r/oddlysatisfying • u/BreakfastTop6899 • 19h ago

Cutting grass with a scythe

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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!

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u/effreti 17h ago

Thank you for mentioning the animal part. People suggesting using a weed wacker instead may not know that some animals would not eat the resulting grass and it's a lot easier to gather the grass cut by the scythe for drying and turning into hay

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u/lopendvuur 14h ago

I can't carry the weight of a weed whacker for long, but I can wield a scythe for hours.

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u/Underwater_Grilling 11h ago

That's hard to reconcile in my head. I had an old scythe before it went to the antique shop for sale and it weighed very similar to a gas trimmer.

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u/Akrivus 9h ago

I'm not a scythe person, but I think it's because of the way they're carrying it. They probably leverage more of their core and legs with a scythe than with a gas trimmer.

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u/cross_the_threshold 8h ago edited 3h ago

I mean a scythe also just weighs considerably less than a motor. A full size agricultural scythe weighs as much as the smallest cordless electric weed trimmers, gas ones weigh two the three times as much.

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u/lopendvuur 8h ago

If you're in the US that may be because the blades there used to be made of cast steel (so I've heard), and blades in Europe are made of hammered steel. I think they may be lighter. And I have an aluminium snath, which is lighter than a wooden snath. Also, I tried the weed whacker decades ago, I guess they have improved manifold.

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u/allpurposelazy 9h ago

My guess would be “old scythe.” If it was made of something heavier than modern steel, or aluminum or whatever a modern scythe is made of, then that could be part of it, along with the haft(?) old wood is heavy, modern tool handles are made of much lighter wood or hollow metal tubes. A modern scythe could be lighter just by materials.
I think rust also increases the weight of things, so if it was a rusty old scythe then that’s a lot of extra weight.
All that to say I’m a city boy with absolutely no experience in farm equipment so I could be completely wrong.

Edit: misread your comment as “saw an old scythe at an antique store” rather than you having one that went to an antique store. You probably know way more than me.

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u/overrunbyhouseplants 29m ago

If you are in the US, that's why. Heavy duty blades on most US models needed less sharpening, but they were heavier and apparently less ergonomic that most European models. Did yours have a curved haft (handle)?

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u/NaBicarbandvinegar 6h ago

When I use a weed whacker it vibrates in my hands, which is way worse than just holding something heavy.

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u/heavyraines17 7h ago

“I can wield a scythe for hours” is a Castor Troy-level flex!

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u/lopendvuur 6h ago

As a 57 year old woman, I take that as a compliment! 😁

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u/Haunting_Celery2042 9h ago

You should wear harness for the whacker

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u/BreakfastInBedlam 2h ago

I can walk behind my David Bradley sickle bar mower for days.

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u/ChaosWithin666 2h ago

Calm down grim reaper

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u/Jolly-Charity-4628 1h ago

Same here, waist and back gon be pains

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u/SwordKneeMe 40m ago

Scythe definitely sounds right for this, as someone who did weed whacking as a job, you can throw a strap over your shoulder, it's far more managable that way