Old-Style Plowshares Work “Better Than New”

Old-Style Plowshares Work “Better Than New” TILLAGE EUIPMENT Miscellaneous Steve Rea of Ploworx makes plow shares and other plow and tillage parts the old fashioned way with a forge press and old parts tooling He says he has data that proves they will out perform modern-style plow shares a fact that many competitive plowmen believe but find hard to prove “I searched high and low for any kind of information on the draft of old-style plows and found none even though all the manufacturers did their own draft testing ” says Rea “So when I was invited to a plowing test in Illinois by some Amish customers I brought along a hydraulic load cell and a digital gauge to test the draft on a variety of plows ” As a manufacturer of low-draft high performance replacement parts for older plows and tillage equipment Rea had something to prove and he says he did “The old-style plows regardless of color took between 1/2 and 1/3 the draft of new plows ” reports Rea “Of all the plows we tested the Oliver with Raydex bottoms stacked the soil higher and pulverized it better ” Rea specializes in fitted or blacksmith shares and moldboards shins landsides and other tillage parts He offers parts for popular models of a wide range of brands including Ford-Ferguson AC Minneapolis Moline and Oliver “We’re in the process of getting more tooling for different models ” says Rea Most of the tooling he has is from the Crescent Forge and Shovel Co Havana Ill Crescent was a leading supplier of old plow parts until the company closed its doors in 2009 “In 2013 I had the opportunity to buy the tooling that wasn’t wanted by White Horse Manufacturing when they purchased Crescent’s tooling ” explains Rea “I was told by the man who ran the press that the tooling was about all that was left of its kind in the country ” In order to put the tooling to use Rea built his own forge and press He has also built some of his own tooling Rea credits Earl Seamands a former salesman for Crescent as being instrumental in saving the old tooling as well as helping and encouraging him to get into the business Slowly Rea has built up a following among the Amish collectors plowing competitors and people who use old plows for gardening or small plots As the reputation of Ploworx has grown so have sales He has shipped parts to Denmark Ireland and Canada One Canadian plow contest competitor ordered a certain kind of share followed by an order for 100 more If you need a part for an old plow Rea is eager to help “Take the part off the plow and identify the plow brand and model number if you can ” says Rea “Look at the back side of the part for a parts number It’s nice to have the landside number too but if we can identify the moldboard number and the plowshare number we can usually marry bottoms together ” Parts numbers may not match up with the brand or model warns Rea “As blacksmith shares have become fewer and fewer folks have been creative ” he says “Two weeks ago an Amish customer with a Moline 12-in plow discovered it had a Dearborn share ” Rea says that if he doesn’t have a needed part on hand he can usually provide it in about 3 weeks However as a one-man shop he appreciates all the heads-up time he can get Pricing varies but Rea says he uses the same pricing that Crescent did before they closed their doors Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Ploworx 13909 Duck Creek Rd Salem Ohio 44460 ph 330 332-9386; ploworx@att net; www ploworx com

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