Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Billman · 26th June 2011, 09:21 AM

Just had another look at the original tool - the handle is very similar to that on some forms of Italian billhooks (roncole) but also those of agricultural knives....

The overall form is very similar to a US corn knife (for corn read maize) - I know this was grown and cultivated widely in Hungary and other Balkan states (many part of the former Austro Hungarian Empire) - and that specialist knives were used for its harvesting, although in Hungary they often used a billhook used for chopping wood..... was probably also grown in Italy, as it is still a major crop in the Alps of neighbouring France

It may this be an Italian corn knife - but still a very unusual find.....

Below a modern US corn knife (somewhere in my collection I have a much older one with a tapered blade):

26th June 2011, 09:21 AM	#10
Billman Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 129	Just had another look at the original tool - the handle is very similar to that on some forms of Italian billhooks (roncole) but also those of agricultural knives.... The overall form is very similar to a US corn knife (for corn read maize) - I know this was grown and cultivated widely in Hungary and other Balkan states (many part of the former Austro Hungarian Empire) - and that specialist knives were used for its harvesting, although in Hungary they often used a billhook used for chopping wood..... was probably also grown in Italy, as it is still a major crop in the Alps of neighbouring France It may this be an Italian corn knife - but still a very unusual find..... Below a modern US corn knife (somewhere in my collection I have a much older one with a tapered blade): Attached Images Last edited by Billman; 26th June 2011 at 09:32 AM.