What's this tool called?

[Kadushu]

I've been trying to find a name or indeed any reference to one of these little rakes. My dad and uncle used to use them in conjunction with a brishing hook (bill hook) for cutting hedges etc. I've used them too but either never knew the name or have forgotten it.

 

[Deleted member 56522]

What was it used for? As in why was it needed?

 

[Robbi]

Is it used for thatching roofs

 

[crosslandkelly]

Could be a thatch comb.

 

[Kadushu]

Could be a thatch comb.

That seems feasible

 

[Kadushu]

What was it used for? As in why was it needed?

Say you're cutting a hedge with a billhook and the branches are tough so they tend to bend and not get fully cut, then you can support them with this rake. If cut stems are getting in the way then they can be raked out of the way. It's how the farm hedges were cut around here up until around the 80s.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Looks like a homemade mini zen garden rake.

 

[slimshady]

Its not a thatch comb, they are a solid flat piece of wood/metal to tap the ends of the reeds to shape them.
I've not seen these in use by the Hedge layers around Oxfordshire/Wiltshire.
Alex.

 

[Toddy]

It's a shrub/hedge rake.
Used to take out the dead brash from shrubs, or the cuttings from a hedge without damaging the plant.

Modern ones are pretty savage with springy metal tines, but those wooden peg ones save your hands, and the plants.

M

 

[Robbi]

Every day is a school day

 

[knowledge=gain]

look like it could be easy to make