I’ve been sent some photos from Michael Stibane in Germany of his peening station which his great-grandfather, who was a cartwright, produced and sold.
Peening is done on a flat anvil and by altering the string on the upright pole, the angle of the blade on the anvil can be altered. Peening with the scythe blade and snath attached is common where they are joined together using a simple collar and wedge. Fitting and securing them is more time consuming than with a modern collar so once the blade is set up correctly and fixed, they are kept together so as not to disturb the arrangement.
Michael says:
The can is for water. I learned, while peening, you have to apply water from time to time to the point of the blade you are peening. So I dip the hammer into water every ten or twenty strokes. Grandpa told me, it tempers the steel. Seems logic to me: hammer-steel-deformation-heat-water-tempering
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As far as I know the peening station is not traditional for my area (Eastern Ore Mountains). Most of our people here have a flat anvil on a wooden stand with a peg. They stick it into the ground on a slope, sit down on the grass face to valley and start peening away with snath attached.
I’m not sure about the tempering theory for the water but I have seen knifemakers wet their hammer while forging which then gives the steel a ‘polished’ surface.
Follow the link to see all the photos, including measurements, of the peening station.
Michael also sent me a link to a Hay Camp taking place in the Eastern Ore mountains near Dresden July 6th – 22th 2012. If you go, please email me a report!
Later this week I’m teaching a 1-to-1 course on green wood bowl carving for Sam Robinson, one of the Bill Hogarth Coppice apprentices. It’s something I really enjoy doing, partly because it uses such a simple tool kit, my hollowing adze and large hook knife being principal among them. Sam has done a little carving already and is looking for some tuition to improve his efficiency with the tools and final finish. I also want to spend time with him focusing on design and the overall balance and shape of his bowls.
On Sunday I organised a group of volunteers, the NW scythe ‘gang’, to do some coppicing in Edward & Romola Acland’s woods. It’s a 2 acre hazel with standards woodland that Edward & Romola have been working for about 20 years. When they bought it, it was overstood and hadn’t been worked for around 30 years. Since then they’ve brought it back to a beautiful example of coppice almost entirely using hand tools. This was a chance for us to see a well-managed and productive woodland and learn about the many products that are cut from each hazel stool including hedging stakes, bean poles, pea sticks, garden stakes and of course firewood.
The inner side of this bark is much darker than of the spring bark so I started to wonder if this is ‘winter bark’. In countries with a tradition of working with birch bark, bark is harvested in the dormant season for the darker coloured layer inside. This is scraped away to reveal the lighter bark underneath and make patterns and designs on the finished work, like these baskets by 
The first stage of sharpening a scythe is to peen the blade, drawing out the edge to thin it and give the right bevel angle. When you start out, the peening jig designed and made by Schroeckenfux along with Peter Vido is a good way to go; it’s quick to learn, relatively foolproof (but not without some care and attention) and will give consistent results. As your mowing progresses though you’ll start to see the limitations of the jig and want to learn to peen your scythe freehand with hammer and anvil. This will enable you to achieve a finer edge, different bevels for different vegetation and more control over the whole process.
When I started out peening, I cleaned up and handled an old carpenters hammer which served me well but wasn’t quite heavy enough. About a year ago I was visiting Gerhard Wagner in Austria and he explained that the hammer should be heavy enough to do the work simply from the force of letting it fall rather than actively ‘hitting’ the blade and suggested using hammer with a head weight of around 600g. There were a few other factors I wanted and, after a lot of searching I finally bought my new peening hammer earlier this year.
Made by Britool and sold as a riveting hammer, it has a nicely designed head with a rectangular cross-section at the flat face. It also has a cross-peen face and weighs in at 650g so ideal for peening. When it arrived I used some wet and dry paper to soften the sharp bevels at the edges of the flat face and shortened the handle so it’s now just 160mm long. To maintain accuracy and consistency in your peening it helps to tuck the elbow of your hammer hand into your side, restricting it’s movement. A longer handle prevents you doing this as it catches on your thigh and since you’re only using the hammer’s own weight, the extra leverage of a long handle isn’t necessary.
I’ve just been sent the dates for this year’s International Haymaking Festival in Transylvania. The fourth festival will take place on 19-26 August 2012 in Gyimes, Transylvania. 
If you need more convincing that the area is special and that mowing is for everyone, in May HRH Prince Charles visited the project and had a go with a scythe. It turns out he’s been visiting the area for years and likes it so much that he has a home out there.
I’ve just bought another two man crosscut saw, this one is 6ft long and looks like it has Champion teeth. I love the reason for selling:
