I have been out of town for a few days so once again there is a huge load
of Oldtools messages. I wasn't sure if you were aiming at my attention or
not, I suspected some.

The sickle seems to be used backwards from how everyone tries to handle it.
They think it is meant to be swung with the arms when really it is meant to
be just held with the arms and the hips swing from side to side and do the
majority of the work. Which coincidentally as I have lately found out from
my chiropractor and therapist that the work done with the largest muscles
possible is the safest way as well. Furthermore I wonder what methods that
were not preserved that allows us to get carpal tunnel syndrome and not
back then... I think some of these oldtools may carry some secrets to all
of this intrinsic to their design and the way they were/are used. The feet
advance forward between each cut (on the backstroke if I recall correctly).
The rows are gone down with the body 90 degrees to the work. In other words
you just line up your body at the far left corner nearest you in the field
and you work across the width of the field and then go back and start over.
That is if you are harvesting something like wheat and you want the wheat
all laying in the same direction for ease of harvest.

Sharpening was usually handled by my now deceased grandpa. He preferred
those tapered stones for the rounded edges curves once again if I recall
correctly. I don't recall hardly any effort going into sharpening the
scythe compared to other tools like the axes and such so they must have
beep kept quite coarse, maybe almost like a shovel today. I think when the
tool started tearing and snagging often that was the sign to bring it in to
sharpen it. I always thought it was a fun tool to use and I frequently
brought it down to the lake at the beginning of the year rather than the
power mower to cut down the early 3-4 high grass and sometimes 6 foot high
cattails.

It was a demanding tool in the sense of discipline. You can't jerk around
such a heavy tool without it really putting some pain on your arms so the
motion is very disciplined, very rhythmic, slow in a sense but in a sense
very efficient because you are only cutting the grass/wheat/cattails at one
level rather than the blade chewing it up over and over. It actually worked
better on the high stuff where a normal lawnmower would stall. And I just
liked seeing it there every year when I came up.

The sickle was just the opposite. Not very demanding at all but not very
powerful if you had a serious amount of work to do and on these old places
with many acres almost every job is a fairly large job. You know another
thing pops to mind and I may be wrong about it or it could just be all I
remember but I think he only sharpened those two tools from the top which
would make them single bevel edges much like a hewning broadaxe would have
a single bevel edge.

It has been so many years now since I have regularly visited but I hope it
helps. Things were very different out there.
> [Original Message]
> From: <Richard.Wilson@s...>
> To: oldtools <oldtools@c...>
> Cc: oldtools <oldtools@c...>
> Date: 1/13/2004 3:42:35 AM
> Subject: RE: [oldtools] Content - absence of - and fixing stool tops
question
>
> John felt I was aiming at him when he wrote . . . .
>
> >So Richard I'm sorry if I have offended you in any way. 
>
> And I've assured him I wasn't, but I thought it appropriate to make a 
> public appeal to him to expand on . . .
>
> >I went up north to my
> >grandpa's old house. I was taught to keep tools sharp and we
>
> and 
>
> >I can share the
> >proper technique for using a scythe or a sickle because I've spent dozens
> >of hours using both. 
>
>
>
> I, for one, find accounts from real users of how to be 'using' tools that 
> we've rescued from being rust baskets to be more valuable than the 
> straightforward story of how to recondition it in the first place.  Just 
> what kind of an edge did a 'professional' user aim for?  Just how *do*
you 
> tune up a scythe to your personal needs ( did anyone else keep Don 
> McDonnell's treatise on adze set-up ? it's invaluable) 
>
> So, John - keep 'em coming!
>
>
> Richard Wilson
> Yorkshireman Galoot with a rock solid stool framework awaiting finishing
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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