billhook

[shaggystu]

a little advice needed please. i've just got an old billhook from a member on here with the intention of renovating it as a gift for SWMBT. new handle, nice and shiny, a sheath etc. all no problem, the bit i'm a little stuck with is what type of grind should i be aiming for? at the moment it's got a sort of concave/flat/convex grind depending on which part of the edge you look at, so no real cluse there. it's a tool i have pretty much zero experience of, i've used old hooks for splitting kindling but that's about it, so a bit clueless really. i'm guessing that a nice smooth convex grind would be about right, just wanted to check here in case i'm wrong and about to create more work for myself really.

thanks in advance

stuart

 

[Retired Member southey]

The ones ive been looking at lately all seem to have either a right or left side(with the bill pointed towards you) single flat bevel, dont know if that helps at all dude,

 

[shaggystu]

The ones ive been looking at lately all seem to have either a right or left side(with the bill pointed towards you) single flat bevel, dont know if that helps at all dude,

interesting, not really an option in this case though TBH, with the height of the grinds as they stand at the moment to make it a single bevel tool would remove way too much material for it still to be classed as a billhook i reckon.

have you been looking at any specific patterns of billhook dude, or just billhooks in general?

stuart

 

[Ed]

I don't know what grind mine started with (it's a little old), but over the years it is now convex and still manages to do its job well.

Ed

 

[shaggystu]

I don't know what grind mine started with (it's a little old), but over the years it is now convex and still manages to do its job well.

Ed

i think the one i've got is pretty similar TBH, it looks as though it was probably given a slightly hollow grind (i'm guessing on a great big wheel in a factory somewhere) when it was made, which has slowly turned first to a flat and then a convex grind.

i'm thinking that i probably can't go far wrong with a convex grind

stuart

 

[woodgrain]

Convex edge as it is a chopping/impact tool. You can have them with a single bevel on either side depending whether you're left or right handed but that bevel will be convex too.

Hope it helps,
Graeme

 

[shaggystu]

Convex edge as it is a chopping/impact tool.

that was my thinking exactly

You can have them with a single bevel on either side depending whether you're left or right handed but that bevel will be convex too.

that makes sense too, from what southey said i had more of a chisel grind in my mind, the left/right ground/handed is something that i've only ever seen in a carpenters axe and that was "chisel ground" (sorry, don't know if that's the right term but i think it makes sense) with two flat faces to the grind, the idea of a billhook with that type if edge didn't sit right with me at all. single convex bevel makes much more sense, thanks for that.

stuart