Topic: Who uses scythes?

[artichoke]

I am fed up with struggling with a succession of petrol strimmers. I can't afford the expensive reliable ones. And it is not an enjoyable job, stumbling round with a noisy vibrating machine, if I manage to start it.

I am thinking about getting a scythe. I imagine the gentle swish of falling grass, and the fact that there is nothing to go wrong. Looking at http://www.thescytheshop.co.uk/price%20list.html they don't seem to be as fabulously expensive as strimmers, either.

I am worried about sharpening it properly, though.....

Does anyone here have experience and advice?

[Aden Roller]

Years ago my father regularly cut his allotment paths with a scythe. A handmower couldn't tackle it and petrol mowers were for the rich.

He had a long stick shaped sharpening stone - you can still get them. He also used a long stick with a shorter side shoot to help hold the grass while he swiped.

My advice would be to wear a stout pair of boots to avoid missing and getting your ankles. 

[artichoke]

Interesting, thanks! And an allotment neighbour uses a sickle to edge his plot, so I will talk to him.

[small]

We have both a scythe and a sickle, I'm a bit small to use the scythe effectively but I use the sickle a great deal (we have an awful lot of rough edges). The key is indeed to keep it really sharp, I have a bit of a sharpening stone wedged into a piece of plastic pipe as a handle, I sharpen every few minutes when working. It's a bit of a knack using either implement, and it's only sense to wear protective clothing - though unlike a strimmer, you don't need goggles or ear protectors...

[Aden Roller]

We have both a scythe and a sickle, I'm a bit small to use the scythe effectively but I use the sickle a great deal (we have an awful lot of rough edges). The key is indeed to keep it really sharp, I have a bit of a sharpening stone wedged into a piece of plastic pipe as a handle, I sharpen every few minutes when working. It's a bit of a knack using either implement, and it's only sense to wear protective clothing - though unlike a strimmer, you don't need goggles or ear protectors...

Showing my ignorance!

If a sickle is the small, single hand held tool that's the one my father used. It's still in the shed somewhere. ;)

[artichoke]

I have an old sickle too, which I have found impossible to sharpen enough.

I have now been reading about "peening". Apparently all these blades reach a point where they have been sharpened into the thicker part of the blade where sharpening with a stone becomes more and more ineffective. So the thick part has to be hammered down to become thin again.

Have you done this? As a complete novice I do see the logic in this, and everyone who sells sickles and scythes sells you a peening kit as well.

[captainhastings]

I was shown by an old chap years ago how to use a scythe and he made it look so easy and was able to cut really short grass no problem. Definite  knack to sharpening it though

[goodlife]

Yes..I have sickle and scythe, although don't get to use them that much anymore. But, they are much more efficient, faster and cleaner to use than strimmers.
They are not difficult to use, much cheaper and quieter than strimmers too.
There is many different blade options for scythes available and appropriate one for the type of vegetation you are going to cut is hugely important.
Peening and the more regular use of stone is not that complicated neither..there is good videos available about it in Youtube.
There is different shaft options and adjustable height handles for different body sizes too so even shorties can get right size too for themselves
Sickle is good around fruit trees..when you don't want to ring the bark off with strimmer and scythe can be clumsy for more 'targeted areas'.
The main thing is that if your blade is in good condition and sharp...you are able to cut grass even if your cutting technique is not quite perfected yet..but with blunt blade even the best cutter can't do the intended job!
I would practice the cutting in more 'open' situation first so that you get the feel of the job..once you are able to get cut well and get the grass 'fall' in orderly manner you have mastered the basics and be able to take on more define areas. Scything is not difficult, there is just 'a knack' to it to get it right and once you 'get it' there is no stopping you other than having few breaks for sharpening the blade up.

[artichoke]

Thanks, goodlife. Why don't you use your sickle and scythe much now? Maybe all your ground is crammed with veg and fruit, with nothing left to cut down....

Have you ever done any peening yourself?

I am looking up courses where they fit the scythe to your height and build, show you how to sharpen and peen, and you then buy the scythe and its extras. They are expensive, but so are strimmers and the supposed complete refurbishment I had done last autumn, after which I used it perhaps 5 times before it gave up the ghost again.

And I have a feeling I would rather learn to peen than to fit the strings to the double head of a strimmer.....

My allotments are in a large overgrown meadow with neighbours who have given up - I urgently need to be able to attack encroaching tall grasses and nettles to keep a wide grassy path between me and the abandoned plots and the rest of the meadow. It looks as if a scythe would be ideal for this.

I have found these replies encouraging, especially the remarks about being quieter and more efficient. I have watched west country competitions between a strimmer and a skillful scythe user, and love the way the scythe keeps winning (not always) in various different situations:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx_PDiEjW_E

[goodlife]

Thanks, goodlife. Why don't you use your sickle and scythe much now?

My allotment is divided into smaller beds now and all the 'non-veg-growing' spaces between fruit trees have started shrink as the trees are getting bigger. I do 'flick' the scythe over the green manured beds before the manure is dug in...it does the cutting down job in seconds And other job I use the scythe for is when our mower cannot get close enough hedge bottoms to tidy the under growth down, the scythe blade will easily slide underneath the hedge and stop things growing through...though even that job is reduced now that we've had to stock fence the hedges to try keep our dog in (escape artist).
In work we have small reed beds near machine washing area (reeds deal with chemical residues) and that I sometimes cut down with scythe when 'boss' need the reeds in full rather than chopped up into mush that strimmer tends to do.
I've got some amount peening experience, but as my old scythe had 'funny' wafer thing blades, those didn't require peening..stone or occasional metal filing was only required. Couple of years ago I bought new scythe..modern one with new blades, I've had to teach myself to peen..still trying to master it but so far I'm doing acceptable effort that serve me well. As I'm not regular scyther I haven't had too much use for peening neither. I DID get myself new peening anvil and hammer for the job few weeks ago though! One of the new blades is still untouched from when I bought it so I'm going to have good practice session soon

Going for course is very good idea! Admittedly I already had little scything experience before I got one for myself so 'self-education' further with the craft haven't been as daunting if one would start from scratch. I've had pleasure to watch and see my granddad to tend to his scythe and see scythe in action with life time experience behind..it does all the difference. Grandad did sharpen the blade for me and he let me loose on the field when I was still only a 'nipper' Now field scything...that is different 'ball game' altogether.. such a fun letting scythe 'loose' rather than trying to cut the greenery in small spaces where you cannot 'swing' the scythe properly...spoils the fun.

[artichoke]

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to reply in such detail; I have found reading it very interesting, and can't wait to have a go. Job number one is to find a rusty old sickle I know I have hanging around somewhere and see, if I persevere, if I can sharpen it enough to do some of the tidying up you describe. I shall also haunt our local market where a man with old gardening tools is often to be found, and see what he has.

[planetearth]

I vaguely remember being told the name of the sharpening stone for a scythe, but might have had my leg pulled. 

There are probably a few regional names, but none quite so rude as the one from Lancashire, or was it Bedfordshire?

[pumkinlover]

I vaguely remember being told the name of the sharpening stone for a scythe, but might have had my leg pulled. 

There are probably a few regional names, but none quite so rude as the one from Lancashire, or was it Bedfordshire?

So what is it called?!
 (or will the censor not let you write it down!)

[ancellsfarmer]

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to reply in such detail; I have found reading it very interesting, and can't wait to have a go. Job number one is to find a rusty old sickle I know I have hanging around somewhere and see, if I persevere, if I can sharpen it enough to do some of the tidying up you describe. I shall also haunt our local market where a man with old gardening tools is often to be found, and see what he has.

You might find this of interest.
http://www.thescytheshop.co.uk/

[artichoke]

Yes, thanks for that - I am now in the lucky position of being booked onto a two day scything course very soon in Brighton with Simon Fairlie of The Scythe Shop, and he is bringing me a beginner's kit. There is a massive discount for pensioners and only four in the group so far, so it should be pretty intensive.

Coincidentally my daughter and her husband in northern Germany (visiting here mid-August) have been looking into scythes for their meadow recently, and I am under strict instruction to take detailed notes on the course. And they are going to give me a cow's horn stone sheath for my birthday!

So I am really looking forward into entering this new world.

[ACE]

When I started on the council nearly 40 years ago, an old chap used a scythe on about 4 acres of meadowland. I watched him cut and lay the hay in lines and asked for a go. He would not let me use his scythe but set me up with an old one out of the shed. He would do about 3 lines to my one without raising a sweat. Mine was lumpy and the grass spread everywhere. I was bashing away and aching like mad all over but he just took a steady pace with a zinging noise every 5 minutes as he ran the whetstone over the blade. He did teach me all the secrets in the end .  His main job was a banksman and he used to cut roadside verges with a riphook in all weathers,  cycling ten miles to and from work. He could have retired at 60 but waited until he was 65  and the poor old boy died about a week after he retired.

[artichoke]

My goodness, I remember the roadside man in the 50s in Fife (Scotland) along our village lane. Can't remember what he used, must have been a "riphook" (not sure what that is) or a sickle, but I used to run to meet him and beg him to spare the small wild strawberry patch, which he always did. I would have been about 7 and I thought he was in 70s but was probably wrong.

He would come along the lane about twice a year. In those days I knew every single plant along the ditches and dykes, and had a secret mushroom area (chanterelles or Pfifferling, much prized by our family) until Japanese laid out a golf course over the whole area and killed them all.

[artichoke]

Sorry to keep adding to a thread I started, but just wanted to report that I have come back from a 2 day course with Simon Fairlie and it turned out better than I dared hope. I now know I can scythe, I know I can hone and peen, and I have everything I need here to carry on with.

When we started practising, after some training, I chose to try to carve out a wide path alongside an unkempt hedge where the weeds were up to head height, tough August weeds at that, and very much the sort of problem my allotments have.

It seemed like a miracle when after not very much time, the path was wide and flat and neat, with a long heap of weeds lying next to it waiting to be composted (too rough for hay). The contrast between the flat path and the towering weeds further up the orchard was really gratifying, and it wasn't even very tiring. Simon is an excellent teacher, and his "cautious beginner's kit" costs £130, which compares very well with a strimmer, and includes all necessary peening and sharpening equipment, which we were trained to use (and it is not difficult with his special foolproof peening jig as opposed to a proper anvil!)

To anyone thinking of investing in a strimmer, with all its noise and vibration and inclination to break down and expense - do seriously consider a scythe. If I can learn to use it in a couple of days, anyone can. Even when my strimmer was working properly, I was always aware of the lines running out, the petrol running out, the tall grass getting wound round the head and choking it, the stress of trying to restart it, the exhaustion of simply carrying it, and the hideous noise it makes.

The peacefulness of gently swishing through the weeds and casting them aside, listening to birds; of knowing that nothing could go wrong, apart from the need to hone for a minute or two every 10 or 15 minutes; the more than satisfactory result compared to a strimmer - all this is so satisfying that I am sorry I did not go for it years ago. The cut weeds are easier to rake up than the mush that a strimmer produces, and I plan to do a lot more mulching.

My husband, who used a large heavy, solid English scythe in the 50s, is impressed by the lightness and good design of the sprung Austrian blade and the adjustable handles.

I chose a short blade (55cm) because of the allotment jobs I need it to do, but the meadow mowers use longer blades. All eight of us on the course, including at least five novices like me, learned to scythe effectively, and to hone and peen. The others were adding to skills they already had.

We even made a hayrick out of our scythings....some of these older skills are so well worth learning.

[daveylamp993]

Artichoke,that sounds so rewarding,where was the course held ? I hope there are courses of that type in South Yorkshire,If there is I will book to go on one,if you have any contact details for the course you was on could you please send me them in a private message.

[GrannieAnnie]

While writing my book about the 1800's I came across the tool STRICKLE for the first time. The dictionary said: strick·le  (strkl)
n.
1. An instrument used to level off grain or other material in a measure.
2. A foundry tool used to shape a mold in sand or loam.
3. A tool for sharpening scythes.