Modern billhook with saw blade, used in bushcraft activities in FranceTraditional Devon pattern billhook made by W.Gilpin in 1918; original handle has been replaced. 12-inch/30cm ruler shown for reference.
A billhook or bill hook, also called a pruning knife or spar hook, is a versatile cutting tool used widely in agriculture and forestry for cutting woody material such as shrubs, small trees and branches. It is distinct from the sickle. It was commonly used in Europe with an important variety of traditional local patterns. Elsewhere, it was also developed locally such as in the Indian subcontinent,[1] or introduced regionally as in the Americas, South Africa, and Oceania by European settlers.
Page from the 1939 Nash–Fussells catalogue, showing a variety of types of bill hook with caulked handles
The blade is usually made from a medium-carbon steel in varying weights and lengths, but typically 20 to 25 centimetres (7.9 to 9.8in) long. Blades are straight near the handle but have an increasingly strong curve towards the end. The blade is generally sharpened only on the inside of the curve, but double-edged billhooks, or "broom hooks", also have a straight secondary edge on the back.
The blade is fixed to a wooden handle, in Europe usually made from ash due to its strength and ability to deal with repeated impact. Handles are mostly 12 to 15 centimetres (4.7 to 5.9in) long and may be "caulked" or round. ("Caulked" handles have a knob sticking out on one side at the bottom of the handle, intended to help to help keep the tool from slipping out of your hand. See sidebar.) Longer handles are sometimes used for heavier patterns, making the tool double-handed. The blade and handle are usually linked by a tang passing through the handle, but sometimes a socket that encloses the blade. Some styles of billhook have scales[2] of hardwood or horn fitted to the handle.
Some billhooks (for example the Kent pattern) have a single-bevelled blade, available in both right- and left-handed versions, others (such as the Machynlleth pattern) have dished blades (concave one side and convex the other), or a pronounced thickened nose (such as the Monmouth pattern). The reasons for many of these variations are now lost.
The use of a billhook is between that of a knife and an axe. It is often used for cutting woody plants such as saplings and small branches, for hedging and for snedding (stripping the side shoots from a branch). In France and Italy it is widely used for pruning grape vines. The billhook is the European equivalent of tools such as machetes, parangs, and kukris. Prior to the advent of chainsaws, billhooks were used to clear brush and undergrowth from around the base of a tree that was to be felled by either axe or crosscut saw.
The billhook's use as a cutting tool goes back to the Bronze Age, and a few examples survive from this period, for example, found in the sea around Greece. Iron examples from the later Iron Age have been found in pre-Roman settlements in several English counties, as well as in France and Germany, where it is called "Hippe" or "Sechsle", and Switzerland, where it is called "Gertel".
The tool has developed a large variety of names in different parts of Britain, including bill, hedging bill, hand bill, hook bill, billhook, billook, brushing hook and broom hook. In American English a billhook may sometimes be called a "fascine knife".
Made on a small scale in village smithies and in larger industrial sites, e.g. Old Iron Works, Mells, the billhook is still relatively common throughout most of western Europe. During the 19th and early 20th centuries the larger manufacturers offered up to 200 or so different regional styles and shapes of blade, sometimes in a range of different sizes from 6 to 11 inches (15 to 28cm) long in 0.5-inch (1.3cm) steps. The French firm of Talabot boasted in their 1930 catalogue that they held over 3000 different patterns in their archives.
Styles
Billhooks for sale at Ludlow market, Shropshire, England
Principles of design
Billhooks would have once been made by the local smith to the user's specifications but now sizes and shapes are largely standardised. The handles are mostly rat-tail tang, except the Yorkshire having such a long handle that a tang is just not practical– they have a socket instead. The smaller hooks have variations in the shape of the handle: round, oval and pistol-grip.
Billhooks are almost universally made from ordinary steel of a moderate carbon content. High-carbon steel is not often used since an extremely sharp and hard edge is not necessary, and a slightly lower carbon content makes the hook easier to sharpen in the field. Hygiene and cosmetic appearance are unimportant so more expensive stainless steel is not used.
Billhooks have a relatively thick blade since they are typically used for cutting thick and woody vegetation. The nose is sometimes also thickened to bring the sweet spot further forward and to optimise the chopping action. The edge of a billhook is not bevelled to a very narrow angle to avoid binding in green wood.
The hooked front of the blade is designed to prevent the sharpened inner edge from hitting the ground, which would quickly damage or blunt it. Billhooks were the tool of choice for clearing areas of brush and shrubs, since this activity requires chopping close to the ground. In German speaking countries, the billhook is known as a Rodeaxt, which translates to "clearing axe".
A billhook may vary in shape depending from which part of the UK it originates; there are eleven main types.
Favoured by Midlands-style hedgers, this is a one handed tool with a 6-inch (15cm) handle and a 10-inch (25cm) blade. It has a curved front edge and a shorter straight edge at the back, the front edge being used for general purpose and the back edge kept extremely sharp for delicate trimming, topping off stakes and other work that will not damage the blade.
Used by a small percentage of Midlands-style hedgers, this is generally a two-handed tool with a 14-inch (36cm) handle and 10-inch (25cm) blade; again, it has the curved front and straight back edges. In some cases the handle can be up to 36 inches (91cm) long. The disadvantage of this variety of tool is its weight.
Have a 9-inch (23cm) handle and a 10-inch (25cm) blade. They lack a back edge, but have a small notch at the top, known as a hedge grip, which allows hedgers to push pleachers and brash into place without using the hands.
Has slightly more curvature than the Knighton. The top picture shows a Newtown pattern billhook.
Southern designs (UK)
The southern group of hedgers use hooks often designed for other woodland work besides hedging. They are all single-edged and vary from moderately heavy to very light.
Slightly lighter than the Devon with a bulge in the middle that accentuates the curve further up the hook. It has the same measurements as the Devonshire.
Very light with a 6-inch (15cm) handle and a 6-to-7-inch (15 to 18cm) blade. Too light to be used for snedding of anything except the smallest of side-shoots, its main use is the splitting of spars (or spits or broaches, depending upon the region), made from hazel gads for use by thatchers in pegging down the layers of thatch.
Block hooks: With a straight or slightly convex cutting edge, they were often used in urban environments for cutting against a wooden block, similar to the back edge of a broom hook, used for trimming the head of a birchbesom to length. Often found with a small hook at the back of the blade– useful for pulling the wood towards the user. Dutch hooks commonly have a straight blade and are shown in Renaissance paintings of carpenter's shops, where they would most probably have been used for rough shaping of timber, similar to the side axe.
A variety of other hooks were also made by most edge-tool makers, including pea and bean hooks, gorse or furze hooks, trimming hooks, staff hooks, slashers, pruning hooks, that are closely related to the billhook, although they may differ in shape, width or thickness of blade, length of handle, etc. Another very close relation is the meat cleaver– sizes and handle-fixing of these are often very similar to billhooks. In some other European countries the same name is used for both tools, and it can be difficult to identify whether the tool is intended for cutting wood or animal bones.
Usage of billhooks also varies from country to country– in Sweden they were often used for cutting fodder for livestock, whereas in the UK a gorse or furze hook would have been used. In France and Italy they were widely used for pruning vines (only recently has wine making come back to the UK), and miniature billhooks were used for harvesting grapes during the vendange in France; in the Netherlands they were often used in a carpenter's workshop (in the UK use of a small hand axe was more common), and they were also found in the coopers' workshops in France, where they were known as a cochoir, and used in the making of wooden barrel hoops. In the Balkans they were used for harvesting maize. In Finland they are used to cut branches from trees and cutting down small trees, known as vesuri. Images of billhooks often appear on coats of arms of towns and villages, particularly in winemaking areas of Alsace, the Black Forest, Hungary and Switzerland, and have been found carved into boundary stones in parts of Germany and onto rock faces in Italy.
Modern usage
Billhooks are currently in common use by thatchers, coppicers, agricultural hurdle makers, charcoal burners and often by other traditional craftsmen, bushcraft, farmers and woodsmen. They are also the primary tool for hedgelayers.
Military use
Medieval billhook
In the medieval period a weapon similar to the halberd was called a bill or billhook. It consisted of a pole with a bill-like blade mounted below a spearhead, with spikes added to the back of the blade to increase the versatility of the weapon against cavalry and armour. The English, in particular, were known for using massed billmen rather than pikes or halberds in the Renaissance period, notably at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, when the Scottish king James IV was felled by an arrow and bill.[3]
The billhook is an issued tool in some armed forces (see fascine knife). It is used for cutting brushwood for making fascines (brushwood bundles) and gabions– originally for the construction of cannon emplacements, and later for machine gun emplacements. It is also issued to the pioneer corps of most regiments. In the Indian Army, it is given the name "knife gabion".
A non-military use as a weapon was a "pruning bill", described as the weapon used in the Pierre Rivièreparricide case of 1835.
The Finnish military engineer NCOs have a billhook as the part of their personal gear instead of field shovel. It also doubles as a sidearm. Officers have a field axe.
↑ State Papers Henry, vol. iv part iv, (1836), 2: Ellis, Henry, ed., (1846), 164, has regem occisum fuisse non longius latitudine lanceae ab illo: Hall (1809), 564.
A knife is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools. Originally made of wood, bone, and stone, over the centuries, in step with improvements in both metallurgy and manufacturing, knife blades have been made from copper, bronze, iron, steel, ceramic, and titanium. Most modern knives have either fixed or folding blades; blade patterns and styles vary by maker and country of origin.
A polearm or pole weapon is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is fitted to the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, extending the user's effective range and striking power. Polearms are predominantly melee weapons, with a subclass of spear-like designs fit for thrusting and/or throwing. Because many polearms were adapted from agricultural implements or other fairly abundant tools, and contained relatively little metal, they were cheap to make and readily available. When belligerents in warfare had a poorer class who could not pay for dedicated military weapons, they would often appropriate tools as cheap weapons. The cost of training was comparatively low, since these conscripted farmers had spent most of their lives using these "weapons" in the fields. This made polearms the favoured weapon of peasant levies and peasant rebellions the world over.
A scythe is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or harvesting crops. It is historically used to cut down or reap edible grains, before the process of threshing. The scythe has been largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor machinery, but is still used in some areas of Europe and Asia. Reapers are bladed machines that automate the cutting of the scythe, and sometimes subsequent steps in preparing the grain or the straw or hay.
A bill is a class of agricultural implement used for trimming tree limbs, which was often repurposed for use as an infantry polearm. In English, the term 'Italian bill' is applied to the similar roncone or roncola, but the Italian version tended to have a long thrusting spike in addition to the cutting blade.
A blade is the portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with an edge that is designed to puncture, chop, slice or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they are to be used on. Historically, humans have made blades from flaking stones such as flint or obsidian, and from various metal such as copper, bronze, and iron. Modern blades are often made of steel or ceramic. Blades are one of humanity's oldest tools, and continue to be used for combat, food preparation, and other purposes.
A sickle, bagging hook, reaping-hook or grasshook is a single-handed agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting or reaping grain crops, or cutting succulent forage chiefly for feeding livestock. Falx was a synonym but was later used to mean any of a number of tools that had a curved blade that was sharp on the inside edge such as a scythe.
The term kopis in Ancient Greece could describe a heavy knife with a forward-curving blade, primarily used as a tool for cutting meat, for ritual slaughter and animal sacrifice, or refer to a single edged cutting or "cut and thrust" sword with a similarly shaped blade.
A fauchard is a type of polearm weapon which was used in Europe from the 11th through the 17th centuries. In later use fauchards became ornamental and ceremonial, growing in size until some examples were almost too heavy to carry, let alone use. The design consisted of a curved blade atop a long pole, although in some portrayals, it is shown on a shorter pole. The blade bore a moderate to strong curve along its length. The cutting edge was only on the convex side of the blade, unlike the guisarme or bill. The fauchard was likely developed from the war scythe with the cutting edge turned opposite, convex instead of concave, so that the weapon was good for both thrusting and slashing attacks.
A pocketknife is a knife with one or more blades that fold into the handle. They are also known as jackknives (jack-knife), folding knives, EDC knife, or may be referred to as a penknife, though a penknife may also be a specific kind of pocketknife. A typical blade length is 5 to 15 centimetres.
A melee weapon, hand weapon, close combat weapon or fist-load weapon is any handheld weapon used in hand-to-hand combat, i.e. for use within the direct physical reach of the weapon itself, essentially functioning as an additional extension of the user's limbs. By contrast, a ranged weapon is any other weapon capable of engaging targets at a distance beyond immediate physical contact.
A kitchen knife is any knife that is intended to be used in food preparation. While much of this work can be accomplished with a few general-purpose knives – notably a large chef's knife, a tough cleaver, a small paring knife and some sort of serrated blade – there are also many specialized knives that are designed for specific tasks. Kitchen knives can be made from several different materials.
A backsaw is any hand saw which has a stiffening rib on the edge opposite the cutting edge, enabling better control and more precise cutting than with other types of saws. Backsaws are normally used in woodworking for precise work, such as cutting dovetails, mitres, or tenons in cabinetry and joinery. Because of the stiffening rib, backsaws are limited in the depth to which they can cut. Backsaws usually have relatively closely spaced teeth, often with little or no set.
The fascine knife was a side arm / tool issued to 17th to 19th century light infantry and artillery. It served both as a personal weapon and as a tool for cutting fascines. It could be straight or curved, double edged or single edged with a sawtoothed back.
The aruval is a type of billhook machete from southern India, particularly common in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It is also known as the koḍuvāḷ or the machchu longu. It is a type of long sickle with a knife-like scythe-handle, and is used both as a tool and a weapon. Tamils reserve the weapon as a symbol of karupannar. In popular culture, it is sometimes associated with gangsters, especially in the Rayalaseema region. In Kerala, its primary use is for agriculture, mainly in coconut cutting, clearing pathways, cutting wood and other uses.
A sling blade or kaiser blade is a heavy, hooked, steel blade at the end of a long handle that is usually made of wood. The blade is double-edged, and both sides are usually kept sharp. It is used to cut brush, briar, and undergrowth. Other common names for the tool are bush knife, ditch bank blade, briar axe, and surveyor's brush axe. On the East Coast of the United States some farmers call it a bush axe. The Plover, Wisconsin dialect refers to it as a ditch witch. Also historically used as a wildland firefighting tool to cut fireline, known as a brush hook. It is also sometimes referred to as a bush hook in south eastern North Carolina. Its use in wildland fire has been substantially superseded by the chainsaw.
An axe is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split, and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has many forms and specialised uses but generally consists of an axe head with a handle, also called a haft or a helve.
A linoleum knife is a small knife that has a short, stiff blade with a curved point and a handle and is used to cut linoleum or other sheet materials such as wood panelling,wood veneer, and mica sheets.
Listed here are the weapons of pencak silat. The most common are the machete, staff, kris, sickle, spear, and kerambit. Because Southeast Asian society was traditionally based around agriculture, many of these weapons were originally farming tools.
A twybil is a hand tool used for green woodworking. It is used for chopping out mortises when timber framing, or making smaller pieces such as gates. It combines chopping and levering functions in a single tool.
The piha kaetta, also sometimes called 'the Kandyan knife', is a knife or dagger native to the island of Sri Lanka. A typical piha kaetta has a straight-backed blade combined with a drop-point and a curved cutting edge. Many of the finest piha kaetta knives were produced in royal workshops, show very high levels of craftsmanship, and were given to courtiers and the nobility as status symbols.
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