Tool Talk
Woodworking Forum => Woodworking Forum => Topic started by: Billman49 on November 02, 2014, 12:09:53 PM
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The billhook is a tool common throughout Europe, Mexico, South America and much of Asia (it was developed independently in India, China and Japan, and taken to other countries by European settlers)... It was included in many lists of tools of British emigrés to the USA (or the American Colonies as it was then), and also taken over by German and Finnish immigrants (and many others)... It was a common tool in the Revolutionary War period, often known as a fascine knife, and also made in the USA in the late 19th and early 20th centuries... In the West Indies it 'morphed' into the sugar cane knife, which is also still common in the USA...
Collins sold a version (although stamped Made in Germany) it was listed in the American Axe Company catalogues, and at least one small independent maker made leather handled patterns (ex Italy) in California. It was reinvented as the Woodman's Pal by a Swiss emigré, Frederick Ehrsam, and later (circa 1941) became adopted by the USMC as the LC-14-B jungle and survival (machete type) tool.
It's big brothers, the bush (or brush) axe or hook are common, yet the humble billhook, that most invaluable of tools for coppice work and green woodwork has all but disappeared fro the american psyche...
It appears in images of medieval carpenter's shops in Dutch paintings, and a variant, the coopers knife, with a single bevel, was used in many European (but not UK/British) coopers shops well into the 20th century, so it can also be a useful addition to the carpenter's tool kit..
Prior to the invention of the secateurs for pruning, c 1830 (they did not become widespread until the late 19th century) they were used for all pruning of fruit trees, shrubs, roses, hedges and grape vines - and small ones were used for the grape harvests...
As a boy in the UK I used one for chopping kindling wood, and every household had one - they are still common place in much of Europe, and several Italian makers still offer a great range of regional variations in blade shape (one French maker in 1935 showed over 200 patterns in their catalogue, and stated they had the patterns for over 3000 different shapes - and would make any other to order upon receipt of a drawing or a paper template - in a later 1960's catalogue they also stated they had over 7000 patterns of scythe and 5000 patterns of sickles).
So why did this tool all but disappear in the USA????
For more info, please see my website: www.billhooks.co.uk
Below a few tools bought in French 'brocantes' and 'vide greniers' in 2012...
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Wow! What a great writeup! Thanks for the introduction to a tool that I knew so very little about.
Jim C.
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Billman49, I have a question;
in the picture, bottom row of 3 handled tools, what is the one on the right used for ?
the prongs look really close together.
nice gathering of tools that you have there.
Frank
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Hi the two tools either side of the round spade blade are French 'fourches à betterave' i.e. beetroot forks - fitted with a short crutch handle (like a garden spade or fork), they were used to lever beet or turnip out of the ground, primarily for winter feed for sheep or for sugar beet harvesting...
In one of the images (below) are also seen two 'serpes à betterave' - a type of straight or convex edged and thin bladed billhook used to cut off the tops of the beet (also called here a 'coupe fane')* - yet another billhook variant..... the beet knife is more common in the USA and the UK..
Like the billhook, there are regional variations in shapes of many tools... the beetroot fork is no exception....
* Fane doesn't translate well into English - we'd use 'greens' or 'tops' - cooked 'fanes à betteraves' are a common side-dish in France....
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Very interesting! Thanks for enlightening us!
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thank you for sharing the information, very interesting group of tools.
Frank
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Billman, someone in a Facebook group that some of us belong to posted a picture of a tool that I thought might be a billhook.
I sent him to your site to see some examples. Someone else replied that it was not a billhook and suggested that it is a hedge slasher. He is also in The UK.
http://www.timelesstools.co.uk/slashers.htm (http://www.timelesstools.co.uk/slashers.htm)
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This is the head from a 'slasher' - an English version of the US brush axe...
There were lots of regional variations in the shape of the blade...
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Great write up and pic of your billhooks I have one from the UK given to me by a friend.
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Hi DM11 - with a squarish blade and a round (not caulked) handle I'd say that is a Kent pattern - usually with a single bevel (chisel grind) to the blade - your's is either ground to a double bevel or is a left hand pattern... Does it have a maker's stamp???
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Billman49 it is marked Brades Co. 191.
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I thought it looked like a Brades - model 191 is a Kent pattern... These image from my archives shows it is usually single bevel (RH) and the first has a replaced handle - your's, with the tapered ferrule, appears original, but well used...
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Billman that is a great write up. Have only seen one or two billhooks, at auctions and such. Was the USMC version aka the Bolo Knife? In WWI they were issued equipment to the medical corps, and were longer. Great tool for slashing brush, and putting up improvised shelters fast. Nice to learn something new at my advanced age.
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The USMC bolo is a form of machete, not a billhook.... also known as the USMC Medical Corpsman Knife - it may well have been issued in WW1 (European & Commonwealth forces and the Japanese (in WW2) all had forms of the billhook) see: http://www.billhooks.co.uk/photos-and-other-images/military-billhooks-1/.
The LC-14-B Has a hooked end like a billhook and was not invented until just before WW2 - it is still in production today under the name Woodsman's Pal - see: http://www.woodmanspal.com/ - unlike the billhook it appears to be best used with a backhand stroke....
(http://www.knifeforums.com/ubbthreads/files//386459-001110-002.jpg)
(http://olive-drab.com/images/edged_lc14b_04_400.jpg)
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I thought it looked like a Brades - model 191 is a Kent pattern... These image from my archives shows it is usually single bevel (RH) and the first has a replaced handle - your's, with the tapered ferrule, appears original, but well used...
Thank you for the info Billman!
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In your first statement you asked why this tool had all but disappeared from the American scene. The invention/perfection of the lightweight chain saw coincided with the disappearance of the billhook. Before WWII, the few saws out there were extremely heavy, and often two man. After the war, with the great leap forward in small engine technology, where in a few years power saws were available that didn't wear out a man in a few hours. So, in the 1930s, not much of anything extra was purchased, they used up the old. Then by the 50s it seems everyone had to be modern, getting the latest and greatest, and the saws were available at every hardware store. In too many ways the rush forward for what is new, ignored what was already available.
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Hi John, your statement would apply much more to the axe - billhooks were (are) used small diameter green wood such a hedges, shrubbery, fruit bushes, even roses.... Chain saws are intended for heavier work, such as tree felling and de-limbing, thus replacing the axe, yet old axes are in abundance in the USA and Canada.... The billhook virtually disappeared from the USA by the beginning of the 20th century - yet in rural Europe where many immigrants came from, the billhook lived alongside the axe for centuries.... Maybe the axe became the tool of choice....
In the UK many old tools disappeared in the scrap metal drives of WW1 and WW2, when we had to recycle almost everything metal to produce ships and armaments, yet the billhook survived, and I still find many 19th century tools advertised on ebay and other sites...
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Like Billman, I don't reckon the chainsaw had anything to do with the demise of the billhook. Except in vineyards, the billhook was vanishing from the tool box decades before power saws of any kind. By the last quarter of the 19th Century, about the only use for billhooks was military. The army used them for building defences on the battle fields, primarily for gabions and fascines. Military manuals, in fact, call them "fascine knives" from their primary purpose. The military seems to have replaced them with machetes, doubtless because the billhook is a harvesting tool, and when sandbags came into primary status for field barricades, all they needed was clearing tools since harvesting small diameter green wood lost its importance.
Outside of making fascines (bundles of straight, green wood bound together) they are most useful for making hurdles, and land clearing for slash and burn agriculture. We long ago stopped making hurdles, and with our established farms, no longer needed to clear virgin land.
Smaller versions of the billhook (5 to 8 inch blades) continued to be used in viticulture, and may still be used -- not sure here -- but still into the 20th Century.
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Fascines, hurdles and gabions made from woven saplings were used for defensive positions, repairs to breaches, and for preparing gun emplacements... They were also used by pioneer units, and later by signal corps to clear undergrowth for telephone wires. Calvary troops also used then to cut fodder for horses. In WW1 machine gun sections were also issued them to cut lines of sight and to camoflague gun positions...