Scythe sharpener

[Gurvey]

Restoring what I think is an old scythe
sharpener. Anyone have any idea how this
works?

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

Looks like an old sickle sharpener for horse drawn mowers & the like. You could pull the knife out of the bar, put it in the clamp in front of the stone, crank it & put an edge on the sections. Some even clamped on to the wheel or another part of the mower to make it more sturdy.

Mike

 

[kcm.MN]

Yours looks a lot like this one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Ho...r-Blade-Mounted-Sharpening-Tool-/193187865699

 

[Gurvey]

It does only the clamp is a little
different. Any idea who made it? The only
markings are L1 on the frame, L2 on the
secondary gear, L3 on the primary gear and
L4 on the handle.

 

[Caryc]

Not a scythe sharpener. One does not do any "grinding" on a scythe blade. That will only ruin it. Below you see the tools for sharpening a scythe blade.

First is a blade sharpening jig. This is used for damaged blades like if you manage to hit a rock with the blade. This will produce damage like a rolled over edge on the blade. You can use a file sparingly to get rid of the rolled over piece. Then you must reform the blade edge. This is where the jig comes into place.

As you can see, the peening jig base has two caps for it. the first forms the correct bevel and the second one is for refining that edge. You can see how I have the blade in the peening jig. The bottom spike on the jig fits into a hole in the log. This process forms an almost paper thin edge on the blade. A few swipes with the wet stone finishes it off.

The stone is correctly contoured for the scythe blade. It also has that belt sheath that you fill about 3/4 full with water. So if you are doing some cutting and your blade seems to be losing it's edge, you just give it a few swipes with that "wet" stone.

As I said, you never take a grinding wheel to a scythe blade. I love my scythe. When a few scattered weed patches start sprouting up, I just grab me scythe and take care of them.

This is the scythe that I use.

 

[Ultradog MN]

Speaking of scythes...
I finally got around to finishing the
mudwork and primed/painted the office in my
garage last weekend. Started hanging some
of my 'stuff' on the walls in there.
One of the things I hung up was my new/old
scythe.

 

[Janicholson]

Sickle bar section sharpener I have used one 100 times. My dad eventually started replacing the sections (or I did). rather than sharpening them. Serrated blades were so much better, harder, and far less plugging than the knife edged blades of the early days. Jim
Rescue and operation last few minutes of the video

 

[Caryc]

Yours has a longer grass or hay blade on it. Mine has a shorter brush blade on it and works great. I purchased my scythe from
sythesupply.com

Somewhere on there (I could find it right now) is a video of two guys cutting some knee high stuff. The patches of weeds are equal, I guess grown for this video.

One guy was using a gas powered line trimmer and the other guy used a scythe. Guess who finished first? Scythes are amazing tools.

 

[Ultradog MN]

Yes, a scythe is an effective tool.
Dad used to make me use the one we had to
'mow' around the barn when I was a kid.
It was grandpa's scythe and the blade had
been sharpened so many times that it was
only about 1 inch wide. We had a stone for
it - a stone with a wooden handle on it.
I don't use mine. Have cut a few weeds
around the back end of my lot but mostly it
is just an ornament on the wall.

 

[showcrop]

When i was a kid the state would have a crew come by mowing the roadsides with scythes. I remember them pulling long narrow whetstones out and touching the blades up.

 

[Brian G. NY]

(quoted from post at 12:24:02 05/17/21)

I remember them pulling long narrow whetstones out and touching the blades up.

Like these?

When I was a kid back in the 40s and 50s, the neighbor farmer (I later married his lovely granddaughter) used a scythe to clean up after he finished haying for the season. He made it look so easy....nice rhythmic strokes and no wasted motion. Every so often he would pull from his back pocket the red handled scythe whetstone and give the blade a few strokes. It was a pleasure to see him work.
I have several nicely curved snaths as well as several scythe blades including a brush scythe like the one shown in one of the posts above.
Except for a brief unsuccessful try at using a scythe back when I was a kid, I've never tried to use one. Probably could actually do it now that I am older and have a little more patience.

 

[PJH]

My dad used a scythe a lot. I used to think that he made a certain number of swings, then pulled the stone out of his back pocket for a few light strokes across the blade. It probably just appeared to be based on a certain number of swings - I should have asked him, but didn't. He'd stand the scythe up with the tip of the wooden handle on the ground to swipe the stone on it. Like you say - the old guys made it look easy.

Dad's stone didn't have a handle on it. It was probably about 8 or 9 inches long, with an oval cross section about 1 1/2 inches across the large part of the oval.

The scythe setting tools that the other poster showed were interesting. Dad didn't have anything like that, at least that I can remember. When I think back, I do not remember him ever using a grinder on his scythe. That point didn't dawn on me until reading this thread.

Dad was 65 when I was born, so I did a lot of observing and stayed out of his way.

 

[Caryc]

There is just no way one can get the edge needed on a scythe using a grinder. The edge must be peened into the blade. On the picture of the peening jig above you can see one machined ring on the peening tool used last. This draws the steel out to that edge that just can't be done any other way.

A very long time ago when farmers could not find or afford a peening jig like I pictured, there was one other way. They actually peened that edge by hand with a special peening hammer designed to do it. It took a guy that really knew what he was doing to do it right

When working outside with my scythe and seeing the cut start to diminish, about three swipes along the front of the blade with the stone and one swipe along the back side and it was good to go.

Once you find the correct way to swing a scythe to get a good cut out of it, it seems kind of like an enjoyable way to get rid of some weeds. No loud noise or stink of buzzing of hands from the vibration. When I ordered my scythe, they had me send them certain body measurements so they could get the snath made just right for my swing.

 

[Caryc]

I forgot to say one thing. Since I'm not a long time scythe user, when I use the sharpening stone on the blade, I slip on a "no cut" glove like butchers use. Like I said, that thing is wicked sharp and one slip would produce a very bad cut.

 

[showcrop]

(quoted from post at 11:30:22 05/17/21)

(quoted from post at 12:24:02 05/17/21)

I remember them pulling long narrow whetstones out and touching the blades up.

Like these?

When I was a kid back in the 40s and 50s, the neighbor farmer (I later married his lovely granddaughter) used a scythe to clean up after he finished haying for the season. He made it look so easy....nice rhythmic strokes and no wasted motion. Every so often he would pull from his back pocket the red handled scythe whetstone and give the blade a few strokes. It was a pleasure to see him work.
I have several nicely curved snaths as well as several scythe blades including a brush scythe like the one shown in one of the posts above.
Except for a brief unsuccessful try at using a scythe back when I was a kid, I've never tried to use one. Probably could actually do it now that I am older and have a little more patience.

No, Brian. They were exactly like the one that PJH described.

I had one but I broke it in two. I think that I sat on it when it was in my back pocket.

 

[mrslesq]

That is what I think it is. My Dad sharpened the sickle and my brother or I held the end of the sickle when Dad got near doing each end. He had an electric motor running the stone. I always wondered what that sliding contraption was for.

 

[Gurvey]

After learning some more it turns out to be a sickle mower sharpener like some of you said. I'll add more pictures when i put it back together. Im still curious who made this and how old it is.

 

[Dave41A]

Very interesting. My grandfather had a scythe sharpening tool that he called a 'Babka,' or grandmother. That was the name because it was it was short, round and fat. It had a tapered base to mount in a log like yours but did not have the stem and die part. The user just had to carefully peen the edge of the scythe out with a hammer. The babka simply served as the anvil. This process was called 'klepac kose' or tapping (the) scythe.

I note your blade is Austrian. My grandfather also praised the quality of Austrian scythes. I have one marked 'made in German state of Austria' that must be from '38 or '39. I also have an older Austrian one that might be Austro-Hungarian as he came over in 1912. He used different blades for grass, wheat, or weeds, the grass being the lightest. You could probably shave with the grass blade.

 

[Dave41A]

I also heard a story of how they could tell when the villagers in the next town had finished for the day as they could hear the light 'tap tap tap' for miles as the farmers sharpened their scythes in the evening. This was in the days before any kind of engines or motors, so the world must have been a very quiet place. The joke was that a child who asked what the sound was would be told that blacksmiths were making shoes for the goats. There's a little play on words here as 'koza' (goat) sounds a lot like 'kosa' (scythe) in Polish.

 

[Gurvey]

Still need to do a little touch up paint.

 

[bc]

Well this has turned into a Grim subject. Hope I don't run into anyone of you guys at night. Have an old rusty one out in the garage. Guess I need to clean it up and try it out. It has a short blade on it. Only other thing I could do with it is cut the blade off, weld a bolt on it, chuck it up to the drill, and invent the weed whacker and rotary mower. Can strike it rich with that invention.