54/706

Brades (Manufacturer)

A billhook is an edge tool used in hedging, coppice work and other woodland trades, and the tool shows great regional variety with each area having its own accepted pattern and shape. This is a 9 inch billhook, made by Brades of Birmingham, and is of the Kettering variety. It has a single slightly curved blade, and a hook at the front of the hook's back, which is probably used for picking the wood.

1 billhook: wood; metal

MERL 'Catalogue index' card – ‘… // DATE ACQUIRED: // GROUP: // NEGATIVE: // PERIOD: // PLACE OF ORIGIN: // NUMBER: // DESCRIPTION: …‘ This is a 9 inch billhook by Brades of Birmingham and is of the Kettering variety. It has a single slightly curved blade, and a hook at the front of the hook's back which is probably used for picking the wood. The pistol shaped handle is fixed into a socket. The whole tool is 17.5 inches long. // See also 54/705', MERL 'Catalogue index' card – ‘ for object 54/705… // DATE ACQUIRED: // GROUP: // NEGATIVE: // PERIOD: // PLACE OF ORIGIN: // NUMBER: 54/705// DESCRIPTION: …‘ Billhooks are used in hedging and coppice work, and the vary very greatly from region to region. The local traditional form of blade and balance first forged by the local smith are still followed by the large scale manufacturers of Sheffield and Birmingham. Each district has its own accopted [sic?] pattern and shape. For example a Dorset man would never use the Nottinghamshire bill and for this reason the large firms still produce a great variety of bills, each one for a particular district or county. Messrs Edward Elwell of Wednesbury Staffordshire for example manufacture no less than thirty-six varieties of billhooks...', 54/415–416 and 54/704–707 were presented to the Museum by the Royal Forestry Society as permanent loans. 54/417–419, 54/708, 55/279–280, 55/454–457 and 56/131 were presented to the Museum by Mr R. C. B. Gardner (of the Royal Forestry Society), either as gifts or as permanent loans. 55/279 was returned to Mr Gardner in 1962.

Birmingham

Wood, Metal