Who else uses a scythe?

[calinb]

The Earle Special ought to be on its way to you in tomorrow's outgoing packages, by the way.

That's great news! Thanks for the update, FortyTwoBlades. I can use it. The weeds are growing fast around here, fueled by spring thunderstorms.

 

[calinb]

My Earle Special arrived today and it took very little time to start weeding with it. I only had to grind the knob corner edges round and also narrow and round the edges of the tang very slightly--just in the spot where the tang taper was a bit too wide to allow the knob to reach the center (farthest) hole. It turns out that for cutting weeds and woody wild rose bushes, I prefer the closer knob hole position that results in the most closed hafting angle.

I didn't order FortyTwoBlades' optional fitting and tuning services and I think I'll leave the Earle Special's tang lift as it arrived for now. Though I bent my Seymour grass blade tang to about 10 degrees, the slightly higher lay of the Earle Special seems about right for me as a weed blade. The Earle Special edge grind only needed quick top and bottom touch-up passes on my Grizzly wet wheel, followed by honing with my new Bull Thistle and Arctic Fox stones. It was far less work than thinning the edge down on my current model Seymour grass blade, but I didn't desire such a thin edge for the Earle Special weed blade either.

Despite its "weed" label, the Earle Special can cut lawn grass like crazy! I'm not sure why it's so effective but I suspect it's the extra weight supplying significantly greater downward loading on the 6" shorter blade. It requires less effort to mow a lawn than my Seymour grass blade requires, even though the grass blade is lighter. I don't have to wear-out my arms to supply effective downward pressure on the Earle Special. Or perhaps these old U.S. production American pattern blades are simply superior to the new Seymour Austrian blades, as FortyTwoBlades has told us. I don't have a current production Seymour weed blade so I can't compare apples to apples.

However, I didn't buy the Earle Special for mowing lawn grass. I got it for weeds and it's easily the superior blade for that purpose too. I'm very happy with it but, sadly, I appear to have purchased the last of them from FortyTwoBlades, because it's no longer listed on the Baryonyx website.

I"m really impressed with the Earle Special. Hmm...now where can I find a long Little Giant grass (or even grain) blade for mowing our 8 acre pasture? That old NWT catalog really contains the stuff to dream-of!

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Yours was the second-to-last. Someone else got the last one. I doubt you'd want a grain cradle blade for pasture mowing--they take such a huge bite that they're really best used for lawn maintenance when used outside their original intended context. Grass blades tended to sort of max out around ~36" and were a lot narrower when done in those lengths, for the most part. I do have some vintage cradle blades and extra-long grass blades on-hand, they just aren't listed.

The modern Austrian-made blades work okay, but do leave something to be desired in the form department, and their curvature could use a little alteration to put it in an ideal range.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

A blade that a customer sent in for me to do work on. 28" long and only 1lb 3.8oz, which is pretty light for an American blade this size. New England pattern with a nicely proportioned overall build despite its obvious wear. The blade is obviously laminated due to how easy it was to correct the twists and bends in it, as well as there being a few "blisters" on the backside where the layers aren't quite fully fused. Out of curiosity, I decided to try setting the tang angle *cold*, since it responded so well to correctional work. I managed to set the tang for the 6' 3" user without needing to bust out my induction heater. The thick-tanged weed blade he also sent, by contrast, needed a couple of heats to get it bent to an equal angle.

 

[calinb]

Yours was the second-to-last. Someone else got the last one. I doubt you'd want a grain cradle blade for pasture mowing--they take such a huge bite that they're really best used for lawn maintenance when used outside their original intended context. Grass blades tended to sort of max out around ~36" and were a lot narrower when done in those lengths, for the most part. I do have some vintage cradle blades and extra-long grass blades on-hand, they just aren't listed.

The modern Austrian-made blades work okay, but do leave something to be desired in the form department, and their curvature could use a little alteration to put it in an ideal range.

Thanks, FortyTwoBlades. If mowing and stacking grass hay for a few goats and a couple of horses works out, we might plant some alfalfa and possibly grain. I've been thinking down the road a bit. I'll let you know if things go well enough to consider your longer and more specialized blades. The Yankee Grass Blade in the NWT catalog you linked did look pretty narrow. It said it was available in lengths up to 32-36 and 34-38. What did those dash numbers or ranges mean? Were they referring to carton assortment ranges of the even inch lengths provided in each carton (32/34/36 and 34/36/38 for the above two dash numbers)? Then there was the wide at heel Dutch Grass blade and the True Taper, which tapered throughout its length. It was truly amazing how many design variations NWT produced and then add in all the curvature, set, and heel options. The number of combinations boggles the mind!

 

[calinb]

A blade that a customer sent in for me to do work on. 28" long and only 1lb 3.8oz, which is pretty light for an American blade this size. New England pattern with a nicely proportioned overall build despite its obvious wear.

That's a nice looking blade and nice looking work that you've done too, FortyTwoBlades!

The thick-tanged weed blade he also sent, by contrast, needed a couple of heats to get it bent to an equal angle.

My Earle Special weed blade tang looks pretty thick too. Is that a typical feature of American pattern weed blades?

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

From what I can tell, due to the hand-forged (open-die) nature of the blades and the human error in cutting the stock from which the blades themselves were forged, there was variation in the actual length of the blades, and the length ranges denote the approximate lengths you could choose from. That is to say, you would get an assortment of lengths within that range in the carton.

As far as variety goes, NWT wasn't the only company that put out a tremendous range of blade variants! Emerson & Stevens, David Wadsworth & Son, and Rixford all produced quite the array of different patterns and lengths, among other manufacturers.

The Earle Special weed blade is a bit heavier in overall build than many weed blades, but it is typical for weed blades and bush blades to have tangs that are both thicker and broader than found on grass blades from the same manufacturer. Personally I think this would not be necessary in whole steel blades and was probably standardized as a practice due to the overall softer nature of laminated blades and overzealous users. In general I think that grass blades, if shortened, could handle anything a scythe is truly appropriate for, providing the web at the heel was broad enough. Once stuff gets thick enough to necessitate some of the heaviest bush blades I've seen (really absurdly thick and heavy) then you'd be better off with a bush hook. The motion of a scythe just doesn't work well for volume removal of anything that can't be taken in a single stroke. Occasional 2-stroke targets? Fine. But by the time you reach volume removal of heavy scrub growth you probably don't need the other functions a scythe provides and really just need a heavy hooked blade that can truly chop and hack at the growth, and the axe-eyed and -handled arrangement becomes better at that point.

 

[calinb]

From what I can tell, due to the hand-forged (open-die) nature of the blades and the human error in cutting the stock from which the blades themselves were forged, there was variation in the actual length of the blades, and the length ranges denote the approximate lengths you could choose from. That is to say, you would get an assortment of lengths within that range in the carton.<snip>

Ahh--I had not thought of that. Makes sense. Thanks for all the other information too. Thanks for posting it. It's great stuff!

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

From a 1910 American Fork & Hoe catalog in the International Tool Catalog Library on Archive.org:

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

In other news, the folks at Arti have completed rollers for producing the blanks for my Hurricane blades. They'll be testing them next week.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

I had a big bunch of blades to grind and ship out today, and took the opportunity to snap a few photos of how to safely carry blades such that if you trip or fall that you won't slice yourself to ribbons on them. This applies whether carrying just one blade off the snath or several at once. The blades (if multiple) are stacked together with the bottom of one rib sitting in the top of the next. The hand grasps these firmly from the spine side, and the spine at the heel end rests over the interior of the elbow. This faces the edges outward and away from the body such that they would fall away from you if dropped, and so be least likely to seriously injure yourself. If the stack is too wobbly to safely carry securely one-handed, they may be grasped by the spine with one hand near the toe and the other at the heel, but the edges should be kept facing outward and without obstruction from your arms so that if they were to fall, they could fall freely without hitting you in the process.

Needless to say, bare blades should always be transported with the utmost caution, and should be covered and/or stored out of harm's way at the soonest opportunity.

 

[ithinkverydeeply]

I had a big bunch of blades to grind and ship out today, and took the opportunity to snap a few photos of how to safely carry blades such that if you trip or fall that you won't slice yourself to ribbons on them. This applies whether carrying just one blade off the snath or several at once. The blades (if multiple) are stacked together with the bottom of one rib sitting in the top of the next. The hand grasps these firmly from the spine side, and the spine at the heel end rests over the interior of the elbow. This faces the edges outward and away from the body such that they would fall away from you if dropped, and so be least likely to seriously injure yourself. If the stack is too wobbly to safely carry securely one-handed, they may be grasped by the spine with one hand near the toe and the other at the heel, but the edges should be kept facing outward and without obstruction from your arms so that if they were to fall, they could fall freely without hitting you in the process.

Needless to say, bare blades should always be transported with the utmost caution, and should be covered and/or stored out of harm's way at the soonest opportunity.

How long is that biggest one?

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

How long is that biggest one?

28".

 

[ithinkverydeeply]

28".

Cool! That thing is massive!

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Cool! That thing is massive!

Actually, it's on the short side of normal for a grass blade, and it's pretty narrow and light. 30" is the "plain vanilla" blade length.

 

[calinb]

In the case of the hook-nosed blades you end up with a proportionally small amount of slicing action and a lot of chopping action, while I prefer a heavy emphasis on the slice along the most distal 2/3 of the blade and the chopping clinch delivered only at the most proximal 1/3 at the heel. If you then want it more choppy you just hang it more open, but in general I find that placing heavy emphasis on the slice gives greatest overall satisfaction.

I think your post explains why the old (new old stock) NWT Earle Special weed blade that I snagged from you is easily my favorite blade for mowing our fescue-rich lawn, despite its somewhat short length for lawn and grass use. (I expected it to excel at weeding, which it does too.) I also find that the hefty Earle Special eases my mowing effort, because it requires my arms to add little to no down force to the snath to achieve good cutting action; the weight / edge pressure / loading of the blade on the ground alone is usually sufficient. I grow tired of pushing down with each cutting stroke on all my other blades and I think the weight of the Earle Special helps to keep the blade from bouncing when encountering slightly uneven ground too.

When mowing a large area, I don't lift the blade entirely off the ground during the return stroke so I simply don't find blade weight to be much of a detractor when mowing. Sure, when trimming or slicing little clumps of grass here and there, my 298 g fly-weight 40cm Arti blade is an effective and pleasant alternative to a weed whacker but, pending further experimentation with other blades and snaths, my Earle Special is my go-to blade!

I've logged quite a bit of time with my 40cm and 67cm Arti Russian blades and also my modern production 30" Seymour grass blade and I think I have them all pretty well dialed-in. I have not yet setup my 100cm Arti blade, because I think I'll make an offset snath to better balance its length and weight first, but it has a hook-nose too, so it may not be my cup of tea for mowing a lawn either.

If I could stretch the Earle Special weed blade out to 30+ inches or so, I think it would be just about perfect for the fescue, despite it then becoming an even heavier blade. (Would stretching it make it into a NWT Dutch Grass model?) I agree with you about weight. It can be a mower's friend and I don't understand the European pattern scythe aficionados' general disdain for heavy blades!

On another lawn mowing note: While I find a weed whacker's 2-stroke engine's sound, mechanical buzz and weight to be quite offensive and worth abandoning, I'm sure I will continue to use our 4-stroke powered push mower on our 1+ acres of lawn from time to time. To that end, your grinding point sharpening stone is the best tool I've found for maintaining the edges on the curvy and twisty newfangled lawn mower "mulching" blades. I used the grinding point to touch up a leftover thick spot on the heel end of my Seymour blade too, when it wasn't worth the effort of "watering" my wet grinder. Thanks!

 

[calinb]

There is one more difference between my Earle Special and all my other blades. The Earle Special appears to be a half-set blade whereas all the others (including the modern Seymour) appear to me to be quarter-set or perhaps they could be considered "zero-set" even! I doubt it's the difference that's making the difference for me but I thought I'd just throw it out there for your feedback, FortyTwoBlades.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

There is one more difference between my Earle Special and all my other blades. The Earle Special appears to be a half-set blade whereas all the others (including the modern Seymour) appear to me to be quarter-set or perhaps they could be considered "zero-set" even! I doubt it's the difference that's making the difference for me but I thought I'd just throw it out there for your feedback, FortyTwoBlades.

Seymours are 1/4 set. Most blades historically have been half set, with full set being next most common. The Seymours' use of such a shallow set is one of my complaints with them, stylistically.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

A fun experiment that seems to be working nicely. The coupling hardware is heavier than it needs to be because I accidentally made the arch about twice as tall as needed.

 

[calinb]

Very nice! Have you ever tried bag steaming wood, FortyTwoBlades? Even for something only the size of a snath, I'd like to try it sometime:

I just discovered Shipwright's channel. I very much enjoyed the videos I watched there. I hope he returns to make more videos, but his fans are worried about his sudden disappearance (and he's not exactly a spring chicken either so there's good reason to worry).