When is it not a billhook????
Although billhook in shape some tools are strictly speaking not billhooks - but as edge tools they do come into the same general classification...
Frequently sold on ebay as a double edged hedger's billhook, this is a Mauritius pattern sugar cane hook. This one is made by Elwell, but they were made by all the major maunufacturers such as Spear and Jackson, Jenks and Cattell or Skinner and Johson.
Although often sold a billhooks, and certainly a useful tool for cutting back light brushwood, these are pea and bean hooks, used to clear the haulm once the crop has been harvested.
These are for sale from Glen Sibbick at Timeless Tools
Although called a serpette (small billhook), this is a 'serpette à glace' with a silver blade and is used for cutting ice-cream.
Another French serpette, this one known as a 'serpette PTT' is used in the French post office to cut the string on parcels and mailbags etc.
The modern 'serpette La Poste' (formerly PTT) see above....
The top two came from France, the bottom one is an oyster knife. The others took longer to identify, but they are also oyster growers' tools, known as 'serpettes à ostréiculture', they are from Britanny.
The fabled golden sickle of druidic legend (see the Asterix comics) turns out to be really called a 'coupe gui' - a mistletoe cutter - is not usually sickle shaped and is made of iron and steel. From the collection of Jean Picot (known to his friends as 'la guignette' and founder of Outils-Anciens).
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