Who else uses a scythe?

EngrSorenson said:
Well… here we go… here comes the rabbit hole… <<starts watching YouTube videos>>
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It gets worse, soon you'll be wondering if every old barn you pass might have a blade in it. Then asking all of your friends if they know anyone with scythe parts they don't want anymore.
 
Wild Willie said:
It gets worse, soon you'll be wondering if every old barn you pass might have a blade in it. Then asking all of your friends if they know anyone with scythe parts they don't want anymore.
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Some of 'em are pretty heavy.
 
My father happened to have just mowed the lawn yesterday and left a downhill patch for me to scythe, so I took a couple of clips mowing freshly-mown lawn-length grass even lower. Will just take a bit to do the editing (editing is always like 5x longer than the filming even for very simple stuff.)
 
Blues said:
Some of 'em are pretty heavy.
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I have a tractor for those rare finds. Although the state of some of the barns around here makes it not worth going in even for really good treasures. I always love when people I'm working for let me go rooting around in an old barn though. Even if there's nothing in it, takes me back to working in a pipeline barn in school.
 
Well, FTB reminds me that sometimes sharp enough isn’t sharp enough. After sharpening the blade again, it’s closer, but I need to put a lot of work in this after who knows what neglect it suffered.

… im kind of impressed the scythe still cut.
 
I think I’m using a 30 inch western grass blade. Might have to get Ben to set one up for me so I can understand what a finely tuned blade feels like.
 
I’m actually kind of wondering if someone took this thing to a grinder, and maybe that’s why I’m having a hard met time than normal (other sharp tools) getting the edge on
 
I picked up one of the drill powered thinning stones from him back in the spring. I finally got around to swiping the drill off the truck and using it a couple of weeks ago. Works well, but I think I need to go thinner. I fear overdoing it, but I have a nicer blade than the one I've been using on standby for when I get it all figured out.
 
EngrSorenson said:
I’m actually kind of wondering if someone took this thing to a grinder, and maybe that’s why I’m having a hard met time than normal (other sharp tools) getting the edge on
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Your blade is a standard Seymour (made under contract by Schroeckenfux of Austria) American grass blade, most likely 30" though they also offer them in 28" (check the number on the tang.) They're a little softer than the norm for American whole-steel blades, but take and hold an edge very well. I don't see obvious signs of it being ground on a bench- or angle grinder so chances are you just don't have the bevel thin enough. You're looking for 7-9° per side, which is easy to approximate as "lay your stone flat on the blade, then tilt it up only a tiny bit." It's not just a matter of having the blade SHARP enough with scythes--they also have to be THIN enough to cut well.
 
Also, your tang angle probably hasn't been adjusted, so you'll want to do that yourself or have it performed either by myself or by someone capable. I've suggested folks seek out independent mechanics to do the job since they often have mini induction heaters like I do, which are ideal for the task, and at a minimum will have an oxy-acetylene torch, which is the next-best thing. Just make sure they put the heat to the shank (the straight part before the 90° turn of the tang) as quickly as possible and keep the heel of the blade cool so the heat doesn't migrate while you let it air-cool. For obvious reasons, don't quench the tang. You want it riding about a finger's thickness off the ground in use. Your actual mowing stance is often lower than you'd think, so just make sure you take a number of strokes/steps to settle into it before checking the lay and assessing how far it needs to drop.

Lastly, I can't tell for certain but it looks like your snath is one of the newer ones with a machine screw retaining the heel plate, and they install those upside down at the factory for some reason. You want the nut on top so the projecting thread of the screw's end doesn't snag grass.
 
I used my Derby and Ball last week to flatten out the strawberry patch. I used straw mulch and I had to mow the straw and the berries. It was a hoot! I looked at a Seymour scythe at a friends place on Friday. I had never seen one of them before and it had a circular fixture around the tang to hold it in place. I bent the tang on my DB a few years ago, and it sure makes a difference. Dog
 
The Old Dog said:
I used my Derby and Ball last week to flatten out the strawberry patch. I used straw mulch and I had to mow the straw and the berries. It was a hoot! I looked at a Seymour scythe at a friends place on Friday. I had never seen one of them before and it had a circular fixture around the tang to hold it in place. I bent the tang on my DB a few years ago, and it sure makes a difference. Dog
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Seymour used to make a clone of the Sta-Tite No.300 snath--the circular fixture looked sort of like a flat-bottomed ribbed ring with a set screw on top, yeah?
 
Those models are intended as bush scythes, as the end of the snath is very strong. Ironically they shouldn't have flattened the end of the ring, as the curve-meeting-a-flat of the original Sta-Tite creates a self-cinching two-point contact that's ultimately more secure despite the smaller contact surface!
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Those models are intended as bush scythes, as the end of the snath is very strong. Ironically they shouldn't have flattened the end of the ring, as the curve-meeting-a-flat of the original Sta-Tite creates a self-cinching two-point contact that's ultimately more secure despite the smaller contact surface!
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How did they make the wooden snaths? Did they start with sawed dimension lumber or what? Thanks, Dog
 
The Old Dog said:
How did they make the wooden snaths? Did they start with sawed dimension lumber or what? Thanks, Dog
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Riven ash staves turned to a taper on a special lathe, that were then steam bent to shape, during which delaminations and surface cracks often appeared, and these were then shaved/sanded off and the snath reworked back to true round and even taper. This last stage was the most labor intensive part of the process and late-period snaths are often oval and uneven in their taper because they skipped this step as a cost saving measure.
 
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