A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to teach Patrick Grant of The Great British Sewing Bee, how to scythe at his home. Here’s his article for the Financial Times : Patrick Grant scythePatrick Grant scythe
Find out more about my Learn to Scythe courses and discover how to manage your land efficiently, safely and with no more strimmer noise and fumes.
I will be holding a scythe peening workshop at Bell Sykes Farm, Slaidburn, Lancashire on 4th Oct 2024. Learn how to peen a scythe using the jig and we will also cover making repairs and an in-depth look at sharpening.
Places cost £100, please email stevetomlin8[at]gmail.com to book
Note that this workshop is intended for existing scythers and will not cover how to scythe.
Last week I was hired to teach Patrick Grant how to scythe at his home. The clothier, author and presenter of The Great British Sewing Bee is writing a new column for the Financial Times Weekend about managing his land using traditional techniques and skills. Scything fits perfectly with this as a traditional method for managing long grasses instead of a strimmer.
He’s a lovely guy and a great student, quickly picking up the skills and neatly scything the lawn.
RHS Bridgewater at Salford is a new RHS Garden close to where I live so it was terrific to be asked to teach their staff how to cut a meadow using scythes.
During the workshop we looked at how to set up an Austrian scythe, how to hone and sharpen the blade and, of course, how to scythe long meadow grass efficiently and easily. We had a brilliant time and I look forward to going back to see how their meadows develop over the years.
I’ve just been over near York, teaching the garden staff at Sledmere House how to cut the long grass in their meadows with a scythe.
The meadow is really well maintained and the team wanted to find a more sustainable method that is also still efficient – scything is the answer!
They all did an amazing job and I left 3 happy new scythers eager to carry on with their new skills.
If you want to learn how to carve fan birds, I teach fan carving workshops and also have an instruction pdf available in my etsy store.
The Fan bird carving pdf download takes you through the step by step method I teach during my fan bird courses and workshops. Learning in person is much better but, if you can’t get to a course, the instructions will get you carving on your own.
Although it is always best to learn practical skills in person, I recognise that not everyone is able to attend one of my Learn to Scythe courses.
The next best option is to learn from my Learn to Scythe book which I wrote back in 2014 and have since sold thousands of copies to happy scythers around the world. Here’s a great review:
This was given as a present for someone wanting to learn to scythe. It was easy to follow and he became fairly adept at scything quite quickly, to the extent that it became quicker to scythe awkward areas of longer grass than attempt to use any type of mower. So very successful, item also arrived quickly.
Hay Time at High Hirst
Sunday 21st July – Sunday 4th August 2024
Experienced and/or enthusiastic scythers – and especially SABI members! – are keenly invited to help us mow our whole meadow this year.
Join us for a day or more on the edge of the delightful West Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge in our efforts to restore this ancient hay meadow. We’ll be mowing and haymaking from 9am into the evening each day, weather permitting*, over the two week period.
For further details or contact Neil Diment, High Hirst Woodmeadow Project Volunteer, e: neil@ndiment.co.uk or m: 07821 620680.
*N.B. If the weather forecast is poor, it would be advisable to call Neil – or check out the daily Hay Time post on the ‘High Hirst Woodmeadow Project’ Facebook page – before setting out for the day.
For those wanting to join us for more than one day, s/c hostel accommodation at £30/night is available just 5mins from High Hirst Woodmeadow on Sat 20th – Sun 21st or Fri 26th – Sun 28th July at the IOU Hebden Bridge Hostel. You can book via www.hebdenbridgehostel.org
In between teaching courses, I’ve been doing a little spoon carving with some gorgeous spalted silver birch. The patterning in the grain makes each spoon beautifully unique with natural decoration. On this teardrop shape eating spoon, I carved a ball finial to finish off the handle.
Find these new spoons in my etsy store
Lovely review from Caroline who was part of the group learning to scythe on my workshop in Cumbria.
Thanks for an absolutely brilliant course on Saturday – it’s one of the best things I’ve done in ages and having worked in training and teaching for many years I was so impressed by your teaching ( as well as scything) skills. Compared with a bicycle maintenance course I did a few years ago it was way off the scale in terms of being easy to follow and understand how the whole thing works. There was a lot to take in ( and a lot of practice now needed on my uneven and hilly little plot of so I’ll be interested in your refresher course when you sort a date.
Find out more about my scything courses on my website: Learn to Scythe
