A Billhook in the Sussex style

A friend of mine who I met through the Southern Kit Car Club called Tony is very keen on hedge laying. I spent a day working with him and some other volunteers in West Sussex and got a chance to see how a billhook is used. It really is a very useful tool designed specifically for the job.

I offered to make a billhook for Tony as I fancied a challenge. There are many different styles used around the UK and we discussed which style Tony would like, however as I was forging it, the steel really wanted to follow the traditional Sussex shape and as I live in Sussex, I decided to follow the steel.

Here you can see a chunk of lorry spring welded to a handle:

Here is the billet after my first forging session. A long way to go yet, you can see instructions penned onto the billet to reind me what to do next time:

Here I am normalising the blade to relieve stresses before hardening:

Here is the blade after forging:

Here is the blade after hardening and tempering:

Here are the parts prior to assembly:

And the finished Billhook:

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