For the connoisseur or obsessive, depending on your point of view! Below are links to images of billhooks and some other allied edge tools that are to the traditional taste of woodsmen, hedgelayers etc.

Blacksmith made edge tools fascinate some people; highly regional (designs can differ in neighbouring villages), craftsman made, full of social and industrial history (this can often be reasearched in old directories and census records) and reflecting local countryside management traditions.

Photos of edge tools made by big manufacturers in the Midlands

Photos of edge tools made in the Weald of Sussex and Kent

Photos of South Western type edge tools

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© Ian Swain 2021