Hi Mrwizard,

I think the English term may be coppicing (Wikipedia link). The use of oak bark for tanning is quite old, of course.

Best,

F

Thanks Fearn,
"coppicing" is indeed the correct term. :-)

Machete, you said Machete ...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0985694/
:eek:

Hi

Thanks for the pictures of the knipp - hippe - haap - haumesser... I have another with the same stamp, but a little older I think... A similar one stamped FK was also for sale in the US earlier this year, sold as having been made by the Philidelphia Germans (it even had a certificate of provenance) - shame that I had seen it for sale on eBay.de in 2009, several months earlier - the same tool, same stamp and decoration, same marks on the handle and traces of the orange paint still on the blade....

A few images of HK and FK stamped tools, a couple from Polhiem (I had to buy the nasty knife with them) and one by A Metz of Nenkersdorf, - not all images are of my hippen, I copy from ebay even if I do not buy the tool..

Decorated tools were fairly common in parts of Europe...

Haven't found how to sort images into the text, or change their order, so I have just found and added the original image of the one sold in US at the end... compare to the picture above

Awwww, and i thought i would add something new :)

But i will see if i can figure out who FK and HK were, i already have an idea whom to ask.

Attached some more knipps i found lying around...

Greetings from Siegen,
Thilo

More images of decorated hippen - good to meet another enthusiast...

and a few more - the 1914 one is en route from DE to GB....

Another name I found is rubenkopfbeil - which I believe roughly translates to beet head axe i.e. a beet trimming knife, but I think this is an error as they are not so ornate and do not have a 'beak'

I note many of these hippen (especially those from the Bayern region) have blades with a single bevel, like a side axe... What tasks were they used for???

Similar tools are found in France and also some parts of England - in France coppice work is called taillis - Google gives a translation of coppice to niederwald in German

as I've mentioned before in this matter, the introduction of iron-working into the Caribean/Americas was not just by Europeans, but also by those other "Westerners" the Africans who accompanied the Europeans. These people retained considerable of their own customs and practices, and I think this significantly informs the development of the thin-bladed machete, including hook-bladed forms. I've seen antique hook-blade Caribean and N American work swords with features that clearly hark to the fighting mambeles of the Congo region. The thinness often noted in African weapons is a very functional characteristic in fast movement and deep cutting (less friction/wedging)

I'm loving these work-swords, BTW!
Particularly thrilling are the tangs thicker'n the blades, which is seen on some African stuff as well, interestingly enough.