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Scythe lawn mowing?
Is there somebody using a scythe to mow the lawn? This is ordinary
mixed lawn-length grass, not wheat or anything. I've done an acre a couple of times, and fooled around on odd corners; there's a couple questions. Here's one. How easy grass is to cut depends hugely on what kind of grass is growing in the particular area, and on time of day (moist and cool is easier). The universal failure mode, though, is that the blade edge (razor sharp though it is) picks up clumps of grass as it travels from right to left, so the grass on the left (final) edge of the cut doesn't see much bare blade and is not well cut. The right edge is cut cleanly to the ground, as it should be. I can't find a swing style (different haft angles, different blade angles, different toe to heel pressure of the blade) that eliminates this effect, short of deliberately cutting above the ground entirely, so that not so much grass gets hit (sort of levelling the grass, like a rotary mower). Can somebody diagnose the clogged blade-edge problem? When grass adheres to your blade edge in growing clumps as the swing progresses from right to left, you should ... ? I use Austrian blades, sharpen every 5 minutes or so (it's better when sharpened), European style scythe; not the American stamped blades. A lot of lengths, 22" to 36". Which one does best at a particular time with particular patches of grass also varies mysteriously. Taking a sharpened blade, any of them, and running them idly along some bit of grass with no speed or pressure, causes the grass to fall onto the blade satisfyingly. The trick is to get the grass to do that for the length of a real swing, somehow. -- Ron Hardin On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk. |
#2
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Scythe lawn mowing?
On Sat, 07 Aug 2004 21:35:14 GMT, Ron Hardin
wrote: Is there somebody using a scythe to mow the lawn? This is ordinary mixed lawn-length grass, not wheat or anything. snippity snip Hi Ron, It has been awhile since I last searched for scythe info. The following site popped up and looks interesting. They even have a Quicktime video. Maybe it will give you some info, provided you haven't already came across it. http://www.scytheconnection.com/adp/contents.html My grandfather was the scythe expert, long since deceased. I was too young to appreciate him and his knowledge back then He even mowed his lawn with it, especially when the lazy grandson didn't get it done with the new fandangled mower in a timely manner... -- Leon Fisk Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b Remove no.spam for email |
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