Fitting scythes for others needs a bit of forethought and planning  (particularly as I have found remotely by mail order).   I recently faced the challenge of matching a scythe set up that was to be shared by a husband and wife: the husband 6’3″ and wife 5″10.  Luckily it turned out that the wife had long legs for her height;  so both had the same hip height measurement and could share a snath set up with minimal adjustment of the top grip.

To prepare better for future fittings I decided to research more into the proportions of the human body – from the idealised form of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian man to the variety in real anthropometic data. A summary of my interpretation as relates to scythe fitting follows below.

If da Vinci had been a scyther

Line a – b is the hip line.

• The hip line is at the widest point of the hips (not pelvis or waist) where the outer end of the hip joint (greater trochanter – head of leg bone) can be felt close to the surface – it will move slightly if you lift your leg.
• For regular mowing the lower grip handle (at b) should be set to this level when the snath is stood vertically against the body.
• The hip line is also the central axis of movement, power and control of the body when mowing.

Lines c – c and d – d shows the shoulder-grip-feet alignment

• The distance between c and d = shoulder width
• The distance between the lower and upper grip handles corresponds to this so that the arms hanging naturally meet them comfortably.
• This measurement is also approximately equal to the distance from elbow (e) to fingertip (f) = one cubit.  The forearm (e- f ) can be used to gauge the position of the upper grip by resting the elbow on the lower grip and fixing the upper grip to the first hole beyond the fingertips extended against the snath.
• With the scythe held vertically against the body and the lower grip against the hip the upper grip (at f) will be approximately 1 ½ times hip height – about the height of the arm pit.
• The feet are positioned at c and d for maximum stability in regular mowing.

The outer square box frame (= body height and outstretched arm span) roughly corresponds to the width of swath cut in closed upright mowing styles.

The outer circle drawn from the body centre (at navel) similarly roughly corresponds to the width of cut in open field mowing styles and is about 20% more than height/arm span.

To mow  freely with a wider reach you may find it more comfortable to open up these settings by moving the lower grip 5 – 7cm above the hip line and increasing the distance between the two grips by up to 10cm.  The feet also move further apart in this more energetic style.

Notes

Some Anthropometric Data for the UK (found using google)

In reality each person has their own conformation and style and should endeavour to tune their scythe to be in harmony with their body to make mowing as effortless and pleasurable as possible.

Whilst the snath dimensions are to scale with the body, the orientation of snaths and grips to blades in the drawing are positioned for illustrative convenience  (artistic licence with hafting angles and perspective).

Issac Nash 36" best crown blade with patent ball-joint fitting

These quality blades were not made of a single piece of stamped metal like cheaper inferior blades, but a forged laminate of four separate strips of iron and steel.  This was a multi-staged process involving many differently skilled scythesmiths.

The hardened core of the blade was a strip of ‘shear’ steel which would form the cutting edge. Mild ductile steel was laminated around the core to support and strengthen the blade and form the raised back edge and tang. Whilst the initial stages of forging a English crown blade are not dissimilar to those used to shape Austrian blades, the finishing processes differ.  Austrian blades are hammered to a much finer degree and the edge drawn out and work-hardened by peening.  English crown blades were hardened by heating and tempering and the edge profile formed on a large diameter sandstone grinding wheel. The primary bevel is ground on the underside of the blade. The finished English blade once hardened, tempered and set will not take peening: the core steel is too hard and brittle. Sharpening can only be achieved with a stone. The structure of crown blades does make them easier to maintain than cheaper blades as all the whetstone had to do was to rub the soft covering of iron to reveal and put an edge on the thin hardened steel core.

Crown blades were probably the best quality hand crafted English blades made but are not as refined as Austrian blades and are more than twice the weight. The simpler and therefore cheaper ‘Patent’ scythe blade (patented 1791), with the stamped blade and riveted rib, was manufactured in large numbers by Tyzack in Sheffield until the 1970s (30 years after crown blade forging ceased). Patent blades are of similar weight to crown blades.

Issac Nash ltd merged with toolmakers Joseph Tyzack Ltd in 1942 to become Nash Tyzack industries Ltd. The demand for scythes and other hand tools after the war fell as most farms had become fully mechanised and as a result the Belbroughton factory finally closed in 1967.  By 1972 the old company names of Nash & Tyzack as well as Brades, Elwell and others were subsumed by mergers and takeovers into Spear & Jackson plc.

Information taken from ‘The Scythemen of Belbroughton’ by Dorothy Cope, a nicely researched and written booklet published by, and available from, the Belbroughton History Society.

Images from an original Issac Nash catalogue.

I wanted to share a passage from a book that I’m reading, that’s entitled “Breathing and Scything”. The book is by Thich Nhat Hanh, and is called Peace is every Step. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist Monk, Zen master, peace activist, and author. Enjoy it, as I did, and think about what he writes.

Breathing and Scything

Have you ever cut grass with a scythe? Not many people do these days. About ten years ago, I brought a scythe home and tried to cut the grass around my cottage with it. It took more than a week before I found the best way to use it. The way you stand, the way you hold the scythe, the angle of the blade on the grass are all important. I found that if I coordinated the movement of my arms with the rhythm of my breathing, and worked unhurriedly while maintaining awareness of my activity, I was able to work for a longer period of time. When I didn’t do this, I became tired in just ten minutes.

During the past few years I have avoided tiring myself and losing my breath. I must take care of my body, treat it with respect as a musician does his instrument. I apply nonviolence to my body, for it is not merely a tool to accomplish something. It itself is the end. I treat my scythe in the same way. As I use it while following my breathing, I feel that my scythe and I breathe together in rhythm. It is true for many other tools as well.

One day an elderly man was visiting my neighbor, and he offered to show me how to use the scythe. he was much more adept than I, but for the most part he used the same position and movements. What surprised me was that he too coordinated his movements with his breathing. Since then, whenever I see anyone cutting his grass with his scythe, I know that he is practicing awareness.

Wishing you well

Deano

However, the blade should be razor sharp and it’s once you stop mowing and begin to work directly with the blade that the dangers appear. The most common of these is when sharpening in the field with a whetstone and I have heard of many beginners and experienced mowers alike cutting themselves when sharpening, sometimes very seriously. The classice stance for sharpening is to be upright with the blade in front of yourself. The right hand whets the blade alternating back and front while the left hand moves the blade from right to left across your field of vision. Here’s where the problem starts: there’s too many things moving at once in close proximity.

On my courses I teach a much safer method of sharpening based on kneeling down with the point of the blade in the ground and the snath held stable against the body. With the scythe still you can then safely sharpen with just your right hand and the whetstone working. I show beginners the best way to hold the stone for comfort and safety and we work slowly, concentrating on achieving a fine edge. An additional advantage of this method is that you are in position to look down on the edge and see what they’re doing without the view being obstructed by their hand and the stone. This is Grant & Lorna sharpening during my mowing course on the Black Isle, Scotland.

As an extra safety measure I now provide cutproof kevlar gloves for the students to wear while sharpening which are light enough not to be cumbersome and I’d recommend their use to other scythe teachers.

Tommy mowman with scythe cradle and strickle fitted

In most old photographs of reed cutting or reaping corn the scythesmen have simple improvised bow cradles fitted, made from sticks cut from the hedgerow and bound to the scythe with string.

I have been experimenting with different styles of bow cradle over the last few years.  A basic bow cradle works well in stiff Norfolk reed, especially if fitted with a ‘pricker’ (peg).  It was not as effective however at John Letts Lammas mow last year – it did not lay the corn neatly so as  to make gathering and tying easy.   I have looked to develop the design, but still keeping with the bow cradle concept rather than the more elaborate ‘turkey wing’ designs.

In a book: ‘Life in the moorlands of North-East Yorkshire’ by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby,  I came across a neat design that looked worth trying – if only on the basis that if it was a traditional pattern- so it ought to have some merit.

In this design the bow is made of thin hazel, willow or a briar with its thorns rubbed off, and is held in place and supported by a thin metal rod called ‘a standard’.

cradle support to support and hold a bow on a scythe

The standard is fixed to the scythe using the blade clamp and so is easily fitted or removed as needed.  I thought that this could work well with the Austrian scythe if I could find a friendly blacksmith to make one.

Fortunately at this years Eastern counties scything weekend Simon Damant invited Andy Window : blacksmith, artist and imaginator who was happy to put the idea into practice.

Yorkshire style bow and 'standard fitted ready for use

Now my ‘squarehead master’ wheat is approaching harvest I have been able (between showers) to give the new cradle a trial run.  I know several people will be experimenting with cradles and corn harvesting so I thought it a good time to share my preliminary observations and stimulate comment and hopefully some practical ideas in return.

Whereas with grass you mow outwards, when mowing corn it was common practice to mow inwards with the corn falling against the standing crop  As I was working alone I reverted to mowing outward to keep the corn clear of the crop.  This was OK – you just have to stoop a bit lower to gather up the sheaves.

Mowing corn is easier than mowing grass provided the corn is upright.  As the book suggests “scythe according to the wind… never push against the wind”.  There is definitely a technique to mowing the corn so it lands neatly arranged to your left – I haven’t put much footage on youtube as I have yet to master this!  If the crop leaned toward me at any point the cradle was apt to get snagged.

As to the different designs: the Yorkshire pattern having the bow extending forward of the blade did seem to snag more.  To improve things I tried to attach a string from the bow to a small ring hooked over the the blade tip (as suggested in David Tresemers scythe book) - this would not stay in place for more than two strokes – and short of drilling a hole I cannot see how it would?

Simple mk 1 bow with extended 'prickers'

My original bow cradle, with extended prickers, worked better but still snagged if the crop was less than upright.

At the end of an hours experimentation I had mown corn that could be gathered and stooked without having to re-arrange it (as last year).

I think a combination of refinement of technique and design is still needed!

“For every three scythes you need three liers-out, three tying up and one to stook”.

But before I reveal all: what is the ‘sharpometer’ of which I tell; and more importantly what does it measure?

The sharpometer is really a simple device (made to look more complex for effect) which measures with a spring balance the force required (in grams) needed to cut a standard thread (Gutterman polyester sewing thread).  The sharper and more perfect the very edge of the blade which contacts the thread – the smaller the force required to sever it.

A brand new Stanley knife blade serves as a bench mark and needs a force of 160g.  This test gives an objective spot measure of sharpness, but it is not a measure of peening or thin-ness of blade as it would be possible ( if more difficult), to put a short-lived sharp edge on an un-peened blade.

So how did the sharpometer results from the West country and from the Eastern counties scything championships turn out?

First up a brand new ‘profisense’ blade fresh out of its wrapper from the Schröckenfux  factory scored 500g (remember 160g = Stanley blade).

Then as the day progressed a pattern emerged with a cluster of results around 250g which seemed to correspond to blades presented for testing by those who came to the sharpometer with perhaps confident satisfaction (slight smug grin) that they had made a good job of preparing their blade:

Andy Coleman 230g, Beth Tilston 260g, Simon Fairlie 270g, Phil Batten 280g, Steve Tomlin 280g and Andy Marczewski  280g.

Then there was a few, including some of the above, not satisfied with 250g who tried again:

Simon Fairlie 200g, Steve Tomlin 200g and myself Richard Brown 180g (‘best in show’ – even if I did create the sharpometer; result  witnessed by Phil for all you doubters!!).

Other results:

Ded Kalaj at Wimpole 400g – after first round of blade preparation of borrowed blade.

Chris Lambert also 400g – with an English patent blade he borrowed from me at Wimpole (whetted with coarse stone – English blades never peened).

George Montague (at Wimpole) 800g after which he went back to his peening pony and must have improved on this to finish in the top 3.

Other observations:

It only takes the slightest burr at the point of testing to make a difference.

Simon Fairlie at one stage was able to claim “the best and the worst score within one blade”.  In a pre-competition check I found my own blade was in the 250g (smug) category of sharpness – however just a few careful strokes of the finest stone raised it to 200g perfection.  However none of this edge perfection translated into a stunning result in the (Somerset) field for me- on the contrary I was quite disappointed both with my personal time and quality.

All this was fun and caused much light-hearted debate which at times was an entertaining distraction from the incessant rain that dampened spirits at Muchelney.  But what does it mean and does it prove anything?

My personal feeling is that edge perfection is probably short-lived once the blade contacts the grass and that in practice a blade that has been prepared well enough to easily hone to get 250g is probably fit for purpose.  Assessment of the quality of peening is more difficult and would probably be functionally expressed by the amount of work you can do with a peened blade and maintain a reasonable sharpness score.  I do not propose to write an essay on this or even summarise the views given during the first outings of the sharpometer (especially from those at the blunt end!) – I will leave that to you and your responses.

Some parting snippets and observations

Brendan surpassed all scythe results and the Stanley standard with a score of 120g with a leather stropped Opinel Efitte pocket knife – reportedly spending considerable time to achieve this samuri perfection – well done Brendan.

Terry Pratchett’s character “Death” carries a scythe that is so sharp you can see the blue sparks of split atoms falling to the ground as it moves through the air. It is so impossibly thin (a few atoms thick at its edge)  that it is completely invisible if viewed edge on.

The individual mowing contest was closely fought. In the light weight dry grassland of East Anglia technique more than strength delivers fast times and it is often quality that determines the result.  George Montague completed 5 x 5m in the quickest time (1’53”) closely followed by Richard Brown (1’57) – but it was surprise entrant Ded Kalaj who took the overall winners trophy and the quality cup as although he was slightly slower (2’0”) he produced the best finish with a quality 9 (over RB 8.5 (left tufty bits) and GM 8.0).

As a young man in his home country Albania Ded mowed acres of grass every year – 4000 to 7000m2 per day he claims.  He demonstrated differences in technique of mowing and sharpening compared with that currently used in the UK (adopted fromAustria). Ded borrowed a 75cm luxor blade for the competition as his own blade had been confiscated by Gatwick customs as an offensive weapon!  Ded has now left his scythe kit with Simon Damant for safe keeping until next year – he hopes to join us and compete in Somerset again!

(footnote: after the competition Simon D mowed a square in 1’32” Q7).