Looking for a small forged sickle to restore

[tombear]

This could equally go in Homestead or resources but I thought id try here.

I'm looking for a small sickle or grass hook to restore to use / demonstrate in the lads Anglo Saxon garden we are working on. When I work out how ill put up a couple of pics from the British Library , attributed to the first half of the 11th C that show what I'm after but the briefly it needs to have a stick tang, be forged rather than stamped from sheet, not so badly rusted that the pitting can't be removed and be semi circular in shape. More like a grass hook in my opinion.

if I had the spare cash I'd love to have a blade made up by one of the smiths here but realistically finding a old one to do up myself is more like it.

Happy to pay or swap something here's!

cheers!

Tom

 

[Lord Farquhar]

Ebay had loads of old ones for sale. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/individua...uipment_HandTools_SM&var=&hash=item48676eff28 for example.

A car boot sale would be the best place to find one on the cheap though.

 

[tombear]

I finally turned up an near perfect blade for this project, had to pay three quid for it but it's well worth it. The handles completely shot , very wormy. Is marked with a partial Elephant "Nonpareil" stamp along with a 0 for size and "W.TYZACK SONS & TURNER" so the steels going to be good.

Incudentally i I also picked up rather a fine, huge and heavy farriers rasp and file for 2 quid, Thomas Firth and Sons, Norfolk Works, Sheffield. Since file manufacture moved to another site in about 1863 it has to be from before that I reckon. The wooden folding ruler is a imperial scale Rabone, it should respond to oxcilic acid well, there's a chip in the wood but nowt major.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

Once the handle is off the first thing I need to do is bend the tang where it meets the blade over a few degrees to the right in the picture in the last post so that its nearer a right angle. The only heat source I have is a blow torch but I do have a large iron vice to clamp the blade part in to be a heat sink so the blade part hopefully won't heat up and lose its temper while I briefly heat up a small section of the tang. If there's a proper/ better way of doing the job I'll be grateful to hear it.

Heres the shape I'll be aiming for, from a early 11th century manuscript showing hay making.

Specifically the one in the guy who's looking right hand. I've the patience to grind extremely slowly with lots of cooling so the metal hardly warms up and good files for finishing the tip.

Even allowing for artistic licence the handles have notable lips top and bottom it would seam and since all the early sickles I've seen have turned handles I'll be making something like a big bobbin on the lathe, probably out of beech. Not as chunky as in the manuscript but along those lines. Currently there's a long piece of the tang bent back on the handle of the donor blade, I'll cut off the handle and with heat try and straighten that. I need to find out what the usual method of fixing a low end late Saxon knife handle was, whether the tang didn't protrude from the handle , was clenched over a washer of some sort ( probably square or diamond shaped rather than round ) or what. So far as I know no definitely Saxon sickle has survived but there's plenty of knives including a fair few with the handles still attached.

ATB

Tom

 

[mrcharly]

Good picture.

Look at the guy in the extreme left. Holding a clump of wheat and slicing it off with the sickle. That's the way to do it. Grasp what you want to cut. Put blade of sickle behind it. Slice off with sickle.

 

[tombear]

The handle was so wormy the thing crushed off , a little blow torching and tapping on the small anvil on the vice and the bent over rail on the tang straightened up. Using the vice as a heat sink and the bits I didn't want heating up wet I heated up the part where the blade joined the tank, tapping it until it bent enough for me, being careful to keep it straight and the blade

I've used a silver Sharpy to mark the rough final shape I'm aiming for. I'll use a grinding wheel to take off most of the metal , cooling a excessive amount then finish off with a power file and hand files. Then I'll derust it in a acid bath and sharpen and finish with stones.

ATB

Tom

 

[mrcharly]

err - I'd urge you not to take it off to a point at the top.

The sickle should be hammered to a hollow shape, and if you have a pointy end you'll struggle to acheive that. You want a good thickness of blade tapering very rapidly towards the edge, then very thin for the final cm before the edge. In use, the hollow side of the blade is uppermost.

 

[tombear]

Ah, well, it's done now and all the illustrations and early medieval examples show them coming to a fine ish point and the only extant examples from a little later than the Saxons I've seen have had wedge cross sections with the blade probably sharpened on just the top side. Not very efficient or best practice but it's for demonstration rather than proper use.

it could have been some sort of artistic convention that all the illustrations show pointy tips but I'll go along with it. Some had serrated edges I've read but that sounds like too much work!

Its now in the derusting acid bath along with the big file I got, The rest I'll do with hand tools, sharpening stones and files.

From what I've found out the odd Saxon knife handle has a tang peened over but the vast majority had tangs that wouldn't have reached the end of a hand sized handle, some bearly a third of the that so I'll be going for a push fit and pine tar based glue. I'm not completely happy with the idea of a round section grip, I've had stuff turn in my hand before now so once it's fitted I may scrape and sand the sides into a oval cross section.

atb

Tom

 

[tombear]

Well here it is completely derusted and sharpened with a cigar shaped scythe stone. I'll tape up the cutting edge before I fit the handle. I could have took it down to completely bare metal and made it all shiny and smooth but it's a agricultural tool not a presentation piece!

now to turn the handle.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

And half a charity shop rolling pin later, ta da!

I drilled the centre out on the lathe, used a special thinned down pad saw blade and a square section permagrit to open the slot up for the shortened tang. I knew the hole was about spot on but I wet myself with each whack of the mallet thinking it would split. With much relief I sealed it in with hot pine tar and charcoal glue. It's had a half hour in the linseed oil tank and I'll put it back in for 24 hrs.

I'm happy with it and short of having one forged from scratch its pretty much in keeping with what little is known of the real thing.

I barrelled the handle a bit to fit my hand nicely, I may make a sheath for it in due coarse, just to store it safely, in the meantime some split tubing will do, taped on.

ATB

Tom