Who else uses a scythe?

[FortyTwoBlades]

I've not done steam bending myself, but my contractor helps me with R&D involving bending work.

 

[calinb]

I've not done steam bending myself, but my contractor helps me with R&D involving bending work.

Well then maybe Shipwright's video will tempt you into it someday. I once made a conventional steamer from a big pipe to recurve the limbs of a self bow. After watching Shipwright's video, I slapped my forehead and uttered a big "duh" to myself!!!

If you like wooden boats, you'll probably like his last video where he goes out for "a row" in his latest creation. His videos are very artistic and nicely produced too.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

An advantage of just having my contractor do it is they have all the proper wood on hand, plus wayyyyy more experience with the material and its eccentricities. Plus I'm busy enough with other things. But I'll probably try my hand at it someday.

 

[calinb]

I can relate. The last thing I need is another hobby!

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Did a little mowing at my grandmother's place today. She's retired and can only get the main space around the house done on her budget so I come by a few times a season and help trim things up. I'm hoping to maintain a bit of a larger space this year than I have in the past, and early this spring with the thaw she'd experienced some blockages at the end of her basement drain pipe that caused the basement to flood. I hopes of keeping the end of the pipe a little more clear than it has been in the past I decided to cut a path to it and lay down some HDPE sheeting to prevent vegetation growth in front of the pipe. Didn't have access to a truck to bring the big 7.5-cubic-foot wheelbarrow over for carting away the clippings, and so I decided to just continue the path past the pipe all the way down to a creek at the edge of the property and deposited the clippings there. I was going to take the opportunity to film some video of the Longfellow snath in action, but discovered after setting it up that my camera's battery was dead, so it'll have to wait until next time.

The equipment I brought with me.

My most-used whipping stick, since folks often have questions about them. It's just 1/2" x 2" pine with a gentle convex to the broad faces.

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/62246624_10218662135092984_8822722201695289344_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&_nc_oc=AQnIIVDYJDJztjBjQNPrSE6cg7J15yakQlF9PB4p_iZ3JSv5aGUVwd0oEbf-k29o16Y&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=33cf2fa9216a01ada8e32bd0028489a9&oe=5D8984F9/img]

Good tall growth. Mostly timothy and vetch, but it changes to sedges and clumpy marsh grass further down the slope as it gets nearer to the creek.
[img]https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/62081316_10218662135332990_5177171475727122432_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_oc=AQmOEIKw-I1IlaTya2Uq0JCHqbB6HQ3ER8K-HpX9A-hO4Oj9MnXlV01II-DQv526bhw&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=351d22dbd37c018d6d2acebf00eb586a&oe=5D91C98C

[/img]https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...04c94a943e44e1d95aa128a40bd&oe=5D977AD2[/img]

The HDPE sheet. It's leftover 30mil stuff that I was messing around with when I first experimented with the material. Put some grommets in it to stake it down. After tucking it under the pipe my next task was to make a few stakes for it.

The lilacs were in bloom.

I brought my customized Rinaldi Genova-pattern hatchet for the stake-making and found a suitable standing piece of oak that was dry as a bone and not a bit punky.

After splitting out and shaving down some nice long stakes, the sheeting pegged down nicely.

Closer to the creek end of the field there were tons of invasive red ant nests. Their bites suck, and they like nesting in the clumpy bases of the marsh grasses, so cutting through one of the vegetative knots reveals a mess of 'em.

[Continued in the next post]

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

The unit I used for the mowing today. Longfellow snath and Seymour 30" grass blade.

Then it was time for the fork and the tarp to gather and drag the clippings for disposal.

Loading from the corners makes it so you don't just end up with a big mound in the middle that wants to tumble new material off of it.

When a load was dragged down to the end of the path, I'd grab the back corners of the tarp and pull them up over the front to roll the entire load off, nice and tidy. Almost like a sushi rolling mat.

Remember: sedges have edges.

The "stump" of one of the clump grasses.

All tidied up.

I'll be back at my soonest opportunity to do more. While I like looking at a tall field, my grandmother likes seeing it mowed, and I enjoy doing the mowing, so it gives me a great space to burn off some stress. Will make sure to have the video camera charged next time.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Had these little blades fall into my lap by chance. Made by Igelfors Liefabrik in Sweden for the American market, and imported by the Sandvik Saw Co.'s US branch like the larger grass blades that I'd come into possession of. However, these are extremely small, with one having very odd form. It very obviously is intended to mimic the American style, but while the rib is normal, the bead is inverted, making a peak on the upper face of the blade opposite the rib. This in and of itself isn't unheard of, as the North Wayne Tool Co. advertised such a bead, but they were very uncommon and I only have one example of such a blade in my collection (one that belonged to my great grandfather, no less!) What's especially strange is what the blade does at the toe. It still has a crest along the spine on the underside of the toe, but rather than tilting up at a uniform plane like on most American blades, it's dished out to keep it in the same plane as the rest of the web along the length. Never seen such a configuration before. The other is a typical Swedish-style blade form, just with an American tang on it. Craftsman used to import blades of that sort, and I have a number of them, but none so small and narrow. I suspect these may be salesman's samples. They're only about 12" long apiece, and I only have a few other blades made that short with grass blade proportions like these, which I suspect may have also been samples. Unlike with axes or other tools that were often made in scale miniature, this arrangement allows the tang, heel, middle, and toe of the blade to all be shown at full size, and the length would simply be greatly increased in a full sized grass blade. If they weren't so precious, though, I'd gladly use them as trimming blades, and it is still possible that they were made as an actual model intended for use in such a role. I just doubt it, or one would expect them to be more common.

What's especially cute is how they didn't have enough real estate on the blades for all three labels and had to put one on the underside.

 

[Miller '72]

Recently this scythe made it home with me

The nibs are frozen solid, not a wiggle at the threads. I fear due to the bends in the bands, someone had some trouble adjusting or tightening.

The hose clamps around the base of the hafting collar covered a possible crack...I need to hammer out the bolt and remove the hafting collar to be able to inspect the severity of any cracking.

Other than that, I am really liking this Seymour NO 1 Snath...for all I know lol!

Austria blade no 20

All I know but always open to people sharing any opinions and thoughts...I am fascinated by the scythe. I still need to focus my attention and dedicate some time to one of my scythes to peen, hone, set up and learn how to use.

Thanks

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Looks like the blade is an older Redtenbacher. You find the round logo on older examples. They switched to an oval tang stamp on later ones. If I'm not mistaken it looks like the lower nib is positioned on a section of snath that's oval in cross section rather than round like it ought to be? I think your snath was probably made in the late 70's or so. They were still using the blue-painted stamped branding/model number at that point, up through the 80's I believe, but the quality of the post-bending truing-up went to crap and a lot of them are seriously out of round from the removal of cracks and delaminations suffered during the bending stage.

 

[Miller '72]

Looks like the blade is an older Redtenbacher. You find the round logo on older examples. They switched to an oval tang stamp on later ones. If I'm not mistaken it looks like the lower nib is positioned on a section of snath that's oval in cross section rather than round like it ought to be? I think your snath was probably made in the late 70's or so. They were still using the blue-painted stamped branding/model number at that point, up through the 80's I believe, but the quality of the post-bending truing-up went to crap and a lot of them are seriously out of round from the removal of cracks and delaminations suffered during the bending stage.

Thanks FortyTwo
Perhaps depending on the age of the blade, the snath is a replacement for it...and due to the exact issues you pointed out, the snath inherently gave the user trouble?
The snath at the nib if not both nibs is not round and now I better understand why they are tweaked, deformed, not tight but loose fitting to the snath yet now ultimately tightened so much and so hard...frozen solid after they put the scythe aside for the last time.
Thank you for the information on the snath and its poor symmetry allowing for the improper fit and inadequate adjustments, if even they were possible, to the nibs.
I will not be worrying so much about the possible crack...I dont think I can add wood to the oval portions but perhaps I can work the nibs onto an area of the snath I make round yet still allows for comfort.

So many scythe, so little time.

Thanks again FortyTwo

 

[Square_peg]

Had these little blades fall into my lap by chance. Made by Igelfors Liefabrik in Sweden for the American market, and imported by the Sandvik Saw Co.'s US branch like the larger grass blades that I'd come into possession of. However, these are extremely small, with one having very odd form. It very obviously is intended to mimic the American style, but while the rib is normal, the bead is inverted, making a peak on the upper face of the blade opposite the rib. This in and of itself isn't unheard of, as the North Wayne Tool Co. advertised such a bead, but they were very uncommon and I only have one example of such a blade in my collection (one that belonged to my great grandfather, no less!) What's especially strange is what the blade does at the toe. It still has a crest along the spine on the underside of the toe, but rather than tilting up at a uniform plane like on most American blades, it's dished out to keep it in the same plane as the rest of the web along the length. Never seen such a configuration before. The other is a typical Swedish-style blade form, just with an American tang on it. Craftsman used to import blades of that sort, and I have a number of them, but none so small and narrow. I suspect these may be salesman's samples. They're only about 12" long apiece, and I only have a few other blades made that short with grass blade proportions like these, which I suspect may have also been samples. Unlike with axes or other tools that were often made in scale miniature, this arrangement allows the tang, heel, middle, and toe of the blade to all be shown at full size, and the length would simply be greatly increased in a full sized grass blade. If they weren't so precious, though, I'd gladly use them as trimming blades, and it is still possible that they were made as an actual model intended for use in such a role. I just doubt it, or one would expect them to be more common.

What's especially cute is how they didn't have enough real estate on the blades for all three labels and had to put one on the underside.

Those are way cool, 42. Don't know I'd do with one but I still like them.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Thanks FortyTwo
Perhaps depending on the age of the blade, the snath is a replacement for it...and due to the exact issues you pointed out, the snath inherently gave the user trouble?
The snath at the nib if not both nibs is not round and now I better understand why they are tweaked, deformed, not tight but loose fitting to the snath yet now ultimately tightened so much and so hard...frozen solid after they put the scythe aside for the last time.
Thank you for the information on the snath and its poor symmetry allowing for the improper fit and inadequate adjustments, if even they were possible, to the nibs.
I will not be worrying so much about the possible crack...I dont think I can add wood to the oval portions but perhaps I can work the nibs onto an area of the snath I make round yet still allows for comfort.

So many scythe, so little time.

Thanks again FortyTwo

The good thing is that usually the No.1 snaths are like baseball bats and can stand to lose a LOT of wood, so in all but the gnarliest cases you can usually just shave the ovoid section down to round. Let the minimum diameter lower down on the snath determine the maximum diameter of all points above it--that is to say that regardless of the rate of change, the diameter should always either remain equal or get smaller as it moves towards the upper end. So if you have somewhere near the lower end that's thinner than an area above it, the upper area needs to be thinned up until it's equal to or thinner than that lower area.

Those are way cool, 42. Don't know I'd do with one but I still like them.

If they weren't so few and far between I'd use one for trimming and selective mowing. If things end up going well with the Russian-American blade project (still a ways off, but they've made some test dies for forging the cross section) after I get 30" blades done up I'd like to have a shorty 14" trimming blade made with a grass blade build sort of like these. I'd get a lot of use out of such a blade.

 

[jblyttle]

Whoops clicked the wrong thread.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

IMG_20190623_101910 by Justin Lyttle, on Flickr

Huh?

 

[A17]

Someone needs coffee, apparently.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Lol--was gonna' say. Looks like a cool haul, but...?

 

[Miller '72]

I love that I can't say no to a scythe or any part of...

NWT CO '93
North Wayne Tool Co
Oakland Maine

1893? If so, this blade has really held up.
I believe its possible since I did recently also rescue a Dunn Edge Tool Co. similar blade that was dated in the range of 1873-1883

Just a little follow up and clarification...

Dunn Edge Tool Co.
West Waterville ME.

"The town started as part of Waterville, breaking away and becoming the town of West Waterville in 1873. In 1883, the town was renamed Oakland."

https://www.bnctools.com/blogs/news/axe-making-in-oakland-maine-part-1

...and my Maine scythe collection grows by one more again.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Certainly appears old enough. The way that the knob of the tang is forged such that its sides are flush with those of the tang itself, along with the typeface of the tang stamp are good indicators.

 

[Miller '72]

Certainly appears old enough. The way that the knob of the tang is forged such that its sides are flush with those of the tang itself, along with the typeface of the tang stamp are good indicators.

Thank you FortyTwo. I am in awe of the age and condition of these 2 blades I have recently found.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

So, here's a rather fun development. I've found a source for USA-made containers that, with very little modification, make perfect whetstone holder in the Austrian/German style. Historically whetstone holders of this sort were made of turned wood or soldered tin, and feature a handy spike on the bottom for sticking it in the ground when taking a break so it doesn't fall over and spill its water. The spike on these polypropylene containers is removable, and the capacity is enough to hold all three of my stones without issue. To eliminate rattling in the holder I can use a piece of HDPE sheet folded like a leaf spring. They're basically the holder I'd always wanted, and after I finish up a little more experimenting with the belt loop arrangement I'll be able to start offering these at a price competitive with the European plastic holders. I'm pretty excited about 'em!

Comparison against a somewhat crude example of a Pennsylvania Dutch version of one of these holders. Many are much fancier than this one.