Who else uses a scythe?

Based on the shape of the anvil depicted I was actually guessing the UK--go figure! :D Scythettes like that (a sort of halfway between long-handled grass hooks and scythehooks/scythes) seem to have been common in the UK and the Nordic nations. Actually looks like a decent example of the tool.
 
That's interesting? What marked it out as an English anvil?

I got all my blacksmithing stuff in the best Christmas ever (I was 12). My Grandad's eccentric best friend (he's now in his 80s and married to a 43 year old) gave me the whole set up -- forge, anvil, machinist's vice and all of the important tools.

I'd been reading every book in the library on blacksmithing for probably a year before that, so you can imagine the excitement on Christmas day finding out that my impossible dream was going to happen.

Anyway, sorry that was a wild digression. The scythette does it's job quite well.
 
The fairly squat shape of it is characteristic of a lot of English anvils. :)

And yes, scythettes make good little trimming tools for areas lower in volume and tighter in space than warrants a full-blown scythe.
 
joshiecole said:
I got all my blacksmithing stuff in the best Christmas ever (I was 12). My Grandad's eccentric best friend (he's now in his 80s and married to a 43 year old) gave me the whole set up -- forge, anvil, machinist's vice and all of the important tools.

I'd been reading every book in the library on blacksmithing for probably a year before that, so you can imagine the excitement on Christmas day finding out that my impossible dream was going to happen.

Anyway, sorry that was a wild digression. The scythette does it's job quite well.
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Awesome story! It sounds like that stuff went to the right kid.
 
I have been scouring the antique stores around my area trying to locate vintage axes and happened across a nice Blish Mize single bit. After reading this thread back in its infancy, I am always looking for a decent scythe. The shop where I purchased the axe had a number of scythes tucked back in the corner and one caught my eye. It looked to be in good shape but dull as a spoon. I finally got a little time and broke it down and cleaned up all the metal and made an attempt at sharpening the blade. It is what I think you would consider a grass blade - pretty darn long with no cracks or big dings in the edge. I could not get a file to bite hard enough to get a good edge and finally broke down and very gently used a sander to get it down to an edge. I tried to follow the existing bevels and I think I did a fairly good job. I then hand sanded the edge, working up from 150 through 400 and then stoned the blade with a little hard Arkansas stone. Got it pretty darn sharp as it took a big patch of hair off my arm. Reassembled it and took it out to the pasture and gave it a whirl. 2 hours later, after sweating through everything I had on, I looked back and said to myself "geez, that was fun!" I can see why everybody gets so excited about a very purpose driven tool that performs like nothing else. I am not done with the restoration - the metal needs more work and the wood hasn't been touched, so its going to get quite a bit more attention. I need to take the time and reread this thread as I am sure there is some info in here that I need before I get started.
 
Welcome to the addiction! Keep us posted with the restoration work; do you have any pictures? :D
 
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nice sandviks

nearly finished the $30 find i got - extra long (for austria?) grass blade. not as long as my antique, but it should be good. needs oiling, and i'm nearly done.
 
Square_peg said:
Hard to find one any fresher than that.
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Quite. And I was able to get quite a few of them at that. :D

Bladite said:
nice sandviks

nearly finished the $30 find i got - extra long (for austria?) grass blade. not as long as my antique, but it should be good. needs oiling, and i'm nearly done.
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Nice! How long is it, exactly?

The above blades were made by Igelfors Liefabrik, for reference. Sandvik's New York presence was just the sole importing agent. :)
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Quite. And I was able to get quite a few of them at that. :D

Nice! How long is it, exactly?

The above blades were made by Igelfors Liefabrik, for reference. Sandvik's New York presence was just the sole importing agent. :)
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"a few of them". tease :D

so, my first to me scythe was a new hardware purchase locally, seymour 23 inch "tip to end of cutting edge" (not including mount/etc)... aluminum handle.

the $30 on is also a seymour, 29.5 inch TtE with the wood handle. older, but good.

in looking at my first "barn find", it's slimmer blade, but actually 29 inches measured, it just looks longer due to be slim? also, the handle is 1/2 the thickness of the seymour. it's elegant. blade could be a seymour, but it's seen a lot of sharpening. i'd have to thin that out a bit. when i recovered it, after cleaning, i converted the rust nicely, painted it PURPLE, and re-exposed the edge. bit thick.

i'll probably leave Purple as it for a while since i have the $30 one to fool with, and it has a lot more serviceable meat, and is already thinner by virtue of being fairly new still.

what i really need are the tools to thin them out proper.

that 23 incher got pushed back to be my light brush blade now. it's fantastic on blackberries and very young saplings and all. was never quite as good on grass as i'd like. it completely RULES on weeds though. oh my.

point of shame? i did buy a modular brush/weed cutter. cuz there are places i want to work, where i can't or don't want to swing, and need the accuracy, or need to get into the dirt some. had to happen. effective for what they do. always return to the hand tools though.
 
This has nothing to do with scythes. I’m posting this here because—this is my go-to thread for what-is-that-weird-tool.

I just watched a movie called The Secret of Roan Inish. It’s set in the west of Ireland in 1947. There’s a montage of two kids fixing up an abandoned cottage. It includes cleaning out the rubble, replacing the roof beams, whitewashing the stonework, the usual stuff. Two things caught my attention.

One was a specialized shovel. It looked like a length of angle iron on a stick. I think it was used digging peat. Go down a bank, one cut after another. Each cut left a loaf maybe 4” X 12”. The loaves were tossed on the grass, presumably to be stacked for drying. (I’ve seen pictures of such peat loaves, stacked like bricks.) In any case, I’ve never seen a shovel like that in my life. Does anyone know about them?

The other oddness:

The kids tied bundles of straw. They used those bundles to thatch the roof. At the end they draped ropes from ridge past the eaves. They tied a rock to each rope. The Irish cottage seemed to be wearing Australian cork hat. The question is, why? Do the ropes and weights keep the thatch in place? I can’t see how. Using ropes horizontally across bundles of thatch makes sense to me. How could ropes parallel to the straw help? Does anybody know more about this?
 
For those that have been aware of Seymour's problems with collar orientation on their No.1 "grass snaths" (really more like heavy bush snaths) their VP engineer is now in possession of a vintage 1980's one with correct orientation as well as a Derby & Ball No.50 with the snath shaved down to dimensions I consider appropriate for all general applications. We'll see where this goes.
 
Raymond1000 said:
One was a specialized shovel. It looked like a length of angle iron on a stick. I think it was used digging peat. Go down a bank, one cut after another. Each cut left a loaf maybe 4” X 12”. The loaves were tossed on the grass, presumably to be stacked for drying. (I’ve seen pictures of such peat loaves, stacked like bricks.) In any case, I’ve never seen a shovel like that in my life. Does anyone know about them?
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I think what you saw was a peat slane - a specialized spade for the cutting and digging of peat.

http://www.pcl-eu.de/virt_ex/detail.php?entry=05
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
For those that have been aware of Seymour's problems with collar orientation on their No.1 "grass snaths" (really more like heavy bush snaths) their VP engineer is now in possession of a vintage 1980's one with correct orientation as well as a Derby & Ball No.50 with the snath shaved down to dimensions I consider appropriate for all general applications. We'll see where this goes.
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Very good of you to actively promote a traditional pastime. Folks of today presume that if a tool isn't gas or electric powered it is going to be very slow, difficult to use and very labour intensive. Heaven forbid, from following this thread entirely out of curiousity, that I ultimately succumb to enjoying a scythe myself. I've toyed with these things over the years (the old farmer that lived behind me during the 1960s used one all the time) but never learned anything about styles, blades, tuning nor sharpening and until this thread was initiated had always figured maintaining scythes was destined to become a black art.
 
Thanks to all 70 pages of this post.! I have the scythe sickness. I dug out my great grandfathers scythe from the back of my shop and i am able to take it apart, clean, adjust, and sharpen it. I just need a reverse brass nut for the upper handle.
 
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