Hello all.
recently i forged a "machete" inspired on butcher blades in Tacuinum Sanitatis Lat.9333, a famous Medieval book of health.

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Looks like a simple blade with wooden scales, four rivers and a integral hoop.

Is a leaf spring.

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is a 51 centimeters long, 5 millimeter thickness on start of the blade and thinning to the end. 760 of weight.

After finishing i found this picture, is a Fra Angelico's depiction of Saint Peter of Verona, a very similar blade, but larger appears

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Thanks for watching!

The result looks very neat! As I'm interested in kitchen knives too, this kind of creation naturally catches my attention.

The blade is quite nice, I love it. What is its length?
I don't feel so much affinity with the handle (it is too long for me), but it sure matches well with the blade.

Very nicely done. I like to see people making something a little different than the norm. Looks like it could work well with chopping anything from meat to brush to arms (if used like it was historically intended).

Thank you both!

Guillaume Vauthier wrote:

The result looks very neat! As I'm interested in kitchen knives too, this kind of creation naturally catches my attention. The blade is quite nice, I love it. What is its length? I don't feel so much affinity with the handle (it is too long for me), but it sure matches well with the blade.

The blade length is 33.5 centimeters. There are several pictures of similar tools in the book, I will try to forge other interpretations, I like them very much these tools.

An earlier variant, with clip point and umbrella handle: BNF Latin 320, fo.311r, http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84260526/f635.image

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Thanks Mart.

Looks like a weapon, i never see before. The handle remember me the famous "Maciejowski Chopper". It's a very interesting design, I'll keep it for the future.

It's almost certainly a cleaver, rather than a purposed weapon, as it's being used to butcher a pig. That said, I suspect many of these big knives saw double duty in time of need, like your Fra Angelico painting indicates. My mother used to utilize her Old Hickory kitchen butcher knife in the yard with some frequency to clear small saplings and roots. Do we really know that most of the "choppers" in the Maciejowski Bible weren't, in fact, tools for the city militia's common trades - thatching knives, butcher's cleavers, etc.?

It's no wonder that this design has lasted until the present day. If it works, why change it? I love a good rustic looking piece like this. I'm sure a medieval butcher shop keeper would be overjoyed to have this to work with...OR a soldier on the field. ;) Excellent piece of history here!......McM

Villard de Honnecourt's knife in his self portrait is another plain design.

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BNF Français 19093 fo.2r [ Download ]

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Thanks for comment!

I said it because the silhouette seemed to me something uncommon in a tool, but you're right. For a second I thought it perfect on a battle, like the Maciejowski chopper, even that we are not sure.

I love the billhooks, last year I forged one based on another illustration (Is an risky interpretation). I do not have it any more, i miss it a lot :cry:

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A good thing about these tools used as weapons is that they are very easy to make,

Thanks for the new cleaver example. I've always had a doubt about the umbrella handles like these great examples or Maciejowski cases, never seen rivets considering the high level of detail, I don't know if they had scales... although I suppose it is the most likely.

I commend you for punching holes, not drilling them.

I took a quick look on the Latin 9333 on gallica.bnf.fr, and in the illustrations I found a recurring design for meat cleaver, which is this one:

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You can find it here, here, here and here, and other variations in the book.

And now, look at this modern variation of italian billhook...
And this other one. Both are designs for northern Italy. I guess that the same general shape would not have changed through centuries.

A sidenote:

The word "machete" was used in Castille at least since 1480's, and about little more than a decade later probably were several different types, as in the first shippings to La Hispaniola were included more than a hundred "machetes vitorianos" (machetes from Vitoria, also the place of the oldest mention I know of). Probably they were straight sided, with one edge and no handguard, perhaps more used as tool than a weapon.

Partly tool, partly weapon:
https://myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=32368

Very nice thread you did there! Apparently, there is a modern form of the cleaver-shaped beidana, which is called manaresso in Italy. Those are used like machetes or billhooks, but can be used in the kitchen as well. There is many variations in Northern Italy (like billhooks here in France) :

Piemonte
Reggio Emilia
Bologna
Brescia
Santa Giustina

And so on...

Now, let's take a look at this. It was my grandmother cleaver, and very highly possibly my great-grandmother one too. It is quite the same shape, except for the classic "french handle" in place of the traditionnal italian one. The dimensions of the blade and weight, and even the blade thickness seem to match with, for example, the Brescia Manaresso. It is freaking huge, and the blade and edge are so tough that I'm sure that it can be used as a billhook if you need.
I guess that back in the days in the coutryside, and perhaps even today, many objects were not so specialized and could be used at various tasks.

This is heavily fibrous iron/steel, heavily tapering blade and tang (both at base are circa 1cm thick, end of bladeis around 2-3 mm, tang tapers almoost into a point )

Blade length 24cm, total 42.5 ca


Early form that would alter evolve into roncone, clearly derived from a ronca (branch cutting tool), but tapered like a weapon and nimble in handling (bare hands handling, not hafted, already very good and authoritative)

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