BBC - A History of the World - Object : The billhook

The billhook

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I am told that billhooks have existed since the Bronze Age.

There are many variations worldwide such as pangas and machetes.

Billhooks have helped man change the natural environment through their use in agriculture and woodland management. Modified billhooks used in warfare have helped to change the political world. Recent TV footage from Haiti showed people carrying machetes as weapons.

Some of my friends use billhooks instead of power tools for hedgelaying and conservation tasks such as coppicing and scrub clearance.

The type of billhook I own is called a Swiss Switch and I use it to clear long grass in my garden.

They can be used to make wooden items. I have a small wooden cockerel a friend made with a billhook.

Whenever I use mine it reminds me that this is an ancient tool that still has uses in the modern world.

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1. At 09:07 on 18 September 2010, Bob Burgess wrote:
The billhook has indeed been around since the Bronze Age, but few examples arrives from this era. Many Iron Age examples exist, and it has been in use in Britain since that time - event before the Romans spread it throughout Europe. Originally invented in ancient Mesopotamia (now modern Iraq and Iran) it spread westwards towards the Mediterranean and then to Greece and Egypt, and eastwards into India and the Far East.. It is also known in China and Japan, where it may have developed independently.
Used widely in agriculture, it is also a universal tool, and was used for cutting and splitting timber for wooden houses, and was still being used for late Medieval wattle and daub.
The Swiss Switch (Schweizer Gertel) is an excellent tool, but not representative of the English Billhook, of which there were hundreds of regional variations in blade shape (in fact it is not represntaive of Swiss tools, the shape coming from Northern Italy).
In Europe many more styles exist, and it was widely used for pruning fruit trees and grape vines, until the secateurs (invented c 1815) gained widespread acceptance in the 1870's.
It has survived into the 21st century because of its usefulness, and is now seeing a revival in use in traditional woodland management techniques and hedgelaying.
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