Fascine knife

So imagine you are playing in your backyard and you want to build a small dam in the stream running behind your house. You gather some long sticks and branches and tie them together into a bundle. This bundle of sticks is called a fascine.

Now, to make the fascine stay put, you need to stick it into the soft soil on the side of the stream. But the sticks are too thick to just push them in by hand. That's where the fascine knife comes in!

The fascine knife is a special tool that looks like a long, thin metal stick with a sharp, curved blade at the end. It's used to cut and shape the ends of the sticks in the fascine bundle so that they can easily penetrate the soil.

With the fascine knife, you can carve a point at the end of each stick, or you can cut notches to make the sticks fit together more tightly. Once you've prepared your fascine with the knife, you can push it into the soil to create a sturdy foundation for your dam. And just like that, you've become an amateur engineer!