Sickle Knife, India ???

[Billman]

Hi, I collect billhooks - now have over 6000 from various countries and continents - one thing I have noticed is parallel development in shapes, handles, methods of construction etc. Japanese and Chinese billhooks are very similar to European ones - they have had them for at least as long as we have had in the West (at least 2000 years). Ditto those from India and Africa, in fact almost any civilisation that has had iron working in its development.

Similar parallel development can be in other basic hand tools: sickles, axes, adzes & hammers and in weapons: spears, swords, bows & arrows...

The same is probably also true in respect of ornamentation/decoration e.g. scroll work, inlay and incised decoration. I have decorated billhooks from several different countries - certain types of decoration are common in tools from widely separated areas, especially punched (or chiseled) lines, curves, whorls, stars and combinations thereof...

My best guess is that tools of this type were used by women on a daily basis. India has a tradition of decorated tools, especially sickles. These may have been part of a marriage dowry, or a gift from the groom to the bride. Judging by the degree of wear on some of the blades, they were regularly used over a long period of time. Searches of images for rice or grain harvest show mainly women working in the fields - the men undertaking the heavier tasks such as ploughing the land....

[manteris1]

pretty fancy for a farm tool............jimmy

[Billman]

Hi Jimmy

At first glance of the blade shape, I would say Italian, maybe Austrian - chip carving is common on items from the European Alps, and a mushroom type handle although rare in Italy, is not unknown. Having said that it could be Asian - without provenance it is very difficult to accurately place a tool that is found worldwide, is often rehandled, and that was often exported or taken overseas by colonists.

The handle decoration is not something I have seen before, but is typical of the sort of work done in rural communities, either to pass the time, or to personalize an object. I guess this is (or was) a common practice worldwide - before TV, radio and mobile phone there was not a lot to do in the long winter evenings...

In the second image, there appears to be some marks on the blade.... These may help in identifying its origin, as would close examination of the blade to look for forging marks, weld lines etc.

Identification of the wood of the handle may also be an aid to origins - beech and light woods are more common in Europe, teak and darker woods in Asia (but there is no hard and fast rule, as handles are often made of any wood that is handy - the Japanese use white oak)

[Billman]

As far as decoration on a tool to be used, below some Indian sickles from the same region (Punjab)... One older one highly decorated with a forged blade, and one new factory made one (right of image).. together with some made with an old saw blade held in a wrapped around back..

[VANDOO]

THE SICKLE AND BILLHOOK HAVE A HISTORY PREDATING THE METAL VERSION IN SOME SOCIETYS. THE OLDEST AUTHENTIC EXAMPLE I HAVE PERSONALLY SEEN WAS IN THE MUSEUM AT CAIRO EGYPT. IT WAS WOOD IN SCYCLE SHAPE WITH A GROOVE ALONG THE INSIDE CURVE INSET WITH CLOSELY SET FLINT BLADES TO FORM A GOOD CUTTING EDGE.

[Billman]

Originally Posted by VANDOO

THE SICKLE AND BILLHOOK HAVE A HISTORY PREDATING THE METAL VERSION IN SOME SOCIETYS. THE OLDEST AUTHENTIC EXAMPLE I HAVE PERSONALLY SEEN WAS IN THE MUSEUM AT CAIRO EGYPT. IT WAS WOOD IN SCYCLE SHAPE WITH A GROOVE ALONG THE INSIDE CURVE INSET WITH CLOSELY SET FLINT BLADES TO FORM A GOOD CUTTING EDGE.

Flint sickles, with a body made of antler, wood or bone, with the flints held in by resin have been found in Iron Age sites in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. Stone axes are also well known, but the billhooks appears to have first appeared in the Bronze Age, with small pruning hooks cast in stone moulds, similar to those used for bronze sickles. Bronze sickles and pruning hooks (billhooks) would appear to have originated in ancient Sumer(ia) in lower Mesopotania c 2900BC, now modern Iraq & Iran, and spread east into Egypt and Greece, and west into India.The billhook, as we know it today, appears to date from the Iron Age, and was common in Britain before the Roman occupation c 50BC. Roman billhooks, sickles and other tools are still regularly found on archelogical dig sites and are almost identical to modern versions. Up until the mid to late 19th century the small billhook, or pruning hook, would have been the tool used by all gardeners, fruit tree and wine growers for pruning etc.

[manteris1]

no marks, nice horn collar, very heavy blade and sharp, i think its from india what do you all think.................jimmy