Who else uses a scythe?

Different kinds of scratch patterns work better for different kinds of growth, for sure. I have a wide range of grits and hardnesses of stones vary what combo I'm using in the field based on the kind of vegetation and time of day I'm mowing.
 
Just had a very unusual blade land today, and I hope to post photos when it's dry enough outside to snap some good ones. It's an unusually short (42" end to end) grain scythe of exceptionally elegant form and a large, pronounced bead. The blade is something like 1/2" wider than usual and the web is only 1.16mm thick behind the bevels, which is very thin for an American blade. There's a partial label reading "Ha*vest Vi*[...]" (asterisks and ellipsis indicating missing sections) that likely originally read "Harvest Victor" and there's a somewhat poor tang stamp present that an 1890 publication attributes to David Wadsworth & Son, but what I can make out of the stamp doesn't resemble marks by them that I've seen. Because of the partial label and original black paint I'll not be cleaning up the full blade on this one, but will try to reveal the tang stamp in greater clarity.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
..originally read "Harvest Victor"...
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The "Harvest Victor" label for "mowing, reaping and harvesting tools" is mentioned in this book from 1885. The footnote attributes it to Samuel B. Forbes, No. 843" which might be a product number.

books

books


The brands "Red Racer", "Tip Top", "Queen of the Meadow", "Star of the West", "King of the Field", and "Western Dutchman" are attributed to the Greenwoods Scythe Company.

from A Treatise on the Law of Trade-marks and Analogous Subjects,
by William Henry Browne
Little, Brown, 1885 , p. 283

There was a Samuel B. Forbes from Winchester Connecticut who obtained a patent in 1879,
http://www.google.com/patents/US211232
but I haven't (yet) found any other info about scythes from Forbes.
 
Steve Tall said:
Dug a little deeper and hit treasure:


books



Harvest Victor. - 843. June 4, 1872. Scythes. Beardsley Scythe Co, West Winsted, Conn.


from
Digest of Trade Marks for Machines, Metals, Jewelry, and the Hardware and Allied Trades
by Wallace A. Bartlett
Gibson Bros., 1893, p.
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Will upload photos shortly. The tang style does look like that on my other Beardsley cradle blades, and is of similar high quality build. About the only clearly discernable part of the stamp is a "co" at the end of the first line, but the typeface looks appropriate for a Beardsley as well. Doesn't rule out other makers, but it does match nicely with what other blades of theirs I've seen.
 
I keep trying to look at it under different lighting conditions to work out the letters more clearly, but it does look as though there was some form of mis-stamp to it in addition to the rust obscuring it. I'll have to dig out one of my Beardsleys with a clean stamp to compare. Every time I look at the letters and think they look right...I look at the spacing and the fainter lines and then it looks like the letters aren't right...and then I look a little longer and they look right again. It's currently a tossup on that front. :p But the particular way that the knob of the tang was formed in some sort of die to give it such a crisp and tapered shape is a feature that matches the Beardsleys I have. It's very distinctive compared to the typical "form the taper of the tang, then upturn the end" method of making the knob.
 
I'm pretty sure the blade was never used, so while not in pristine shape, it classifies as new old stock--just new old rusty stock. :D

The extreme width of this blade throws the sense of proportion off in images, but I do mean thin. I have a number of grass blades that are nearly this thin (one or two might even be a few hundredths of a mm thinner) but in addition to the slight build of the web it remains pretty thin through the bead, rib, and chine. I wouldn't call it a light blade, but it takes its weight more from its width rather than thickness.
 
thunderstick said:
My co-worker tried mowing his lawn with a scythe and gave up in frustration because he couldn't get the scythe to cut the grass consistently. I told him to sharpen with a file instead of a stone. He just shook his head and said if a stone edge won't do it a filed edge won't either. He gave me the scythe. I filed an edge on it and it cut wonderfully. Sometimes a mini-serrated edge of from a fine file is better for grabbing the lawn grass and cutting it than a polished edge in my experience. A stoned edge will slide over some grasses that a filed edge will grab and cut. I stoned edge may be better for for staying sharp longer for weeds and brush, but my experience in mowing lawn says to file the edge.
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I had a different experience using a scythe on my lawn. The coarse edge (left by a 120 grit stone) was missing fine bladed short grass, so I sharpened it with a diamond stone that was about 600-800 grit. This still leaves a toothy edge, but the teeth are much smaller. This seemed to catch the grass better for me. I believe the edge of this scythe is hardened to over 60 Rockwell, and a file won't bite it effectively.
 
A lot of it depends on the specific growth, the time of day at which you're mowing, etc. in addition to how the blade responds to the stone.
 
Sharp is sharp, I think. A file may leave a smoother finish than a stone, depending on how it's used. The traditional US scythe sharpening technique does probably leave undulations, though. Fine low grass is one of the more demanding targets -- sharp is not enough, really sharp just might be :). It does help to have some dew in that case, though I've found our dews here so heavy that it is a waste of time to mow hay until mid morning. It is usually ready to mow again a couple hours before dark. 12-6PM are not good times, as things are dried out.
 
Scratch pattern does have a significant impact on cutting ability in slicing vs. pushing cuts and it can be easily demonstrated on test mediums. The finer your scratch pattern the better it'll push cut, the coarser it is the more aggressively it'll slice. Some kinds of grass I have here on the homestead are a very hair-like hard, waxy, thin grass that likes to slip off of a polished edge while a coarser toothy edge will catch it. However, in soft, lush vegetation a finer edge allows for a more open hang due to how it cuts easily on a push.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Scratch pattern does have a significant impact on cutting ability in slicing vs. pushing cuts and it can be easily demonstrated on test mediums. The finer your scratch pattern the better it'll push cut, the coarser it is the more aggressively it'll slice. Some kinds of grass I have here on the homestead are a very hair-like hard, waxy, thin grass that likes to slip off of a polished edge while a coarser toothy edge will catch it. However, in soft, lush vegetation a finer edge allows for a more open hang due to how it cuts easily on a push.
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I wasn't arguing that so much as the supposed roughness difference between a file and a stone. If the file worked better if is because!it got the blade sharper, not because it left a rougher pattern necessarily! I do like using my ~220 (Norton) stone better than the 380 (lansky) and that may be due to scratch pattern, though I really think its the speed of whetting that drives my preference. I'm still looking for a 120 or so scythe stone!

There's some grass that just doesn't want to be cut! Out of the 2-4 acres I cut every year, one spot has me sweating and frustrated every year and season... Luckily it is a small piece!
 
If you're still looking for a super coarse stone I have some that aren't up on the site. Angelo keeps sending me different stones for the same item number. A batch that I had expected to be the fine Electrite Carborundum stones actually turned out to be extra coarse stones from the same manufacturer.
 
In the experience I that was referencing ... I didn't really experiment with a number of different stone grits for different scratch patterns. My friend was using a typical sharpening stone and I switched to a fine file and the results were markedly different. I think the mini-serrations from a file tend to grab the grass in a slice. In my experience with different grasses I have the best luck with a file ... or perhaps I should say good enough results so that I never bothered to experiment further.

When using a sickle or corn knife on a variety of vegetation I prefer a polished edge as it will last longer and is less prone to chipping.
 
I'm inclined to agree with BG_Farmer that in your particular case the jump in performance you saw was most likely the result of simply bringing the edge thinner and sharper than it had been prior. If you were to then use a stone on the blade after the file with proper technique (setting the scratch pattern facing heel to toe with a rolling stroke to keep the angle of approach consistent and eliminating any burr or wire edge) then you'd probably see an even further boost in effectiveness. :)
 
42,
Definitely interested in extra coarse stone! I'll give you a holler.

Thunderstick,
I've got several normal scythe stones. The ones intended for peened European blades are very hard and fine, but almost useless on an American style blades. If the file is working, stick with it, but I believe 42 is right--the right stone might either make the scythe more effective or allow you to spend less time honing in the field. Depending on grass type, I stop frequently, having found that sharp blade is biggest timesaver. Much like Abe Lincoln and the axe :)...
 
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