Loutfard's journal

[loutfard]

July 1st. I'm at the summer house. My wife is still wrapping things up at home and will join me soon. Apart from wonderful friends as neighbours, quite a few others are scheduled to visit.

The plan for this week is a bit of a mix. I'm going to wrap up some loose ends of job and tax obligations. Also, various jobs in and around the house before my wife and our first guests arrive.

Episode 1: The grass

Keeping the grass around the house in check ourselves is one thing I'd like to get solved this summer. Last year, @Jean convinced me to try a scythe. It might be part of the answer. At the very least, it would provide a reliable backup for a second hand mechanised mower. That stuff tends to break and need maintenance. A scythe is simple. It does requires frequent maintenance, but that's super easy to diy. Also, it's definitely less prone to breaking.

I got the neighbour's scythe and his sharpening stone. The only thing we still needed was a peening anvil. He never had one. That was the main reason his scything experiment never went anywhere years ago and he bought a lawnmower. We went to all the shops in the area looking for one and were about to give up when we found one at the local equivalent of Ali Baba's cave. It's a shop with a tiny entrance and the most unusual stuff piled up high. 3.44€, and it's not even made in China!

Half an hour later, I had a more or less usable scythe. I cut about 100m² much faster than I would ever have thought. I'm still getting the feel, so it's not perfectly trimmed. Definitely usable though. A win as far as I'm concerned. I plan to try and do the rest bit by bit in the coming days. If this turns out to work as expected, it will be a big WOG win: 3.44€ in expenses for a usable way to mow the lawn, physical exercise, a happy wife, no petrol smell or engine noise, and quite a fulfilling feeling. What's not to like?

[loutfard]

I broke the crappy metal scythe snath (the "broomstick") after ~150 m² of cutting. It was the cheapest thing that resembles a scythe at about 20€ new and had been sitting unused in my friend's shed, so not a catastrophe.

The experiment did give me confidence that a scythe is the right tool for this job though. With a decent one, I could do a large part of the garden better than with anything else. I see mostly advantages:
- muscle power instead of electricity or petrol
- diy repairs instead of getting a car with trailer to bring machinery in for repair
- with the right choice of blade, easily cut nettles, brambles and whatnot
- safer to use and quieter than anything mechanised
- physical exercise
- ridiculously lower in cost

That would mean procuring and building some things, but nothing horribly expensive. The most expensive would be a decent blade at ~70€ excluding shipping. A Fux/Schröckenfux Hartstahl 70cm blade looks like the sweet spot. Universal use and high quality at a feasible price.

[Scordatura]

Alternative lawn care is one of the things in which I'm interested. I don't really want to store flammable liquids so close to the house, so I have a battery powered mower and a reel mower. I prefer the powered one for laziness. I can't say I love weed eaters (rock throwing potential) , I might switch to something more manual for edge work after reading your posts

Even if nothing long term comes from your experiment, you could do a pretty sick grim reaper costume for Halloween.

[Bytore]

...
- with the right choice of blade, easily cut nettles, brambles and whatnot

Scything is great! I used to do a bit of it, myself. Still have my scythe and three blades, although my snath needs some work. For anyone in the US, I can recommend ScytheSupply out of, I believe, Maine. A lot of their blades are sourced from a country in Eastern Europe.

How fortunate you are to have nettles! Do you make use of them for culinary/medicinal purposes?

[loutfard]

@Scordatura Quiet and no smell is one of the many reasons to research the hand tool.

@Bytore This is the first summer I can even think of anything garden for more than a few hours. Before, I was always juggling work on the house itself with nice people visiting and actually resting.

Not sure how nice nettles are this time of the year. They're getting a bit older already I suppose...

Do you have a company name for the eastern European scythe blades? To the best of my knowledge, Falci and Fux are quality brands and relatively affordable.

[Bytore]

...
Not sure how nice nettles are this time of the year. They're getting a bit older already I suppose...

Do you have a company name for the eastern European scythe blades? To the best of my knowledge, Falci and Fux are quality brands and relatively affordable.

Regarding the nettles, you are probably right regarding the age. Here in Oregon we harvest them in Spring and Fall. I used to sting myself with them, mostly in my shoulders.

Check out this link from the ScytheSupply website. The company names that make the blades are listed on there. https://scythesupply.com/blades.html I guess most of them do come from that Fux company.

*edited to add some company names:

-- Schroeckenfux
-- Redtenbacher

[loutfard]

Thank you for your attempt to help. Redtenbacher stopped production in 1987 though and is now a brand of Fux if I'm not mistaken.

There seems to also be a less well-known Turkish brand Günas. People in the know tell me their Emel series blades are supposed to be quite ok - also forged - and significantly cheaper.

Another alternative, Tovarna Kos from Slovenia, is supposed to be not bad either, but Günas Emel seems to be at a very good point on the price/quality curve.

[Jean]

I'm glad i was able to contribute positively to your home
What is fun with scything, is also that you get better at it. The progression makes it more fun.