Grease and grit horns and probably a strickle

[mrcharly]

From what I know (and it is theoretical), the hammering 'draws' out the edge. If you didn't hammer, then continued sharpening would, after a while, result in a thick sickle edge. Sickles are used for cutting very thin and fragile stuff, so you need a similarly thin edge (just like you use a thin edge for shaving). So the peening draws out the edge, the sharpening with the sand does make for a 'saw tooth' sharpened edge like you said that is good for a slicing cut.

Billhooks are for chopping much thicker stuff, hence need the thick convex edge, not dissimilar to a splitting axe edge in profile. Most of the time you use them on green wood so they won't need sharpening very often.

 

[tombear]

The field anvil arrived just now, I'm pretty darned pleased with it. No visible markings. I'll just derust it and polish the striking face. The hammer head i'll blacken it and polish the last scratches out of the faces , remove the loose, thin modern handle and replace with a chunkier shorter one from ash held in place with a wooden wedge rather than the steel. wood butchering, job currently in place.

ATB

Tom

 

[Nomad64]

Does anyone know if hammering / preening was used on bill hooks and slashers for hedging or only for grass/cereals? I'm assuming that the edge angles are quite different.

I’m not an expert but I have been getting into scything recently. Nothing to do with Poldark - AFAIK I am pretty much 100% genetically from that corner of the world and can say with some certainty that Aidan Turner not only has terrible scything technique but doesn’t look like he’s ever eaten a pasty in his life!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MMTrblYIEgM

There are basically two types of scythe; Anglo/American and Austrian. The wormy old scythes you find in barns will almost certainly be Anglo/American scythes whereas pretty much all the teaching on scything courses is done with Austrian scythes. Having tried both, the Anglo/American scythe is a bit like Richard the Lionheart’s broadsword compared with the Austrian which is like Saladin’s scimitar. In competitions, the Austrian scythes are about a third quicker - I’ve got an American scythe but only because I found it in a barn.

The finer Austrian scythes are kept sharp with a cigar whetstone and peened perhaps once a day or if the edge is damaged by a stone etc. Peening jigs are used by noobs and pretty much anyone who is not an expert to get a consistent edge.

Lots of vids on Utube

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fEqAmrc4H3k

Anglo/American scythes are sharpened with a grinding wheel and whetstone.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yK8KVgM7WAM

My great grandfather was a blacksmith and assume he taught my grandfather and father to sharpen their tools and I never saw either of them peening a billhook, slasher or sickle - but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t done.

Interesting thread - I love old tools, today I have been using the long handled Cornish shovel my grandfather took with him the day he left the clayworks. Not the original handle and about a third of steel is worn away but I get a warm and fuzzy feeling using it!

 

[tombear]

Sorry for the delay in finishing this. Finally found a bit of broken pick axe helve (ash I think, outside chance its hickory) and carved a handle for the peening hammer head. I also gave the faces of the head and field anvil a tidy.

Will make a bigger strickle if we get a scythe.

ATB

Tom

 

[Dave Budd]

nice selection of tools there I dunno how I missed this thread before!

I like the strickle and horns. I might have to make some of those for the next TORM

I use a scythe in my woods and as mentioned above, I bought an Austrian one. Aside from what I already knew, the information that I got with it and after speaking to scything teachers that I know, the peening is to thin the blade just behind the edge and thus reducing the shoulder that you get as the blade gets thicker. It also hardens the steel where the edge is needed but leaving the rest soft and ductile so as to not be proven to snapping. As I use mine solely in the woods, I bought blades specific to the heavy use that woodlan flora is made of rather than grass as the normal larger anglo american mowers' scythes are used for. The mowers scythes are always peened to thin the edge as it makes it much easier to cut the grass that would otherwise just be pushed over if you left the edge thick. For rough use (ie brambles, tough weeds, woodland flora, etc) the information all says to not peen or only to peen when the blade has worn back a long way and is thickening. Mostly that is because the vegetaion is much sturdier and so a thin blade is less important, but also to allow for a tougher edge (convex).

The same is true of sickles. Some sickles are for harvesting fine and weak stems and other sickles are used for tougher woody stems' some are for cutting a single stem and others for a sweeping cut like a scythe. I've never heard of the majority of sickles being peened, but I have come across one that was and that was a very thin and lightweight blade that was maybe 14"

 

[tombear]

Cheers, all interesting stuff! Because it will be for grass and grain and there's a element of for show and tell it will be a Anglo-American I'll be after. Specifically I'm looking for a old one piece Tyzack blade rather than the sort with the back riveted on. We've been to Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet a couple of times and have a soft spot for stuff made there.

Whether i manage to luck out and get one in restorable condition is another thing.

My plans to get hold of some White Park cattle horns seams to have come to nought, I've hastled the people at the breed society as much as i'm comfortable with. Way it goes.

I couldn't resist this one, had to be done!

ATB

Tom