hand held scythe

[Anonymous-0]

on the survey on the main page, "how do you cut your hay or grass" the most popular response was a hand held scythe. what! i thought that went out ages ago. some cultures like the amish still use this, but they dont have electricity thus no access to internet. so where are all these people that cut by hand? is this a joke?

 

[Janicholson]

I have a scythe, and I am not afraid to use it. In reality, people can answer what ever they like on a pole and not be held responsible. Civil disobedience is alive! JimN

 

[Anonymous-0]

I've been using a scythe since i was big enough to hold one...6 years later I've out grown the darn thing! To use one I have to bend wayyy down now lol. Don't mind the thing one bit though. i see the guys on hte side of the highway with string trimmers, and think i can do that with NO gas, and my hearing is 100% by the time Im done. I dont think I'll ever cut my hay with it though...

 

[RayP(MI)]

I doubt if many even own a scythe, much less have the strength, agility and skill to run one! I have one, and I sure aren"t very effective. I can"t believe that my grandfather cut whole fields of hay with it, but he must have. Those old farmers must have been super men.

 

[Anonymous-0]

A nice Article in the current "Farm and Ranch Living" Magazine covers the use of a Scythe for Farm Work. I am familiar with the Amish Farming of Ohio and Indiana and I rarely have seen a Scythe in use except for an occasional weed cutting. Mostly for Hay making a Horse Cart with a Diesel Engine will be ahead of a PTO,Hyd.Lift Sickle Mower or Hay Bine being pulled by Teams of up to 6 Horse's . For Yard work a gas String Trimmer is mostly used.

 

[farmerjohninbpa]

being "coach by granpop and pop,it took me a while to learn the art of using a scythe, and it is a very productive form of cutting grass manually. the part that took the longest was getting me to keep my thumb from being straight up the side of the touch-up stone,,man i used to slice the snot out my thumb for the longest time.i can still take one to the anvil and peen a new edge on it in no time and then stone her up to where it would slice grass like a hot knife in butter.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have two of them and the cradles. One belonged to dads dad, and the other was moms dads. I can't use them very well, but I have heard old folks talk of cutting 2 acres a day with one. They sure had there work cut out for them.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have a hand held scythe,I could never figure out how to hold the thing, much less use it. It is hanging on the barn wall along with a two man buck saw. I can still hear my Dad say don't push just pull. Now that was a long time ago. Stan

 

[Anonymous-0]

I got tired of screwing around with my pint sized weed wacker by the road, so a friend of mine gave me his dads old scythe..Man if you don't know how to handle one , it'll kick your tookas..

 

[Leroy]

The Amish don't use them. The ones I know in eastern Indiana use the 2 horse pulled steel wheel mowers for field work and a friend that I got 3 mowers for uses a 1 horse 4 1/2' mower around the house yard. The Amish around Holmes County in Ohio use the forcarts with engines with their haybines, combines, corn pickers and hay balers

 

[Anonymous-0]

To work well a sythe needs to be very sharp. Use a sythe for a while them imagine standing at the corner of a ten acre field of ripe wheat with your sythe in hand. When the old timers saw their first reaper at work they must have thought that they had died and gone to heaven. How could wheat harvesting ever get any better than that.

 

[Bret4207]

The only thing Amish use a scythe for is weeds along the garden edge or such and a swing chopper is easy for that. I grew up using a scythe to cut heavy weeds along our meadows- brambles, young poplar, stuff like that. I've mown hay with one, but only 1/4 acre or so at a time. Once it's sharp it's not bad. You need it set right for you and you've got to learn to twist your torso, not just swing your arms.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Robert, Once you get the hang to it, a sycthe is really not that bad. Once you get the rhythm down with the angle, the cut parts just lay flat. It is more 1/2 arm movement and the rest body swing from the hips. If it is tiring you out, then you are not doing it right or going to fast. As mentioned before with a cradle it is a lot nicer since you are stacking it in a row as you go.

 

[rrlund]

Danged things just don't fit my hands anymore!!

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have 7 scythes 2 were Grandpa's, 3 I bought at an auction for a buck after the auctioneer made the announcement that these should not be in a home with kids! What the heck??? I got these home and showed them to my kids and told them "these involve work" and the kids won't get within 20 feet of them. And 2 an uncle gave me. One is a brush hook that I was able to buy an aluminum snath for. I enjoy using one of these. Grandpa Payne taught me how to use a cradle, and once I got that tecnique down of forward slice and back wash, forward slice, back wash it was easy and not really tiring at all. Although I suppose after a few acres I'd be wearin' a little thin.
All the Yuppies in the area are astounded by that kind of profound lunacy. Sucks to be them!

 

[Anonymous-0]

There does not seem to be any way to account for one's vote, so I think fome folks are stuffing the ballot box with multiple votes.