Posted by Frank Tyson on March 05, 1998 at 19:06:28:
In Reply to: cast iron seat from hayrake posted by DOUG TKACHUK on March 05, 1998 at 16:08:45:
: I have a cast iron seat with the words DEERE&CO then under that it say MOLINE.ILL the casting NO# on the back is 128 can you please tell me what year it was made and how many were made thank you DOUG.
Doug, even if it were known had many cast iron seats were made of a certain one, it would be very difficult to estimate how many remain after World War scrap drives, etc. John Friedly in his Cast Iron Implement Seats book has assigned a rarity scale to each seat in the book based on his opinion. The most common Deere & Co. seat was assigned a 5 which, in his opinion, means there are 160 or less still around. Nearly all cast iron seats were pre-tractors and many were made after the Civil War by companies that needed some other line of business other than armaments.