters. I know some of my Uncles raised some household livestock, but by then they would've been having a butcher take care of everything for them.
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/martin/hogkilling

It is a small world.
Pretty much exactly how we did it, with some variations.
We boiled water in a large kettle near the butchering site, next to a large mesquite tree. The hog was pulled from the pen with the tractor. Hot water was carried in buckets and poured over the pig. The hair was scraped with standard butchering knives. Harness trees were used to hang the hog from the feet and a block and tackle used to raise the hog to butchering height.