Who else uses a scythe?

Awwww man! I thought you were gonna' have a photo of a sickle bar mower. :D

A bush hog would sink right into the clay in my pasture. Fortunately for me it's a lot smaller than 7 acres. :p
 
I found a sickle a while back on the side of the road. Covered in surface rust and needs a new handle, but I have cleaned it up a little with a wire cup brush on a drill. No makers mark as of yet, but I have exposed some blue paint

I'll post some pictures later
 
Please do! I still need to take some photos of the one I picked up a while ago. It's got a great blade on it, though the handle was damaged. Only cost me $4.00 though, so I can't complain! Does the job very well.
 
I will have the pictures after I get off work

I will be scrubbing It with a small steel brush and vinegar

I am gonna have to put a new handle on it though. I still haven't figured out how I will do that
 
If it's a typical piece with a square rat-tail tang then you can make a handle and drill a hole down through it just a little narrower than the end of the tang. Then bore out the hole with larger drill bits in steps so it pretty closely matches the taper of the tang and just tap it down through nice and tight and peen the end over a washer. Alternatively you can heat up the tang and burn it into the handle.
 
Sweet, if I understand that correctly (I think that's the type that I have) that will work well. I was considering making something like micarta around it and let the epoxy do everything......then decided it wasnt a great idea lol
 
Oh--and if tapping it in you'll want to make sure you use a metal ferrule at the top.
 
Although the flat tanged variety is usually referred to as a grass hook, I believe. It seems to be something of a vague class.
 
It seems the terms are used interchangeably around here.

Another option for for flat tangs is brass rivets. That's how I did this skinning knife last summer.

Knife3.jpg
 
And rivets are very easy to form with some patience and a smallish ball pein hammer. :):thumbup:
 
Good tip--thanks for that! Finding dedicated ones is tough--most folk would rather throw out a tool than rehandle it these days it seems.
 
Good news from Seymour--while they can only accomodate the request during snath production times, they're able to sell me unassembled snaths. :)

Edit: Also just tried laying my shortened TrueTemper weed blade on top of the Seymour blade--it's got more drop to the tip as well. Go figure. :p I think I have some ideas of how to fix the deficiencies of the Seymour, though.
 
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Last Saturday I stopped by a garage sale and there she was. In very nice condition for $25.00 (I talked her down from $35.00).

While there are remnants of labels and decals, there NO makers stamps on the blade or an imprint on the handle. Hope that someone (FourtyTwoBlades) can identify it for me.

Here are the labels. I put some wide clear type over the handle label to save what was left of it.


She has three adjustment holes for the blade angle. I cleaned her up a little with a wire brush.



The blade is 29" long and has a thick spine.


The blade is wider on this one vs my first one, both are 29 inches long.


Shown with my first scythe, on the left, both are in very nice condition. My first scythe is imprinted No.2 SEYMOUR SNATH on the handle. The blade is stamped Austria w/ a little bush next to it.

The new scythe has NO makers names imprints or stamps. Only a partial label/decal w/o readable names.



The new scythe has three adjustment holes for the blade angle, my first one has 4 adjustment holes.


There was another scythe there, but it wasn't in as nice of condition as this one. It had a shorter blade on it, maybe a brush blade?

Thanks for looking, Double Ott
 
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Followers of this thread might enjoy my coverage of the 9th Annual Maritime Hand Mowing Championships that were held on 25 August 2012. It's hosted every year at the Ross Farm Living History Museum in New Ross, Nova Scotia. I just taught my Wife to use our scythe this spring, and now we need another so I actually get to use one. We plan to compete next year. Anyway the article is on my website at http://randy.whynacht.ca/archives/7862
 
Thanks for posting! :cool::thumbup:

The snath, unfortunately, is not a distinctive design so it's not as easy to tie down to a specific manufacturer, but it doesn't look like a STA-TITE or a Seymour (though Seymour made so many variations it's not out of the question) so it may be from a company like Derby & Ball?

Also, great article, whynacht!
 
Thank you. I'm happy you enjoyed it. I'm about to start restoration on a sickle we just acquired for the princely sum of $5.00. I'll be posting progress.
 
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