Pruning hook (Period)

Pruning knife (Period)

A pruning hook is an agricultural tool for trimming plants, consisting of a sickle’s blade on a long handle.  It’s a period charge, found in the arms of Hegner, 1548 [Vigil Raber’s Armorial of the Arlberg Brotherhood of St. Christopher, fo.401]; Parker, p.540, also cites its use in the arms of Cutcliffe, 1586, but in that case the term may have been simply another name for the sickle.

A related charge, the “pruning knife” (French serpette), has a billhook-like blade; it’s found in the arms of von Görlitz, 1605 [Siebmacher 62].  For related charges, see scythe.

The College of Saint John of Rila bears as a badge:  Two pruning knives in saltire argent.

Fedora de Mara bears as a badge:  On a bezant invected a pruning hook inverted bendwise sinister sable, surmounted by a peony gules, seeded Or.