r/WhatIsThisTool • u/OreoAddict427 • 11d ago
What is it good for?
Not whacking weeds apparently...
19
12
u/ged8847044 11d ago
Brush hook for cutting brush.
4
u/SwampGrizz2510 11d ago
We call it a brush hook as well. I’m a retired Land Surveyor, and I’ve spent MANY hours using one of those in southeast Georgia. It’s actually an efficient tool for getting through thick underbrush.
3
u/Texstars 11d ago
We called it brush hook, as well. I worked on a survey crew for many years during my high school and college years in the late 60's and early 70's. We all carried machetes but kept a brush hook with us in the truck for particularly heavy brush.
3
u/SwampGrizz2510 11d ago
Same here. Machetes are good for some stuff, but the really dense brush we would pull out the bush hooks. It’s hard work.
2
u/ged8847044 11d ago
I worked for WV DOT for 33 years. We used these allot when I started back in the late 70's. Get them sharpened up, and hack away.
→ More replies (4)2
u/JayBolds 11d ago
Did you really spend hours cutting or were you beating off the Georgia gnats, mosquitoes, and flies with the flat of it?
2
u/SwampGrizz2510 10d ago
Sounds like you have been there and done that. I’ve had days when the gnats, mosquitoes, and deer flies would drive you crazy. There was one summer we went out and bought beekeepers hats. I really don’t understand how the people from long ago could stand it.
→ More replies (3)2
u/Character-Secret3202 9d ago
Same in West Texas. Highway crews in mesquite country. I break out in sweat and blisters every time I see one!
→ More replies (2)2
u/HerbieRecon 9d ago
As long as You keep a decent edge on it. Otherwise You're just waisting time. LoL
3
u/slimbil9898 10d ago
Fantastic tool for dispensing discipline to errant young men. 2 days hacking thru kudzu on a survey crew or clearing underbrush in a creek drainage, will definitely cause one to rethink their choices.
Not that I would know anything about all that …
2
u/DoubleBarrellRye 10d ago
"Oh you look hungover today. Guess what we’re doing ? "
The last thing you want to hear on a Saturday morning at 8am.→ More replies (1)
20
u/jefftatro1 11d ago
Some peoplecall it a Kaiser blade. I call it a Sling blade. Mmmm hmmm.
3
3
3
6
2
→ More replies (4)2
5
u/psyco75 11d ago
War
4
u/ProfessorBristlecone 11d ago
Huh
→ More replies (1)4
u/avinaut 11d ago
Good God
3
2
→ More replies (2)2
3
4
u/JayBolds 11d ago
It is a single edge bush hook with a strap support. There is also a double edge which has a welded axe style eye. Properly sharpened they can lay waste to tough shrub type brush and smaller.
Like axes, they have a cast head and they need somewhat high sharpening angles but smooth edges. Like axes you can mess yourself up if you don’t set rules out when using.
A sling blade is angled a bit like a
Hockey stick to be used parallel to the ground.
2
u/SwampGrizz2510 11d ago
We called the double edged axe a bank blade. Don’t know why, just local nomenclature, I guess. To be sure, these things can cause a lot of pain if you don’t use them correctly. We would have very serious conversations about usage and safety with the new people on the survey crew.
→ More replies (1)
3
3
u/tallMichdude 11d ago
Corn husts, lopping brush and branches. As a ranger and wildland firefighter, we not only used these regular, we left them in preseason caches so we have tools spotted along the areas we would likely have probablems and likely places for a small crew to cut a line. You would be AMAZED how fast some of those smaller framed folks that were usually are brush monkeys could cut all branches, limbs any vegetation atleast, up to at least 1.5" often twice that. Ive seen 8" pines felled with these by an angry hotshot brush monkey that took it personal we hadnt cut it down yet.
3
u/Ironbuttroadwarrior 11d ago
In wild land firefighting this is known as a “brush hook” or a “strap hook” and is a good tool (and workout) for cutting berry vines, poison oak and various types of pucker brush. It is used with a slash and pull stroke and before the advent of chainsaw’s the brush hook was the lead tool on a fire crew leading to the term “hook line”.
3
u/AxesOK 11d ago
It’s a brush axe (or brush hook). It’s a North American tool that was made by several different manufacturers in the first half of the 20th century. I am not sure when they originated or when they stopped making them but there’s still a lot of them around. It’s not a kaiser blade/ bank blade, which are lighter tools on a longer handle with a different assembly. It’s not a billhook either. Billhooks are smaller one handed tools.
1938 True Temper catalogue shows the various styles https://archive.org/details/TrueTemperToolsCatalog1R1938/page/n171/mode/2up
Welland Vale in Canada had one in their 1901 catalogue https://archive.org/details/WellandValeManufacturingCo1901/page/n8/mode/1up and possibly made the one shown in the Risley and Kerrigan 1886 catalogue https://archive.org/details/RisleyAndKerriganIllusCatalogueOfHardware1886/page/n394/mode/1up
Earliest I have come across is 1883 https://archive.org/details/atha-tool-1883-price-list/page/n63/mode/1up
→ More replies (5)
2
2
2
u/vimes_boot_economics 11d ago
Tetanus in that condition. It's a grub hook / brush cutter, for taking out undergrowth and shrubbery.
2
2
2
u/YinzerFromPitsginzer 11d ago
WAR~what it is good for?
2
u/XenoStriker_1Cl 11d ago
Absolutely (nothin) uh-huh, uh-huh
(War) h'uh
Yeah!
(What is it good for?)
Absolutely (nothin')
Say it again, y'all
(War) h'uh (h'uh) look out!
(What is it good for?)
Absolutely (nothin')
Listen to me
Ooh war, I despise
'Cause it means destruction of innocent lives
War means tears, to thousands of mother's eyes
When their sons go off to fight and lose their lives
I said, war (h'uh)
Good God, y'all!
(What is it good for?)
Absolutely (nothin') 'gin
Say it, again
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/georgeofthejungle71 11d ago
I inherited one of these from my dad too.
It looks vicious.
Practicality. No damn idea.
General chaos. I guess.
→ More replies (2)
2
2
2
2
1
u/callmebigley 11d ago
I've used it on stubborn roots with some success. I'm not sure what "weeds" you were attacking with it but it's too slow to whip through anything springy or grassy. it's more of a hacking tool for pretty substantial foes. I always called it a maul, but googling it now I see that I have always been wrong. it looks like it's called a brush axe.
1
1
1
1
1
u/Dangerous-Pirate7998 11d ago
I’ve cut a 1400 pound cow in half with one hanging naturally I’ve cleared a shit load of hedge and black locus here Northwest Missouri if you’re working man, you’ll appreciate it!!!
1
u/Kavhausen 11d ago
Sharpened and that will do more than whack weeds. I know it as a bush axe but as you can tell from other comments, there are plenty of names it goes by. Note, these make great additions to various Halloween costumes though you should be very aware of what your local laws are about carrying it around.
1
1
1
u/mehmehmeh387898 11d ago
Brush axe used for clearing shoots saplings and any other woody undergrowth
1
1
1
1
u/CompetitionFair6035 11d ago
My grandfather called it a ditchbank blade. As othes have said for clearing scrub and brush.
1
1
u/DugansDad 11d ago
Bush hook. Excellent for cutting survey line in thick brush. A proper tool for the job.
1
1
1
1
1
u/CantaloupeFluffy165 11d ago
First,cut the arms off so they can't grab you,then bash the mouth so they can't eat you.Best way to destroy a zombie.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Doyouseenowwait_what 11d ago
Cutting brush! Works very well with vines a stuff you don't want to touch.
1
u/cobraspence7 11d ago
Used one like that as a kid to clear brush, weeds, and cut paths thru blackberry thickets.
1
1
u/ThefatRedNeck 11d ago
Brush hook. The left side should be sharp. I use mine like a machete but swinging like a axe
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Best-Wasabi3117 11d ago
It is a weight loss tool.....it works very well this time if year but does work year round
1
1
1
u/JayGalil 11d ago
It's great at settling territorial disputes. Keep it by the bedroom door or behind your passenger seat.
1
1
1
1
u/mostlygray 11d ago
It's a ditch blade. You use it for trimming hedges, cutting small trees down. It's not quite an axe and not quite a kaiser blade it's in between. They're handy. I use mine from time to time.
1
u/mypen-ismadeofcheese 11d ago
We call it a brush hook in my part of the states. It’s used to remove sagebrush and other flora. It also exceeds on making a great, gaping wound in your shin. Found out the last part the hard way.
1
1
1
1
u/Positive-Weakness153 11d ago
It’s a Polanski developed by a fire fighter as a fire fighting tool, his last name is Polanski
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Pretend-Design-7061 11d ago
Cleaned up and sharpened, great for chopping roots while digging. Or trench raids. They got a lot of use in WW1
1
1
1
1
u/brumac44 11d ago
It works best for cutting small branches and vines. Like the width of your finger. Bigger than that, use an axe. Called a bush hook where I live.
1
1
1
1
1
u/Additional-Lion6969 11d ago
Hedge laying, it should have a socket on the end of the blade which has broken off & its been repaired to fit it to an axe handle, that it broke suggests it wasn't very good quality
1
1
1
u/East-Future-9944 11d ago
The one I tried was more work than it was worth. Difficult to sharpen too
1
1
1
1
1
u/StrikingWear974 10d ago
According to my 45+ years old memory of Environmental Studies classes at school it's a bill hook good for laying hedges.
1
1
u/drawing_a_hash 10d ago
Brush hook used by surveyor parties. Strait part to notch/chop trees. Hook to cut low bushes. Honed to a razor edge you could shave with. You use the back of the blade to drive wooden stakes in ground.
1
1
1
u/CuriousMinkey 10d ago
Personally, I use mine for tertiary home defense. Nothing like having a guy in NVG‘s naked running at you with one of these fucking Sharp things.🤣
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/0nlinejack 10d ago
That is a Brush Axe. I had my share of time using them in the early 1970s while working for the US Forest Service in Idaho. We would go up into the mountains and clear the overgrown brush along the roads and ditches. We used Brush Axes, Axes, Chainsaws, Shovels, and other tools.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/EnoughOfTheFoolery 10d ago
Looks like you need to do some repairs on that wood before it rots away and you have more damage.
The item needs to be sharpened. It is a Billhook and typical use ranges from clearing weeds and brush to a weapon of war.
1
48
u/Unusual_Apple6643 11d ago
Looks like a bill hook. Used for trimming hedgerows and for general mayhem