Cant Hook vs Peavey: What's the Difference and Which Do You Need?
What a Cant Hook Does
A traditional cant hook has a small toe hook at the base of the handle. When you wrap the hook around a log, the toe hook grips the log from below while the hook sinks into the log from above. Two points of contact.
Cant hooks were originally designed for rolling squared-off logs (called cants) on a sawmill deck. On flat, level ground, they give you a controlled, predictable roll. The toe hook holds the log through the stroke.
On most cant hooks, that bottom grip is a single small tooth. It works on medium and larger logs, but the contact surface is limited. It can slip on wet or smooth bark, and on smaller diameter logs it can fail to bite altogether.
What a Peavey Does
A peavey replaces the toe hook with a spike. Same hook, same handle, but the tip is a sharp point instead of a small tooth.
The spike serves a different purpose. Instead of gripping the log from below, it digs into the ground and gives you a fixed anchor point to lever against.
This matters when the terrain is working against you. On slopes, the spike locks into the dirt so you can push off of it. In the woods, where you’re standing on brush, roots, and leaves, the spike anchors through the debris instead of sliding on top of it. If a log starts rolling downhill, you can drive the spike into the ground and stop it.
The spike also lets you pry apart logs that are stacked, tangled, or frozen together. Drive the point between two logs and lever them apart.
On flat ground, though, the spike can be a nuisance. It catches on hard surfaces and doesn’t give you the log-gripping contact that a toe hook does.
The Woodchuck DualPro
Owning both is no longer necessary. There are tools now that combine cant hook and peavey functionality in one handle.
The DualPro has a retractable peavey point and a row of cant teeth at the base where the hook mounts to the handle. Not a single small toe hook. A full row of teeth that grip the log from below while the hook grips from above. Counter-grip on every stroke, across all log sizes.
The hook itself has two spikes instead of one. The tip spike catches larger logs. A second spike partway along the curve catches smaller logs that a single-spike hook would miss. Both grab on mid-size and larger logs for a double bite.
Peavey spike for slopes, terrain, and leverage. Cant teeth for grip. Retract the peavey point when you want flat, cant-only functionality. Switch between configurations in seconds, by hand, no tools required.
