Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

ausjulius · 5th November 2010, 01:25 AM

billman,
thanks, but the billhook and the machete are two unrelated tools with quite different natures,
the machete is a purely central American invention.. there is also south and central american billhooks and some billhooks dressed out like machetes even , but they are two different fish.
the billhook is a fascinating tool with great variation i have a collection of these tools and related hack knives as well

but by comparison there is a lot of material on billhooks and a lot of old ones to be had,
where as the machete is seems to be less easy to collect in any range and the quality or interesting pieces are mostly in the south and central American nations.. and product of a factory nature was far less varied and not destined to the producers home country.....

so the locally made ones are really what one has to look at as a machete... and the others a re machete like tools..
because as the billhooks were made for the people who used them the factory made machete was made just for a box in a warehouse 99% of the time..
probably one can say a lack of a direct like to ones market caused this..

by the time these nations in the americas industrilized the cheap thin machetes from american adn european producers had taken hold in the locak factories..

but you look even today you can get a billhook with no lesser quality or different materials and function than one from 200 years ago from southern and central European makers , and still there is a range of regional styles produced..

.

5th November 2010, 01:25 AM	#16
ausjulius Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: musorian territory Posts: 436	billman, thanks, but the billhook and the machete are two unrelated tools with quite different natures, the machete is a purely central American invention.. there is also south and central american billhooks and some billhooks dressed out like machetes even , but they are two different fish. the billhook is a fascinating tool with great variation i have a collection of these tools and related hack knives as well but by comparison there is a lot of material on billhooks and a lot of old ones to be had, where as the machete is seems to be less easy to collect in any range and the quality or interesting pieces are mostly in the south and central American nations.. and product of a factory nature was far less varied and not destined to the producers home country..... so the locally made ones are really what one has to look at as a machete... and the others a re machete like tools.. because as the billhooks were made for the people who used them the factory made machete was made just for a box in a warehouse 99% of the time.. probably one can say a lack of a direct like to ones market caused this.. by the time these nations in the americas industrilized the cheap thin machetes from american adn european producers had taken hold in the locak factories.. but you look even today you can get a billhook with no lesser quality or different materials and function than one from 200 years ago from southern and central European makers , and still there is a range of regional styles produced.. .