Whatever the weather outside your window, summer is officially here as Simon Fairlie has just sent me the programme for this year’s Somerset Green Scythe Fair. This is the UK gathering for mowers and scythe enthusiasts. Nowhere else will hear the word ‘snath’ quite so many times in a single day or witness the unique ‘music’ of dozens of people hammering together on tiny anvils. The somerset festival is also the home of the National Scythe Championship where the best mowers meet each year to compete head to head.
In addition, this year the Scythe Association is hosting a special
SABI Mowers’ Day
on Saturday 16 June
which is the day before the
Green Scythe Fair
on Sunday 17 June
at Thorney Lakes, Muchelney, Langport, Somerset.
Programme for Saturday
Saturday Morning: Scythe Course for beginners and improvers with Christiane Lechner from Austria, Phil Batten and Simon Fairlie.
Also: Informal preparation, sharpening, peening and mowing. Test your blade on the famous Sharpometer.
Saturday Afternoon: Workshops on peening, haymaking, grassland management, mowing wheat, English scythes etc. Also “Gas about Grass” an informal get-together about all aspects of scythe use, led by Chris Riley.
Individual scythe tuition from Christiane Lechner and Steve Tomlin available.
Saturday evening: Scythe Association AGM followed by live music (jammers welcome, please bring your instrument).
Café/Restaurant and Bar on site.
Programme for Sunday
Mowing Championship Heats 11am – 2.15 pm
Team Mowing, Scythe v Strimmer, Kid’s Mowing, Haymaking Competition 12-2.30
Mowing Championship 3.30pm
Prizegiving 6pm
Also: music, ceilidh, speakers, theatre, craft area, kids area, healing area, over 70 stalls, local organic food, beer and cider.
Tickets
• Two day ticket: £15, plus £10 membership fee if you aren’t already a member. This includes everything except the course on Saturday morning.
• Two day ticket including beginner’s or improver’s course on Saturday morning: £50.
• Entry for Sunday only: £5.
Accompanied children free.
Free parking on site.
Camping: £10 per pitch.
Tickets available on the day, but please book beforehand for the course.
To book or for more information: ring 01297 561359, or email chapter7@tlio.org.uk
An important part of making the snath is getting the right rotation of the stem and aligning the handgrips with the blade. Draw an imaginary line through the two handgrips (or the place on the snath where your hand sits if there’s only a single grip) and note where this line crosses the scythe blade. There’s a ‘sweet spot’ on the blade about one third of the way along it’s length, measured from the heel. This is where the blade rides on the ground as it cuts and the handgrips should be in alignment with this point to direct your energy most effectively into the blade.
I’m fortunate that, through knowing Christiane Lechner, I can examine the snaths that Peter Vido made for her. In the top photo the camera was placed on the left-hand grip and you can see how the lower grip aligns with the sweet spot. On Rico’s snath, in the lower photo, the grip is rotated too far to the right.
The village of Bradwell in the Peak District is perhaps best known for it’s icecream. The Orchard Group, formed in 2009, hope that in the future there will be no end of fruit to go with the icecream! We have planted around 40 different varieties of fruit tree – many types of apple, and some pear, plum, gage and cherry. But scythers will not be surpised to learn what a handful our crop of grass is proving to be.
Last year members of the group brought scythes to some of our monthly work parties, cutting paths through the grass in June, and continuing in July and August. At the end of the year a local contractor was paid for some strimming so this year we are hoping to swell the ranks of scythers and improve our skills by hosting a mowing course. Recently we have been raking the orchard grass in preparation for the scythe course.
I had brought my kitchenware, chairs and fan birds and we arranged our marquee with polelathes, shavehorses signage designed to tempt people over to have a look and have a go. As I unpacked, I casually showed Gavin the toy helicopters I sometimes make. He was immediately taken by them and set me to making some more. Well, I pretty much spent the rest of the weekend carving ‘copters to try and keep up with Gavin’s amazing ability to sell them. Simple in a way; walk up to someone, offer to show them how it works and then wait for a break in their enjoyment to ask if they’d like to buy it to take home and continue the fun. By Sunday we had established the ‘Dalkeith Flying School’ and families, as well as buying a helicopter each for competitions, wanted their photo taken by the sign.
But hang on, I’m a craftsman and these are just gimmicks aren’t they; why am wasting my time on them? The simplest answer is that they gave a lot of pleasure to a lot of people and meant I went home with some cash in my pocket when other things weren’t selling. From a larger viewpoint I think that anything which engages the public with natural materials and the idea that they can make their own toys or whatever from local materials is a good thing.
In years to come thousands will claim to have been there but in truth a select bunch of six scythe folk turned up to Sprint Mill in Cumbria for International Peening Day. Huge numbers was never my objective and our group spent a really enjoyable and productive day together. Though it wasn’t a true teaching event I was of course happy to answer questions and help everyone out with their blades. There’s a lot to learn in peening; it’s a real skill which takes time, practice and timely advice to learn. It’s great to see people who’ve been on my ‘Learn to mow’ courses and are still mowing and I want them to continue enjoying it.
During the day we also took some time out to try a variety of push mowers, including a new Al-Ko 380HM Soft Touch Lawn Mower which 
