Who else uses a scythe?

Dunno what you mean by "offset tang". But typically a tang needs to be heated & bent upward to suit the snath & users height. Grassblades need to ride pretty much flat & parallel to the ground.

Brushblades usually dont ride flat as cutting brush is more an upward scooping motion to cut stalks at diagonal rather than straight across like grass cutting.
 
phantomknives said:
I just put a brush blade on a snath i had around, i think the snath was made for a chimp, seriously, it has barely any angle but the nibs are set to a little bit larger than my cubit, i have to bend over to use it and im already short. i know they were shorter back in the day but they werent 4'9". do grass blades have offset tangs or something?
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Standard end-to-end linear length of American snaths is 58-60". How long is yours? As Lieblad noted, it's expected for the user to heat and bend the tang for their height, and grass blades should (as a rule of thumb) ride about a finger's thickness off the ground in use, but bush blades are used for a more upward slanted stroke so if any angle is introduced to the tang it's usually much less of one.

Because most of the required tilt for the lay of the blade is provided by the bend of the snath's neck, American blades are provided with flat tangs because you can still cut stuff with a blade that rides too high but can't cut at all with one that's too low because it'll be plunging into the dirt. Nordic blades, to my understanding, also traditionally come flat despite most of their regional snath varieties not having a bent neck, as did English ones (although I have one new old stock blade that appears to have been rather expertly cranked despite the blade having the factory grind and finish on it.)
 
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OOOoohhh that makes more sense now, well i did have a grass blade, but my parents wanted me to do a little yardwork, i leaned it against the mail box because i was going on a break and just as i was about to go outside my dad came in and said my blade was broken. i got a look at it and it's cracked in half and theres a huge nick out of it... turns out he thought it was just as sturdy as a brush blade and tried axe-swinging at a bush.
 
Shouldn't be axe-swinging a bush blade, either. Still a slicing cut. If he wants to use that sort of swing then he should be using a bush hook. :eek:
 
yeah, i just do a semi-strong sweepng cut, i guess i shoulda told him the difference, i just explained it to someone about half an hour ago that it was like whittling with a strait razor, you just dont do it.
 
Haha!
Those europeans have alot of time on their hands...

Seriously, I wonder how much striking energy that spring tool can impart.
Seems more energy is needed. Of course my style of peening covers much more surface per strike and displaces a visible 2-3 'thou or so material.
 
I think using it effectively with the manual crank would be a two person operation so the motor probably does make it more useful, but yeah I'd think it'd be much easier to just do it the old fashioned way by hand. I like to use a slight slant to the blade relative to the crowned surface of the anvil so it sets the hollow nice and deep.
 
Lieblad said:
I will be interested to learn what your results are. I think those ScytheSupply snaths are a bit lightduty for a Seymour blade.
Maybe its just me. I have about the most dense grass ever. When its wet, Needs strong effort toward the end of a stroke. Thus I really have to heave into it or close hang alot & take very small bites.
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It's working well so far and I prefer it to the bent aluminum handle. I'm finishing it now and will probably pin the handles with roll pins.
 
A couple of recent additions to the personal collection.

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Nice. I think you will like those.
Btw,
You never told us you were visiting Norway!!

I been thinking of buying one & rig up an overarm to go with it.
 
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I got both blades on the 'bay, with the Hamre one coming from a Norwegian seller, but the Øyo one was in the USA. :)
 
How long are those two Norwegian blades? Some time back I (with help!) posted a link to a Norwegian using a short scythe on a hillside. Is a scythe like that one available in the USA? I ask as I am using a serrated blade on what looks like a golf handle to do the edge of my lawn, and would like something sharper, but a full sized scythe would not work. I have a Stilh weed wacker, but do not like to use it, noisy and figure the exercise with the human powdered device is more beneficial, certainly to me. John
 
You mean like this?



These are short-ish but definitely full scythe blades. Arti of Russia makes some short-bladed weed cutters, too. A little too heavy and with the removable blades to be considered as "long handled grass hooks" but too small and light in build to be called full scythes either.
 
Click on the image and it'll take ya' right to the item page. Arti's offerings in a similar style are here and here.
 
Just had this 1948 catalog land a couple of days ago and just got it scanned in today. Just some sample pages shown here, but the full PDF can be found HERE.

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Looks like the same blades as the new old stock ones I've got, labels and everything. The date makes sense with what I've estimated as well.
 
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