Fireplace poker - Definition and Overview

A fireplace poker is used to adjust burning coals and flaming logs in a fireplace. There are three types of tools commonly used to tend a small fire, such as a campfire or yule log: the spade, the tongs and the poker. These tools make it possible to handle a fire without risk of burns or blisters.

Large bonfires are not amenable to the use of tools of the size commonly used in a 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.

Fireplace pokers have theoretically been in use by humans since the paleolithic period.