Photos from two fantastic days teaching beginners from eastern Scotland how to use Austrian scythes on courses hosted at Burmieston, a beautiful venue near Perth. Keejse & Olly really looked after us with a fabulous homemade lunch and refreshments throughout the day.
I’ll be teaching beginners scythe courses at Burmieston and other venues in 2018 so if you’re interested, sign up to my newsletter to receive details.
I was very excited to be teaching my latest Learn to Scythe course as the venue was Hullard Park in Trafford, Manchester just 10 minutes from my new home.
Lots of people have asked why I moved to the city and assume that it’s all concrete but there are actually lots of green spaces around and brilliant communities of actively engaged people looking after them.
The wildflower meadow at Hullard Park has been a bit neglected for the last couple of years so it was tangled in places but with loads of plant species in there I’m confident that it will soon become a beautiful meadow. I’ll be getting involved as a volunteer as well as teaching people how to scythe and hopefully we’ll start to make hay from the meadow in the future
Many thanks to Polly for organising the day and everyone who attended.
I’ve been scything in Lancaster city this summer, cutting the grass and other vegetation from the earthworks around the Castle. Some of the areas have been seeded with a wildflower meadow seed mix, others are rank grass and some like in the photo are rougher. Here I was scything a mixture of brambles, hogweed, rosebay willowherb and other tough weeds on a slope. Hopefully you can make out the clock on the church tower- 1 hour to clear the area.
Just the Job is a charity and social enterprise empowering adults with disabilities to achieve their potential by doing valuable work in the community. This weekend I travelled up to their site in Richmond, North Yorkshire to teach some of their volunteers how to use an Austrian scythe.
It’s great to work with groups like this as they can immediately start to support each other learning the skills by doing them together.
Sharpening was next. We were joined by Emily who is just about to start studying conservation at university so I hope she will continue using her scything skills in that.
Their wildflower meadow hadn’t been cut for a year so was overgrown and tangled in places but I showed the group how to work through those difficult areas using the scythe with less effort. We left the burnet to continue to develop its seeds while mowing the rest of the meadow.
We then ended the day with a session on how to peen an Austrian scythe using the peening jig. It seems like Steve and Trevor will be taking on this task for the group so I made sure they got some hands-on practise with it.
Just the Job are keen to develop links with other people using scythes in their area so get in touch with Steve or Bridgette if you’re interested.
Helping Britain Blossom is working with community orchards around Leeds and asked me to deliver a Learn to Scythe course for some of their volunteers. I think you’ll agree that we make an awesome looking team and got a massive amount of grass in the wildflower meadow cut too.
Contact alan@theorchardproject.org.uk if you’d like to get involved.
I’ve been running my Learn to Scythe courses at the lovely Brigflatts Quaker Meeting House for a few years now. It’s a gorgeous venue and been brilliant to see how the meadow has improved thanks to the regular mowing of my students.
This year, the warden has been away a lot dealing with family business and his wife mentioned that they hadn’t had chance to cut the grass in the burial ground. So I spent a pleasant couple of hours one evening mowing the area for them.
The scythe is the perfect tool for burial grounds and churchyards. The quiet atmosphere isn’t disturbed, there are no fumes or pollution and the scythe doesn’t damage any of the stones. I’ve taught a few courses for groups managing areas like this and hope that more will follow. If you have a group that would like to learn, I can come and teach you at your own site – email me stevetomlin8@gmail.com for more details.
I was back up to Cumbria this week to teach a Learn to Scythe course for a group of friends in Glassonby near Penrith. I used to live up here so it was great to be back and the views of Cross Fell were fantastic.
The group are a mix of smallholders and volunteers at the nearby National Trust Acorn Bank property. Scythes are being used on the property since I taught the warden there back in 2010 so it’s very satisfying to see that they are increasing their use by training up new people.
A recent student just sent me this terrific poem by R. S. Thomas. I love the energy and message in it.
Lore
Job Davies, eighty-five
Winters old, and still alive
After the slow poison
And treachery of the seasons.
Miserable? Kick my arse!
It needs more than the rain’s hearse,
Wind-drawn to pull me off
The great perch of my laugh.
What’s living but courage?
Paunch full of hot porridge
Nerves strengthened with tea,
Peat-black, dawn found me
Mowing where the grass grew,
Bearded with golden dew.
Rhythm of the long scythe
Kept this tall frame lithe
What to do? Stay green.
Never mind the machine,
Whose fuel is human souls
Live large, man, and dream small.
This afternoon I peened a couple of scythe blades that I’ve been using for some contract work at Lancaster Castle. The peening jig is a brilliant tool, easy to use and when done well produces a very tidy and well-shaped edge in a short time.
Peening is the process of reshaping the blade to form the bevel into a shallower angle. The peening jig simplifies this process as the accuracy is, to a large extent, built into the tool.
These two photos show the bevel after peening with the two caps, the first cap creates a groove a few mm back from the edge and the second cap then smooths and thins the area towards the edge.
A single pass with each of the caps can be enough to create a good bevel angle but I like to make a third pass, repeating cap no 2 but this time holding the edge of the blade slightly away from the guide post. This allows the jig to peen the scythe right to the edge and gives a finer shape.
I peened my 65cm Ditch blade and my Hahnsense, also 65cm long. The Hahnsense, which used to be called a Stone blade, is very similar to a Ditch blade but with a more curved belly. They’re both brilliant all-rounder blades for cutting everything from meadow grass to nettles, brambles and even small scrub.
With a nice, steady rhythm it took me about 45mins to peen both blades including getting my gear and packing up. A quick sharpen with a whetstone and the blades are ready for mowing later this week.
I am teaching a one day scythe peening workshop for Austrian scythes on 15th October at Slaidburn, Lancashire. Come and learn how to peen a scythe blade, how to repair cracks and meet up with other mowers at a lovely farm location. It’s a great way to finish off the mowing season. If you’d like to book a place, please email me at stevetomlin8@gmail.com
A busy day today, teaching eight students how to scythe at RHS Garden Harlow Carr in Harrogate, Yorkshire. Lots of fun mowing the wildflower meadow in the arboretum but only time to take a single photo.
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