Hi from the UK

[Billman49]

Just joined the forum to extend my knowledge and communications network. Billhooks (often called fascine knives in the US) are my passion -

I also subscribe to the French Outils Anciens forum - a) to practise my French, and b) I enjoy the chase of identifying hitherto unknown tools etc..

For more info on billhooks, and access to some European catalogues of edge tools in general, billhooks in particular, please have a look at my website: www.billhooks.co.uk

[Papaw]

Welcome to Tool Talk! Glad to have another UK member.
I am also on http://outils-anciens.xooit.fr/t2193-outil-en-metal.htm?q=vilbrequin , but can't write in French, so I just lurk there.

[Billman49]

Lurking is good - I do lots of it.....

[Papaw]

I jumped over there just now- have to applaud you on your French!
I read it just fine, speak it very little these days, and can't write it very well at all!

[Branson]

Just joined the forum to extend my knowledge and communications network. Billhooks (often called fascine knives in the US) are my passion -

I also subscribe to the French Outils Anciens forum - a) to practise my French, and b) I enjoy the chase of identifying hitherto unknown tools etc..

For more info on billhooks, and access to some European catalogues of edge tools in general, billhooks in particular, please have a look at my website: www.billhooks.co.uk

Thanks for the billhook URL.  Interesting stuff.  Interesting etymology as well.  As for the hook part not necessarily required, I'm a little agnostic there.
These tools are found elsewhere, too, and a hookless billhook strikes me as a different tool, more close to a corn knife.

Such tools are used in SE Asia -- at least by the hills peoples.  In the Mien language, the hook ended tool is called a dzu ngao (my spelling of the name as I've heard it; Mien use Chinese calligraphy to write their language).  The name refers to the "claw' at the end of the blade.  A knife without the hook at the end has a different name that I don't recall, which is used entirely differently.

The  dzu ngao is used for clearing land to farm, removing small trees and shrubs, and to keep that land clear.  They are very clear about the design and its utility.  The hook allows them to cut close to the ground, even slightly under the ground, and protects the edge from being dulled.

I don't believe I have a picture of the dzu ngao, but I'll check (it's been about 25 years since I've seen one).  It's somewhat narrower than the average bill-hook (say, two inches wide, or slightly wider) but about the same length as most I have seen. 

[Neals]

Hi and welcome from Alberta, Canada.

[64longstep/Brian]

Howdy and Welcome from Phoenix Arizona...

[anglesmith]

G'day and welcome from Australia.
Your Billhook site is brilliant and and very interesting. Like some here, my interest in old tools is very broad. I am a member of the two ozzie tool groups you mention on your site.
You are inturn extending OUR knoweldge communication network! Thankyou and welome again.
Graeme

[Billman49]

Many thanks for the welcome... Branson, if you look at the English and French billhook catalogues, you will see a great variety of shapes. The vast majority have a hook (or beak) but there are those with straight blades, and even those with convex blades. What was originally a tool used in the vineyards of ancient Greece to prune vines, became a Roman tool to cut and sharpen the stakes used to hold them up. Each task requires a different blade shape - to sharpen stakes on a block, the beak would get in the way, but it is necessary for vine pruning, or the blade will slip off the vine...

In European languages the same word is often used for any sort of chopper, and a square bladed billhook may be indistinguisable from a meat cleaver (in poorer communities the same tool was probably used for both tasks - and many others). However, I accept that in Asian cultures, different names may be used - but even here there is considerable variation in blade shape (there are dozens of regional forms of Japanese nata and kama, some with a hook, some without, some single bevelled, some double...). Part of the fun for me is extending my knowledge base and sharing it with others, however, I am always open to discussion if someone disagrees with me when I am hypothesising...