View Single Post
Old 2nd March 2011, 11:05 PM   #41
Billman
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 129
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Henk
Can we compare a koedjang or billhook or whatever the name is of this tool with the sickle used by druids?
If the Druids used any tool at all, other than in the comic books of Asterix, it would have been a pruning hook of the billhook/sickle type... It is sometimes difficult to classify a tool as a light billhook and a heavy sickle overlap their functions... In France there exist 'faucilles à bois' - wood sickles, i.e. sickle shaped billhooks...

It is more likely that as mistletoe is a parasitsic growth, often found on fruit trees, it would have been cut witha tool specific to the task - known as a 'coupe gui' in France, and mounted on a long handle, many also have two blades - that cut on the up stroke (push) and the down stroke (pull) - like the billhook there are many regional variations in blade shape...

All these tools have been around since the late Iron Age, and existed in England before the Roman invasions c 50 AD...
Attached Images
      
Billman is offline   Reply With Quote