Fireplace poker

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A fireplace poker (also known as a "stoker") is a short, rigid rod, preferably of fireproof material, used to adjust coals and wood fuel burning in a fireplace. It is often metallic and has a point at one end for pushing burning materials (or a hook for pulling/raking, or a combination) and a handle at the opposite end, sometimes with an insulated grip. Iron is the most popular metal from which the pokers are wrought. Brass is a more expensive alternative for a home poker set.

Similar tools may be used (with care) in tending a wood or coal stove. Small pokers are adequate for small fires but, to avoid radiation burns to the user, they must be increasingly long as the size of the fire becomes larger.

There are three types of tools commonly used to tend a small fire, such as a campfire, indoor fireplace fire, or yule log: the spade, the tongs and the poker itself. These tools make it possible to handle a fire without risk of burns or blisters. Many fireplace sets also include a small broom.

Large bonfires are not amenable to the use of tools of the size commonly used in an indoor fireplace. However some pyromaniacs have been known to weld rebar into clever shapes with which to move the wood in a moderately large bonfire.

There is evidence that humans have used pokers since the paleolithic period. Theoretically, pokers were invented immediately after the discovery of fire. The earliest and most primitive pokers were likely made from the same material as the fuel (that is, wood in the form of a hefty branch). This ersatz wooden-type fire-tool may be called a poker or a "firestick" in colloquial terminology.

[edit] Pokers in popular culture

Pokers frequently figure in crime fiction and cinema, where they are often revealed as the weapon of choice for villains as well as heroes.

Susan Sto Helit, a character from Terry Pratchett's Discworld, uses a poker as a weapon against bogeymen that frighten the children she looks after in her job as a governess. Although the creatures are mythical, they appear real because the children believe in them, but as Susan says, they can also believe in the poker.

In Blackadder II the Baby-Eating-Bishop of Bath and Wells threatens Lord Blackadder with a hot poker for defaulting on a loan made to him by The Bank of the Black Monks ("Banking with a smile and a stab"). It is shown that this method is performed on defaulters by the line "Born in <unknown> in 15??. Died... in agony with a spike up his bottom."

In the early stages of the PlayStation 2 game Siren, characters can use a poker as a weapon.

In the 1992 film Whispers in the Dark, the character played by Alan Alda is finally killed by a blow to the head from a poker.

In the 1982 film Friday the 13th Part 3, one of the characters is impaled with a poker by Jason Voorhees.

At one point in Kill Bill Vol. 1, the character Vernita Green, played by Vivica A. Fox uses a poker to defend herself during her fight with Beatrix, played by Uma Thurman.

Johnny Depp's character Mort Rainey uses a poker to defend himself against a possible intruder in Secret Window

Liev Schreiber's character Cotton Weary attempts to defend himself against the killer in Scream 3 with a poker.

Dan Aykroyd's character Roman in The Great Outdoors attempts to fend off the Bald Headed Bear with a poker.

Karen Allen's character Marion Ravenwood is threatened with a red-hot poker in Raiders of the Lost Ark

In the in 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead Sarah Polley's character, Ana, dispatches a zombie by ramming a poker into its skull.

In Mr. Deeds, John Turturro's character, Emilio, wails on Adam Sandler's frostbitten foot with a poker, and then proceeds to stab it and pin it to the floor.

A character is impaled with a poker by Kathleen Turner's character, Beverly, in John Waters's film, Serial Mom

Kevin Spacey smashes the Christmas Tree with a poker to get his family's attention in the 1993 film, The Ref.

Rebecca DeMornay's character Peyton uses a poker to escape from a locked room in the 1992 film, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.

Tom Cruise's character, Jerry Maguire, uses a poker to accentuate his drunken ramblings in the 1996 film Jerry Maguire

At one point in Hot Shots! Part Deux, The President and Saddam Hussein swordfight with pokers.

Nancy Bowden, played by Lori Martin, attempts to defend herself with a poker against Max Cady, played by Robert Mitchum, in 1962's Cape Fear.