All I can say is wow. I wish I was still able to work like that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVv597m848s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVv597m848s
- Thread starter L.Fure
- Start date
old popper
Well-known Member
When I was stationed in Germany in '64,'65,&66, there was an old farmer in the village that took his scythe over his shoulder, and rode his bicycle 3 or 4 kilometers to the hay field. He then would cut hay into windrows just like the video. When done, scythe on shoulder, rode the bike back home. I don't know how old he was, but looked every bit of mid 60s to mid 70s.
I have a scythe with a brush blade on it. I might sharpen it up and give it a try. There are a lot of instructional videos on Youtube that show you how to peen and sharpen a blade. There is also videos on how to swing the blade. Apparently I've been doing it wrong for years.
gtractorfan
Well-known Member
Looks kinda like Laura Ingalls in the Little House on the Prairie. What's she trying to do? Save the planet?
If you have never swung a scythe, it would be hard to imagine how it could be done so effortlessly. Stand straight, don't stoop, let your body pivot and boy it tires me to even tell you this! She is not cutting weeds with variable toughness, she is not standing on an unlevel piece of ground, all of which stresses one terribly. Watch her bearing, steadyness of cadence....just the kind of thing soldiers have to do marching long distances.
I used a cutter like that to trim ditch weeds before we ever heard of weed whackers. Weed whackers are slow, heavy and always keeping you off balance. Difficulties mount when cutting giant ragweed, volunteer trees and bull thistles. That blade has to be razor sharp, hence the whetstone in her back pocket for if she snagged a fence wire, sapling or rock, the blade must sharpened right away and a drink of water would be good too. I have one of those cutters, over 100 years old and it winded me within minutes..I just couldn't get the balance any more at near 80years of age. IaLeo
I used a cutter like that to trim ditch weeds before we ever heard of weed whackers. Weed whackers are slow, heavy and always keeping you off balance. Difficulties mount when cutting giant ragweed, volunteer trees and bull thistles. That blade has to be razor sharp, hence the whetstone in her back pocket for if she snagged a fence wire, sapling or rock, the blade must sharpened right away and a drink of water would be good too. I have one of those cutters, over 100 years old and it winded me within minutes..I just couldn't get the balance any more at near 80years of age. IaLeo
yup, it's all in the technique. When I was in college I worked for several asphalt paving companies. When I started, I was worn out in no time slinging shovels of asphalt for areas the paver couldn't reach.
End of my first year, I could stand ankle deep in a pile of hot asphalt and spread it without hardly breaking a sweat. We used to have races.
Same thing goes for running a jack-hammer. I could run a 90 lb jackhammer all day checking out the young women as they drove by in their cars. It was all in the technique. We wore no hard hats or yellow vests. Just a pair of sunglasses on a hot summer day showing off our buff tanned torsos. If I tried that today at 65 I probably wouldn't last 15 minutes and I'm in decent shape for my age. Oh, to be young again. I'm sure lots of you guys spent your youth getting buff stacking hay in the middle of a summer in a hot barn.
End of my first year, I could stand ankle deep in a pile of hot asphalt and spread it without hardly breaking a sweat. We used to have races.
Same thing goes for running a jack-hammer. I could run a 90 lb jackhammer all day checking out the young women as they drove by in their cars. It was all in the technique. We wore no hard hats or yellow vests. Just a pair of sunglasses on a hot summer day showing off our buff tanned torsos. If I tried that today at 65 I probably wouldn't last 15 minutes and I'm in decent shape for my age. Oh, to be young again. I'm sure lots of you guys spent your youth getting buff stacking hay in the middle of a summer in a hot barn.
We all learned how to use a scythe cutting weeds and light brush around my dads lumber piles at the
mill. If lumber wasn't selling most people would stop cutting, he kept sawing and when lumber started to
move he had it to sell. This was grade hardwood sold by the trailer load.
mill. If lumber wasn't selling most people would stop cutting, he kept sawing and when lumber started to
move he had it to sell. This was grade hardwood sold by the trailer load.
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