I don’t recall how I stumbled upon to this little example of elegant design and simple forging but it fascinates me. There are many varieties of safety hooks but this is the only antique forged one I have found.
According to the article - “Safety hooks were important for safely hoisting buckets of dirt and rock to the surface from shafts where miners remained below.” Scroll down to see the hook image.
Recently I changed the design a bit and forged one to keep as a shop example. I plan to make a copy of the original image guessing the parent stock was 5/16” round.
Other examples of hooks:
