chennai namakkal has its eggs erode its turmeric tirunelveli hard sells its halwa while madurai showcases its jasmine for several years thiruppachethi a town in sivaganga staked its claim to the billhook machete veecharuval in tamil famously used as gang weapons in tamil movies now craftsmen from manapalli in namakkal want their slice of sickle fame as they believe their machetes are just as sharp as those from thiruppachethi and their tradition equally robustour sickles are used by farmers to cut crops not by gangsters in fights says sickle maker v paramasivam and we are just as famous among our customers every farmer and daily wage labourer here carries our sickle when they enter the field its almost part of their attire k mariappan another sickle artisan says there are more than 15 sicklemaking units in manapalli with more than 50 families engaged in the craft for more than three generationsthere are different types of sickles saysparamasivam for harvesting crops cutting coconut sugarcane and weeds chopping trees slicing coconut leaves dicing mutton slitting thorns plucking coconuts separating coconut leaves from their sticks for brooms and slicing betel leaves we make sickles and machetes of every kind says paramasivam even billhook machetes like they do at thiruppachethi unlike the longer thiruppachethi machete manapalli sickles are much shorter says m karupannan another maker tamil movies give sickles a bad name as if they are only used to kill sickles are truly a farmers best friend versatile enough to help with agriculturerelated work manapallis sickle makers travel to nearby salem karur and erode to procure raw material such as steel wooden handles and coal our sickle prices range from 150 to 1500 depending on size we sell our sickles across south india says karupannan to make the sickle says paramasivam a steel rod is first beaten with a hammer tomake it flat we cut the rod depending on what the sickle is going to be used for we then shape it using an open flame after which we finish with a hammer he saysbesides making sickles for farmers mega machetes are also crafted for temples machetes are considered the main weapon for gods such as karuppanar ayyanar muniappan and madurai veeran who are known as protectors of villages says karupannan he adds that the craftsmen together made a twotonne vel spear and two 75kg machetes which they donated to a muniappan temple in manapalliwe renovated our 70yearold village temple and wanted to replace the old sickle says m k santhanam who came with a group from thuraiyur in trichy to place an order for a 12foot sickle for their ayyanarappan templebanana cultivator k abraham says for the past two decades he has been coming to manapalli from nagercoil to buy sickles for his farm as the quality is far better than others in the market now ive got my friends also coming here to buy the sickles as to what makes the manapalli machete unique the craftsmen say they do not