How Do I Use An American Scythe Effectively?

The scythe used to be the ultimate harvesting tool, but in this day and age, it's fallen so far out of favor that many people have no idea what the word means. For the un-initiated, it's a tall pole with a long, single-edged blade attached at right angles; most people recognize it from the classic depiction of Death. In the right hands it's a very good tool, but machine harvesting surpassed it long ago.

So why bother with one now? While harvesting fields of wheat by hand is rare these days, there are still times when it's necessary to mow an open space full of grassy weeds. The modern tools for that are the mower (either push or riding) and the string trimmer/weedwhacker. For stouter weeds like saplings or clumping grass, it's just the weedwhacker, assuming its cutting edge is stout enough. Ditto steep hillsides, where the mowers stall out or slip. Many people spend many, many hours weedwhacking verges, back fields, and slopes.

Powered tools have disadvantages. Vibration, noise (for the operator and the neighbors), fumes. If the mower strikes a rock it can lead to problems, and most weedwhackers need their cutting devices fussed with regularly (how many auto-feed line mechanisms actually work as advertised?) They need gas, and oil, and maintenance, and if you're not scrupulous about attending to them, getting the engine going after a long winter can be challenging. That's overlooking the wider issue of air pollution. I have said, many times, that small engines and I don't get along well, and I'm happy when I can avoid dealing with them altogether. Electric motors, when they supply enough power, can do the job, but most still need cords to run -- difficult when one is hundreds of feet from the house, and tricky not to damage.

Manual tools avoid many of those problems. The biggest obstacle, often, is the perception that manual weed-cutting is hard, sweaty work... but if you've ever weed-whacked a yard, you know the gas versions aren't a walk in the park either. A scythe is light, and when sharp it uses a natural, easy motion. And it won't make your hands numb.

I should mention here that there are two breeds of scythe: European and American. A European scythe has a wooden handle (snath), and a thin, heavily curved blade made of mild steel. It's the sort most often used for hand-harvesting by those who keep up the tradition, and it's very well-suited to that task. It employs a curved motion to bite off long, circular swaths of grass by slicing past the stems, rather like a sharp knife slicing roast meat. It's very elegant when used well.

American scythes are all about business rather than poetry. Many have a metal snath (mine is aluminum tube) and a straight, heavy blade made of carbon steel. Brush-cutting blades which are shorter and heavier are available for taking out sapling trees and bushes. It's less suited to harvesting upright hay or grain, though it will serve if needed; what it excels at is weed mixes, even ones which have been flattened by rain (lodged) in various directions, and may contain stout thistles and such. Elegance takes a back seat to efficiency when clearing weeds like that, and the American scythe uses more of a hacking motion. It can slice, but its real strength comes out when the motion is mostly perpendicular to the edge, undercutting the stems like a karate chop. The blade must be very sharp for that motion to work, but carbon steel has a strong edge.

It can be used in almost the same spaces as a string trimmer, though weeds growing up against vertical surfaces such as walls and tree trunks will need to be taken out by hand. It needs surprisingly little clearance to work. And the methods aren't complicated, so it's not hard to learn the basics in an hour or so of experimentation.

So, if you want to try one, what next?

Get a scythe. Pretty obvious, really. They're available online for between $100 and $200, half the cost going to the snath and half to the blade. Make sure that they're both American-style, as they're not easily compatible with the European ones. I got my set from Seymour, which offers an aggressively curved aluminum snath. Pick up a sharpening stone too; you want a coarse, generally synthetic stone to handle the carbon steel blade. You won't need any of the finer stones or peening equipment -- peening is the process of straightening and thinning out the edge of a European blade, and isn't generally necessary with American ones.

Assemble and fit it. Assembly is easy with the Seymour, just a matter of loosening the head bolt so that the tang of the blade can be fitted into the slot. What's harder is adjusting the blade and handles to fit you. The bottom handle should be around the lower point of your hip, where the joint is, when you have the snath upright next to you with the blade on the ground. The upper handle needs to be approximately a forearm's length up from that, or where your arms can come straight down from your shoulders and grasp both handles comfortably while holding the snath at rest across your body. Your elbows should be bent while mowing. There are three pegs for the hooked tang of the blade to rest in -- try each one until you find one that allows the blade to be parallel to the ground when you're holding the snath at rest.

There's a lot of fine-tuning, as everyone's body is different. I ended up rotating the handles on the Seymour so that the ends of the handles point in different directions, because my hold is more natural when my right (lower) hand points forward while my left hand points up. If you find a muscle in your wrist or forearm tiring out faster than the rest, fiddle around to see what position might be easier on it. The Seymour has the ability to place the handles anywhere you want (assuming you can loosen and tighten them again, which is a chore) but other models have constraints as to how you can place and tilt the handles. Experiment.

Sharpen it. The factory edge is rarely more than mediocre, so you get to practice sharpening right off. Really dull blades need a grinder; I've had good luck with a freestanding belt sander, which doesn't heat the metal as much as a high-speed grinding wheel. If all else fails, patience with a handheld stone will do the job.

Always use the stone wet. I keep mine in a cup of water near where I'm mowing, and put it back in the water every time I test the edge. There are belt-holders designed to hold water as well. Stand the scythe on its top end so that the blade is horizontal, and hold it there with your left hand. With your right, grip the last third of the stone and place it so that it rests flat along the back side of the blade; it should contact the curved scoop at the top of the blade and the beveled edge at the bottom, with empty air in between. Keeping the stone in contact with both the top and bottom (to keep the bevel), draw it in a short diagonal stroke down and to the right. Repeat this all along the blade from base (beard) to tip. Along the front, angle the stone almost completely vertical and use sideways, whisking strokes to take the burr off the edge. Put the stone back into water and test the edge, then touch up any spots that still feel dull. It should be very sharp indeed, sharper than many (sadly neglected) kitchen knives. I generally need only one pass each time if I'm sharpening it enough.

Which brings us to how often you need to touch up the edge. Often. A scythe should cut easily. The joke is that it feels like you spend as much time sharpening as mowing, and though I don't think it's quite that bad, I do break to sharpen the blade every five to ten minutes. If it doesn't cut on the first stroke, it's probably going dull, and it saves a lot of energy and frustration if you sharpen it quickly. Take a drink while you're at it. The whole process should take only a minute or two, then you're back at work.

Use it. Play around to find the best motion for you. The basic idea is that your hands will travel across your body and your back will twist (gently!) as you complete a swing. Especially with the heavier American scythes, momentum is your friend, so try to settle into an easy movement that allows you to set up a rhythm. Here's what I've noted in two full years:

For a hacking motion (as opposed to an arc), the outer point of the swing should have your right knee, your right hand, and the tip of the scythe in line. It's like you're tossing the scythe in front of you. As it comes down, pull back on it, bringing your right hand toward your left hip, and the blade somewhat downward. Don't worry about the back of the blade hitting the ground; I bounce off it all the time, it does no harm other than jarring my hand if I'm gripping too hard. (I can hear the European-style users gritting their teeth at the notion.) This hacking stroke lets you chop straight out into standing grass, without needing a clear space on the right to slice the tip in from. For a clean-up cut, you can bring the blade straight from left to right, still holding the blade perpendicular to the motion; this takes care of flattened grass or stragglers. You can use the backstroke to run along the ground and ruffle up the remaining stubble if it was too flat to cut or you didn't get it on the first stroke.

At no point should the blade come within eight inches of either of your feet; if it does, you're doing it wrong. Properly used, the scythe is completely safe for the user; I've used it barefoot.

Lean into it. Step onto your forward foot as you swing out, and rock onto your back foot as you complete the cut. This takes the stress of cutting off your arm muscles.

Watch your footing, especially on slopes. Make sure you're stable first, then swing the scythe. Use a wide stance so that a stubborn weed won't yank you off balance.

Don't clench up. Let your arms extend freely to the top of your swing, let your wrists flex, don't grip the handles hard. I wear framer's gloves to help with the smooth handles of my scythe, but you can sand them or wrap them in bicycle handlebar tape. The scythe is what's doing the real work, so relax into it as much as you can. It'll let you get a deeper "rowing" motion, which allows you to cover more ground with less effort, using the momentum of the scythe and your body.

Don't try to get everything down in one clean cut. Experts can do that with a good stand of grain, but if you're dealing with weeds, relax and take them apart in as many cuts as it takes. If you care to compost the result, chopped material composts better anyway.

It's good, moderate cardiovascular exercise that doesn't put undue stress on any one part of the body. I managed to over-do it (while gripping too hard) to the point where I got slight tendonitis in my right palm, but I was still able to use the scythe; I used an old sock to make a slip-sling that held my right hand to the handle, so I didn't have to grip it to hang on, only guide it for control. That took all the stress off my tendons and let them heal. I may use the sling again, early in the year, to make sure I don't grip hard while I'm getting used to the motion after half a year off.

I hope that this helps, along with the other scything resources on the net... Just remember that American scythes are not as fragile, elegant, or finely-tuned as European ones. They're built to get the job done, as direct as any modern American, in their way. Relax and enjoy the experience -- after all, you could be holding a heavy, noisy, vibrating machine instead. :)