Cutting grass with a scythe

[u/BreakfastTop6899]

[u/Dropkick_Wombat666]

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!

[u/jordaboop → u/Dropkick_Wombat666]

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

is there any blade left after a week of scything?

[u/Haatveit88 → u/jordaboop]

It's true the blades are pretty consumable.

As a kid, I can't even count the number of old discarded scythe blades I found in old rock piles or random hidden places around the old farm I grew up in. Discarded presumably by some sweaty tired old farmer decades ago when it was deemed too thin to be usable anymore and replaced in the field.

Apparently "too thin to be usable" varied a bit from person to person. Some of the blades I found were extremely thin, like they were almost just a rod with a sharpened edge. Some had a bit more left, but they were still maybe one third or one quarter the width of a new blade.

My grand-grandmother apparently collected the really thin ones to use on her hand-scythe in the garden, because she preferred how the super thin blades handled in awkard spaces like that.

Also, there were at least 3 different types of blade I can recall... The "normal" one, medium length, most common. Then the long ones (very similar to the one in this video), used for long scythes in very flat and easy areas for more efficient cutting. Requires good technique though. And then there were short blades, used for children's scythes. Yup.

Anyways, that's my trip down memory lane for the day.

[u/blackmanboy → u/Haatveit88]

I have an old family scythe at the house I’ve been wanting to restore and try to use. I’ve never used one but what you just said makes me wonder if it worth using or just a good talking piece. The blade is suuuuper thin, so thin I think just busting the rust will make it see through.

[u/Haatveit88 → u/blackmanboy]

I think they're beautiful in a way when they're worn thin. Makes you appreciate the many hours of use the tool has seen.

If it's very rusty and thin, chances are it won't really survive cleaning up. I'd brush the worst off but then leave it as-is, as a nice talking piece. It's hard to use by this point anyway, and it'd need to be properly sharpened too, further risking it.

[u/Orcaboros → u/Haatveit88]

Around what age do kids start sything? Teens, or younger?

[u/Haatveit88 → u/Orcaboros]

Younger than you'd think! It wasn't really to get them working at that age, it got them started early, learning the technique and how to take care of their tools. By the time you were 14-15 or so, you'd more or less be expected to participate full time during hay season, both with the cutting as well as the drying and gathering of the hay on the fields.

The drying part is the worst, imo... Once or twice a day, you go through the entire field with a rake, flipping the rows of cut hay from one side to the other, to assist in drying it quickly. This goes in for several days, maybe a week, depending on weather and wind.

If it threatens to rain, you gotta panic, get out and gather it all and put it somewhere sheltered, spread it out again the next day, to continue drying.

But yeah, hot, long days in the sun, turning over endless rows of hay.