How restore a scythe blade

I found this Briar Edge by True Temper scythe blade at a antique store today. I was excited to find this blade. Any ideas on how to protect the blade from rust? Also the blade has what looks like black paint on it. Should I repaint the blade or not? The edge does need a little work on the beard.

T Blankinship wrote:I found this Briar Edge by True Temper scythe blade at a antique store today. I was excited to find this blade. Any ideas on how to protect the blade from rust? Also the blade has what looks like black paint on it. Should I repaint the blade or not? The edge does need a little work on the beard.

Presuming you're going to be putting it to use, don't worry about rust removal--mowing will scrub and pickle all of the rust off of it in use. Briar Edge blades are whole steel construction so you should be able to use the draw-filing method with a chainsaw or half-round file to bevel it. You're looking for a 7-9° angle per side, which should result in a visual bevel width of about 1/4" on both sides. The tang angle will also need adjusting, which is best done using either an induction heater or an oxy-acetylene torch to heat the shank of the tang (the straight portion before the 90° elbow) and cranking the tang with the blade locked in a vise. When in mowing position (which is often a little lower than you think--mime a few strokes to settle into it) the edge should be riding about a finger's thickness off the ground.

Benjamin Bouchard wrote:

You're looking for a 7-9° angle per side, which should result in a visual bevel width of about 1/4" on both sides. The tang angle will also need adjusting, which is best done using either an induction heater or an oxy-acetylene torch to heat the shank of the tang (the straight portion before the 90° elbow) and cranking the tang with the blade locked in a vise. When in mowing position (which is often a little lower than you think--mime a few strokes to settle into it) the edge should be riding about a finger's thickness off the ground.

Good eye I did not see the bend in the tang. I looked at https://permies.com/t/143628/scythes/difference-American-scythe-European-scythe . Is this blade an American scythe blade?

T Blankinship wrote:

Benjamin Bouchard wrote:

You're looking for a 7-9° angle per side, which should result in a visual bevel width of about 1/4" on both sides. The tang angle will also need adjusting, which is best done using either an induction heater or an oxy-acetylene torch to heat the shank of the tang (the straight portion before the 90° elbow) and cranking the tang with the blade locked in a vise. When in mowing position (which is often a little lower than you think--mime a few strokes to settle into it) the edge should be riding about a finger's thickness off the ground.

Good eye I did not see the bend in the tang. I looked at https://permies.com/t/143628/scythes/difference-American-scythe-European-scythe . Is this blade an American scythe blade?

It's an American blade. The tang will be flat from the factory and most vintage blades never had the tang angle properly adjusted as was intended. Because most of the lay adjustment with American scythes comes from the neck of the snath, it made more sense to sell the blades with the tang flat and have a local metalworker do the final adjustment. These days if you don't have the equipment to do the job yourself you can have a local machine shop or independent mechanic do it for you.