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?
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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...