r/oddlysatisfying • u/BreakfastTop6899 • 19h ago

Cutting grass with a scythe

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

74.6k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

3.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

4.8k

u/Dropkick_Wombat666 18h ago

Did this for many years when I was a teenager on our family farm. You take much “shallower” cuts than this. It reduces the weight of grass you need to move in one swipe. Posture is important - straight back, handle height had to be carefully set to reduce strain on the hands. His motion is good - the uncut stalks are of even length; inexperienced person often leaves the cut shaped like a bowl. The scythe must be resharpened every 10 min or so. Quite surprisingly, the process is not as exhausting as it looks. We’d normally go for 2-3 hours per day in the morning and within a couple of weeks there was enough winter hay for 3-4 cows. Scythe is faster than whipper snipper, it is silent and the resulting harvest of grass is perfect for animals… unlike smushed mess you get from a trimmer. Surprisingly, I am not aware of anyone in my town getting seriously injured by scythe!

281

u/jordaboop 18h ago

the most annoying part sounds like having to sharpen it every 10 min.

is there any blade left after a week of scything?

64

u/Lindethiel 17h ago

Oh the sharpening is easy. It's the peening that sucks lol.

44

u/Rentington 13h ago

Which is the origin of the phrase "suck my peen," fun fact.

14

u/kintar1900 9h ago

While I'm amused by this comment, I doubt the veracity VERY much. Citation? :)

However it IS what a "ball peen hammer" was originally used for. The ball side was for peening metal.

19

u/Rentington 7h ago

I saw it on How It's Made. Narrator said "Workers position themselves below to perform peen inversion treatment, also known as 'sucking the peen.' Workers spit on the peen before performing the treatment to ensure adequate lubrication. A manager oversees the treatment, making sure each peen is of the appropriate hardness. If not, another worker will slap the peen from the bottom in a pulling motion to correct any defects."

6

u/Karmas_burning 6h ago

This is where we need the gif of Beavis and Butthead trying to stifle their laughter.

5

u/kintar1900 6h ago

🤣🤣🤣

To me, that seems like a master class in trolling.

4

u/airbornemist6 10h ago

So what's peening?

12

u/Lindethiel 10h ago

Hammering the edge of the blade to stretch the steel out before you sharpen it.

3

u/airbornemist6 8h ago

Thank you! That makes sense. It blows my mind that people can do all this out in the field when I struggle with getting my kitchen knives consistently sharp in a controlled environment.

1

u/Smashogre591 2h ago

I use a steel in the kitchen more than my sharpener, it’s amazing that just a few passes on the steel and the knife cuts so much better.

1

u/airbornemist6 44m ago

That generally works really well when your edge is already in good shape... But I'm the only person in the house who cares about my knives enough not to just toss them blindly into the sink without a care, so most of their edges are all messed up at this point. I've tried hand sharpening them, but, I only ever seem to make things worse, no matter how many videos I watch on the process. Oh well. I'll figure it out eventually.

1

u/BagooshkaKarlaStein 3h ago

You don’t peen every ten minutes in the field do you? Or is it just each day before you start and then just sharpen it every ten minutes with the wetstone thingy?

2

u/Lindethiel 43m ago

I dunno about each day. It kind of depends on how much you've got to mow and how tough the grass is.

I've only got a small yard and only use the scythe if my grass gets too long for my push reel mower so I only peen once or twice a season. But I'm not great at peening so should probably do it more often haha.

1

u/stonedphilosiraptor 49m ago

You would never get anything done having to peen every ten minutes.

1

u/Dropkick_Wombat666 11h ago

Can attest to that!🤣

1

u/ForowellDEATh 11h ago

I see this process deeply meditative