A Load of Old Billhooks

[Mesquite]

Whilst perusing the Retro Outdoor Gear group over on FB I noticed someone post that if you want to find out about vintage billhooks and the various patterns then you really need to start at this website...

A Load of Old Billhooks

Don't blame me if you end up wasting a few hours just learning all about the different patterns etc

 

[Toddy]

Oh.....good find, thank you

Though sites like that makes me wonder sometimes, at just how much labour and sheer hard graft that machinery spares us from these days.
I do like good hand tools though.

M

 

[Laurentius]

Oh.....good find, thank you

Though sites like that makes me wonder sometimes, at just how much labour and sheer hard graft that machinery spares us from these days.
I do like good hand tools though.

M

I don't like machinery, things like power strimmers are not better than a scythe and probably cause more injury and time off work than a scythe. I read (was it on this site) or elsewhere that a long handled slasher/billhook can fell a three inch tree at a single stroke. I can tell you from experience that is true. I have a bit of tree surgery to do which will involve me wading out into the river to remove large overhanging branches that are threatening to fall in the river at some time and block it. I could ask the Council to come and do it, but I would just sit back and watch the palaver they made of doing it. Wouldn't want to stand in a stream of water with a chainsaw. Slasher is a good tool to do this because of the reach.

 

[Toddy]

Very true that.

On that note though, the wee laplander saw will take down a tree with a seven inch trunk in a couple of minutes. Been there, done that I'm sure it could manage larger but that one I've hands on proof.

My wrists and elbows won't take me using a billhook anymore, but Jojo made me a small sickle and it's an incredibly useful tool for smaller branches. Great for stuff like elders, willows and the like.

I think hand tools, good hand tools, are well worth learning to use

M

 

[Laurentius]

Very true that.

On that note though, the wee laplander saw will take down a tree with a seven inch trunk in a couple of minutes. Been there, done that I'm sure it could manage larger but that one I've hands on proof.

My wrists and elbows won't take me using a billhook anymore, but Jojo made me a small sickle and it's an incredibly useful tool for smaller branches. Great for stuff like elders, willows and the like.

I think hand tools, good hand tools, are well worth learning to use

M

I love this old Pathe video.

. I even have a pair of leather gaiters like Dyton there. I wonder what happened to him (or his land girl assistant) I expect he died of lung cancer, that pipe in his mouth and all.

 

[Nice65]

I love this old Pathe video.

. I even have a pair of leather gaiters like Dyton there. I wonder what happened to him (or his land girl assistant) I expect he died of lung cancer, that pipe in his mouth and all.

I’d like to think he died satisfied in old age. That’s a lovely video, for various reasons I’ve been away from my arb background for a while, it makes me want to get back in.

 

[Toddy]

That was a very pleasant watch and listen
Informative and interesting. Thank you for the link.

Some of those old boys lasted forever. My grandpa was in his late nineties before he died, and his pipe was usually in his mouth.
Thing was though, they were smoking just tobacco, or their own herbal mix, it wasn't hyped up and adulterated with anything more than molasses, iirc.

 

[Woody girl]

That's a lovely bit of hedging. I love to see a well layed hedge. You don't see it so much nowadays which is such a shame. I suppose it's so much quicker to get the tractor and flail out than to do a great job like the video. Makes me upset when I see a flailed hedge..... to say nothing of the flipping punctures vehicles get driving over the debris left on the roads.

 

[Snufkin]

Nice film that. It's always a pleasure to see someone who has mastered his tools at work.