sickles/ weapons of other country than India

[Emanuel]

Hi Michel,

Sickle = serpe ou faucille, toutes les deux ont la lame concave, non?
In English I think "machete" covers most kinds of large utilitarian blades.
Sickle, bill-hook and scythe cover the concave blades.

For arms, sabre, cutlass and "scimitar" all represent blade with convex cutting edge. I think most kinds of SE Asian klewangs would generally be termed machetes in English, regardless of curvature, thickness or blade profile.

Cheers,
Emanuel

[katana]

Hi Michel,
the picture in your second post is almost certainly a Parang Ginah


http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=3767

Regards David

[Michel]

Thank you David,
It is indeed a parang ginah, Stone page 481 and van Zoneveld page 98, (only a description no photo) confirm it.
I have not found any name or picture for the other tools or weapons

Thanks Emanuel,
You are right with the French translation and the concave blade.
But for me, a machete is a long strait blade slashing tool, with sometime a bit of an upwards convex tip, that can be utilized as a weapon.
I have seen many in Africa and in South America. I have one from South America.
Do you really think that the pieces I showed could be named machete in English ?
I have never seen machete with such a convex curved shape.

You said : Sickle, bill-hook and scythe cover the concave blades.
You are right again but what about those with convex blades that are not arms/weapons ?
English is usually a very precise language and I am a bit surprise that a generic name for convex tools cannot be found.
May be one of the expert of the forum could help me ?
Thanks in any case, I have learned something with your post.
Regards
Michel

[Emanuel]

Hi Michel,

There really aren't many utilitarian convex blades that I can think of.

There are a few WWII US machete variants based on a Philippine bolo, with a wide belly and various convex curvatures. Not much thought into this, but it seems that a highly curved convex blade is not really needed for utilitarian purposes - cutting vegetation, wood, or rope

As far as i understand it, in lay usage "machete" covers pretty much any large blade that is not a recognizable sword or sabre. Technically I think of it as a relatively thin blade with no distal taper, mostly straight with parallel edges and with a sometimes broader convex tip, used primarily for cutting vegetation. Variations are endless. It would be good to see others chime in on this, as I'm not a native English speaker.

English is not always that precise. A while back there was a discussion around the difference between knife and dagger, bowie-type versus naval-type. Same as in French to some degree - couteau, poignard, dague, coutelas, subtle differences, all debatable.

Regards,
Emanuel

[fearn]

Originally Posted by Emanuel

Hi Michel,

Sickle = serpe ou faucille, toutes les deux ont la lame concave, non?
In English I think "machete" covers most kinds of large utilitarian blades.
Sickle, bill-hook and scythe cover the concave blades.

For arms, sabre, cutlass and "scimitar" all represent blade with convex cutting edge. I think most kinds of SE Asian klewangs would generally be termed machetes in English, regardless of curvature, thickness or blade profile.

Cheers,
Emanuel

Hi Emanuel,

I think it depends on the version of English that you use.

I agree that a sickle has to have the concave edge sharpened. These are single-handed tools primarily used for harvesting wheat, and the name has been used for others, such as the kama used to harvest rice and incidentally as a weapon.. Something similar to the kama is called a crane's bill, and of course, the two-handed version is called the scythe.

In America, most of the large utilitarian blades are machetes, but that doesn't mean that any utilitarian blade in America is called a machete.

In England, at least 100 years ago, they used bills/brush hooks/bill hooks, which were typically concave (although some were sharp on both sides), especially for hedging, but also for light pruning jobs. Two-handed bills (typically double-edged) are called blank blades or sling blades at major hardware stores in the US. The french name is fauchard, interestingly, we're back in falx land here.

In Australia, machete-like blades are called bush knives. Probably there are sickles and the rest out there somewhere, but I don't know about them. I wouldn't be surprised if Indonesian goloks aren't percolating in as we speak.

When in doubt, call it a knife, or call it a saber if you want to emphasize its military aspects.

Best,

F