Author Archives: stevetomlin

Russian Snaths

The production company for ‘Anna Karenina’ have decided they want 30 extras for the mowing scene with Levin. At the beginning of the week I was commissioned to make the straight Russian-style snaths for everyone. Since time is short and … Continue reading

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Cumbria Scythe Weekend – Team Mowing

The Sunday of our Cumbria Scythe Weekend was a group mowing day for members of the ‘North West Mowing Group’. This is mostly folk who met when I was teaching at the Scythe Festival in Elterwater last July. We meet … Continue reading

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Cumbria Scythe Weekend

What a weekend! Under glorious blue skies I spent two fantastic days of mowing at Sprint Mill near Kendal. On Saturday I ran the second of my ‘Mowing with an Austrian Scythe’ courses for a group of 6 students. This … Continue reading

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Rust cleaning

It’s summertime and the living is a bit hectic but exciting with all the current scythe goings-on so not much time for making. Charlie and I are getting close to finishing the cleft-oak signposts  and, when I get a spare … Continue reading

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Extra Extra!

In amongst all the other goings-on at this year’s Somerset Scythe Festival was a woman searching out extras for a scene in the new Anna Karenina film starring Jude Law and Keira Knightley. By all accounts there’s a scene featuring … Continue reading

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Haystack Race

Almost forgot, the ‘Haystack Race’ was won by Simon Fairlie and Mike Ingram of ‘Team Pitchfork’.  What the winning time was, or how a winner was even chosen is beyond me.      

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Somerset 2011 – race times

As a follow-up to the race report, here’s all the times and quality marks for the individual competition along with a couple of photos of the expert team of judges and Simon Fairlie, festival organiser, scythe importer, compere and horn-blower. … Continue reading

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Somerset Scythe Festival 2011 – the results

I’ve been going to the Somerset Scythe Festival since it started in 2005 and, in those 6 years, we’ve had sunshine for every event bar the odd short shower. So maybe we were due some rain and this year we … Continue reading

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Back from the 7th Somerset Scythe Festival

Just back from the my trip away to Edale and then Somerset. A week full of steel, blades, mowing and some rain. A brilliant week; such a lot happened that I’ll take a day or two to sort through the … Continue reading

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Sharpening and strickles

As every mower soon learns keeping ones blade sharp is one of the key elements to success with a scythe.  After four years of practice I can make a reasonable job of sharpening, but I am not yet satisfied that … Continue reading

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