American or European?

I think I what type of scythe I have but it's all so new to me can someone help out?

American or European?

Appears to not TRULY be either but it's more similar to a European style. Would need better pictures to confirm, especially off the snath if you're able.

Does this help?

That does help. It's definitely neither. It appears to be a scythe-like object. I was able to find examples of the same blade and snath on Amazon and it was universally low-rated in reviews. One listing showed a picture of the entire blade bent in the middle, supposedly from cutting grass. It's definitely press-formed stamped steel, and not sufficiently hardened like an American blade, nor is it tensioned like European blades.

Because it's so special would you recommend not peening the blade?

Cheryl Loomans wrote:Because it's so special would you recommend not peening the blade?

I'm not sure that special is the word I'd use. Given that it is apparently quite soft, it will probably peen readily despite looking to be thicker than quality European style blades. I think it is probably not worth the effort, but if you are dead set on attempting to put it to work, file it to an edge first, with about a 15° angle on the upper face only, until that bevel is brought all the way to an apex. Then peen it.  It will benefit from very fine and slow-cutting stones due to its softness, and a wooden whipping stick will help draw out any misalignments of the edge after honing. But it's a lot of effort to sink into a blade that is unlikely to perform well even under ideal conditions.  

I'm curious how it will work.  If you try it, please keep us updated.

Thank you! I will update- currently don't have enough green grass here yet.

Hi Benjamin,

I am curious. What would you recommend for a beginner?

John F Dean wrote:Hi Benjamin,

I am curious. What would you recommend for a beginner?

Visit garage sales and farm sales and buy several old ones.

I saw a label of Chinees webshop
Temu.

Chinese are copying everything.

But it wil work if it’s wel handled.?
Greatings from the Netherlands.

Link dump from my files....

jim kovaleski

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNAR8EZd1PA


one scythe revolution

https://onescytherevolution.com/index.html

suggests 170 cm/ 67"snath, 70 cm/27.5" blade

https://scythesupply.com  -  better prices, they make the snath, better explanations, WAY better anvil setup
28" blade his favorite for lawn
ditch blade mows grass as well as grass blade

sharpening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaWcNaceWWY

Benjamin Bouchard wrote:

Cheryl Loomans wrote:Because it's so special would you recommend not peening the blade?

I'm not sure that special is the word I'd use. Given that it is apparently quite soft, it will probably peen readily despite looking to be thicker than quality European style blades. I think it is probably not worth the effort, but if you are dead set on attempting to put it to work, file it to an edge first, with about a 15° angle on the upper face only, until that bevel is brought all the way to an apex. Then peen it.  It will benefit from very fine and slow-cutting stones due to its softness, and a wooden whipping stick will help draw out any misalignments of the edge after honing. But it's a lot of effort to sink into a blade that is unlikely to perform well even under ideal conditions.  

I think she meant *not* so special 🤫

No need to peen it as it looks as if it’s not hand shaped but stamped peening is for when the stoning has reduced the ‘width’ of the blade after many sharpening sessions. When sharpening it is best to slide the stone along the spine of the blade as well as the cutting edge to achieve a similar angle all along it. You’ll need to touch it up with the stone every five or ten minutes - little and often is the word.

The links that Benjamin shared are very informative and interesting. Worth looking at the scythe supply website as they do stock authentic blades. ‘The scythe book’ by David Tresemer is really useful to get you both up to speed and enthusiastic!

I’m sure there will be nothing original in this post, but I feel compelled to pipe in with this:

The appeal of a scythe for our tiny farm was irresistible. I thought, “Cheap mowing, good physical exercise, and another tether on my sometimes type-A rushing about.” Two out of three isn’t bad. The miss was “cheap.” Actually it was not completely a miss… rather just mostly. In the end, unless I counted my time as free (laughable), mowing hay with a scythe was pretty wasteful, as it overwhelmed everything else, leaving me unable to get my other work done.

For the record: I used an old American scythe (curved handle—a barn find that I had to modify to fit me) for mowing our hayfield, and a new European scythe (straight handle with a ditch blade—wider and shorter than the hay blade) for mowing banks, between fence posts, and generally at the edges of things to keep the flora from going woody.

The first year I struggled with everything—sharpening, work endurance, and efficiency were all terrible, and of course all tied together, which made me wonder if I could ever make the scythes really useful. The second year everything magically improved, but while the ditch blade compared favorably to gas-operated machines both in cost and time, the haying was still woefully uneconomical, even though I was, while not a champion scyther by any means, pretty okay compared to the expert demonstrators I had seen. For haying then, I reverted back to machinery, and then subsequently to having a local farmer do it.

The scythe still holds top honors for ditch and similar mowing. As you can see in the photos, my beloved ditch blade is a bit chewed up (from hitting bits of fence wire, stones, etc.) but judicious peening and of course very frequent field sharpening keeps its performance more than adequate, even with jagged spots.