Share your agricultural billhook

[C4RL]

The first image is a French Revex "Billhook", I use the term Billhook loosely because this french pattern can be as near the shape of a Cleaver as a Billhook as can be seen in the second image (not my hooks...). But are common in France.

The third & forth images are Spanish, these are debatable going towards sickles & long handled slashers.... thought the big pair are heavy, definitely not sickles.

Fifth & six images are of a cutter that isn't a Billhook but I'm putting it here in the faint hope someone might recognise it!
Found in Spain & stamped CARRASCO HERMANOS I've tried in vain for years to identify it, I even found an old "Carrasco brothers blacksmiths" company still in business & thought I'd solved it till after them asking all the old workers about it they told me they didn't make it..... AHH...
A harvesting tool, sharp on the edge that looks like an axe and the tip of the long chisel part, the sides of this were not sharp.

[Sajen]

Hello C4RL,

Wow, thank you very much for posting this interesting link which I think isn't against any rules.
And as well for sharing parts of your collection which you have partly very nicely restored, congrats!
And sorry but I never have seen such a tool in your last images before.

My one I bought some time ago on a German online platform, it appeals to my eyes and I remembered my childhood when grandma used a similar tool in the garden. It was very rusty, I cleaned it with steel wool and oiled the handle, the wood was very dry. I plan to sharpen the edge again.

Regards,
Detlef

[C4RL]

Hello Detlef, I very much like your "Hippe" and understand the way a tool can have memories attached.
And maybe enjoy using it when you have it sharpened. 👍

[Ian]

Hi Carl,

The last one you show is a combination tool, with an axe head and a machete blade. I saw a similar example a while back on an auction site. I think it was African in origin. According to the auction site, the machete blade was used to cut small saplings and the axe head to cut larger wood.

[C4RL]

Originally Posted by Ian

Hi Carl,

The last one you show is a combination tool, with an axe head and a machete blade. I saw a similar example a while back on an auction site. I think it was African in origin. According to the auction site, the machete blade was used to cut small saplings and the axe head to cut larger wood.

Thank you for that Ian, it'd be great if you managed to find the listing.😉

The puzzling thing about it is this, the axe is sharp but the long part isn't a machete blade but more like a chisel with only the very end sharpened, both of the sides taper to the tip & are blunt.

[Ian]

Have not found that listing but still looking. The sharpened blunt end might suggest a few uses--gouging or digging, for example.

[C4RL]

Originally Posted by Ian

Have not found that listing but still looking. The sharpened blunt end might suggest a few uses--gouging or digging, for example.

Thanks.

The best guess so far has been an asparagus cutter, they tend to be long & only sharpened at the end but don't have a hatchet/ cleaver, it was suggested this might have been to cut the ends off bundled bunches. But that's purely a guess with no other example.