I’m in Austria this week and have just attended the Sensenverein Osterreich (Austrian Scythe Association) end of year dinner which Christiane Lechner and I were invited to by Walter Blumauer.
The association has 220 members of which 31 turned out to enjoy the dinner and hear reports by chairman Hansjörg Rinner and treasurer Walter Blumauer. This year 19 courses were run with the members also attending and demonstrating at 14 other events. An interesting development is that the running of the scythe shop has been handed over to Silvanus, a company which deals principally with forestry equipment. This will be in conjunction with the association, who advise on products and take a commission from sales. This year 500 scythes were sold.
Hansjörg also unveiled the new peening jig which has been developed along with the Schroeckenfux scythe works. Although the current peening jig is a good tool for shaping the scythe blade edge it has some shortcomings and this new model will shortly replace it. We were lucky enough to be sitting at the same table as Adolf Staufer and Hubert Weingartner who both worked their whole lives in scythe production and are hugely knowledgeable. I enjoyed watching how they both examined the new jig and discussed it’s design with Adolf. I hope to get my hands on one to try out and review.
Scythe teachers in Austria all go through a training and assessment programme run by the Sensenverein. This is quite a testing process with teachers expected to have a high skill level and be able so set up and use the huge number of different snath-blade combinations which exist in Austria. This year 7 new teachers were trained, mostly from Germany and South Tirol. During my brief conversation with Hansjörg Rinner we talked about teaching mowing and he expressed his interest in me being the first englishman to take this training.
Erwin Zachl
After the reports we enjoyed a couple of short films made during the year of a scythe course and an event attended by the association, Erwin Zachl was given an award in recognition of running 9 scythe courses himself and we then had a selection of traditional xmas songs played on a quartet of dulcimers. Printed song sheets were provided so we could join in but as these were written in phonetic Austrian it was still a challenge for me!
With the Scythe Association (Britain & Ireland) in it’s fledgling days, it’s interesting to look to the Sensenverein which has been running since 2005 in a country with a strong, ongoing tradition of scythe use. I hope to establish links between the two organisation so see how we might learn from their experiences and help each other to promote the use of the scythe.
First we went into the bottom of the mill and brought out a Dunfanaghy curach built in the 50’s by Jack Robinson. Edward got his first curach at age 14 and told us the story of when his father took him to Mr Robinson’s workshop to buy a curach. “How much will it cost?” asked the rather straight-talking Mr Acland. Mr Robinson explained that the currach was “priced at one pound per foot. This one’s 7ft 6in, so that’ll be seven and a half pound.” “I’ll give you eight” came the reply.
The gunwales for our curach will be sawn from local spruce and the body of the boat made from hazel cut from Edward and Romola’s coppice wood. They’ve been managing the 2 acre site for 24 years, restoring it from a neglected and overstood coppice into a beautiful, productive woodland almost entirely by hand. We’ll be learning as we go along exactly what the ideal material looks like but there was no doubt that the woods were full of suitable rods, enough for a great flotilla of currachs.
I had a lot of fun at the weekend running my stall at Brantwood House. It was a beautiful weekend and something of a shame to spend it indoors but we were fortunately in a brilliant location in the Studio with a window overlooking Coniston Water. It is a beautiful spot and, on days like these, easy to see how it inspired John Ruskin while he lived here. I was running the stall with the help of my friend Susan who’s starting out as a basketmaker and did a good trade in willow stars. My fan birds were also selling well, catching nearly everyone’s eye as they entered the room especially once they realised that each bird is carved from a single, solid piece of wood.
Outside I met Bill Sanders, a trug maker from Shropshire. We talked about making and people we both know from the Greenwood Centre at Ironbridge. I particularly liked the caption on his sweatshirt which highlights how trug making is just one more traditional craft in danger of disappearing. While we chatted,Bill l carried on working on his trugs. Demonstrating your craft at shows like this helps you engage with visitors and show them your skills and the time involved in producing the products. It’s also a good way to keep up your stock and helps the day go by too. Although we were a bit more pushed for space up in the Studio, I brought along my chopping block and carved a few greenwood eating spoons from a lovely bit of cherry.
We’d been working hard all morning turning and raking down the hay and stacking it into pikes. It was a difficult morning, the heat was oppressive for us Brits and we struggled to understand Attila’s instructions on how he wanted us to be working. Once we’d finished, we returned to the courtyard tired and dirty. We ate an excellent meal prepared as always by Attila’s mother and girlfriend then settled down to relax for the rest of the day. Not half an hour later, Attila appeared and told us that he’d spotted his neighbours still working in the next field. There was no obligation, but he was going over to help and, if we wanted, we could join him to help them gather in their harvest before the coming thunder storm.
Off we went, half running up the lane with rakes and forks in hand while Attila shouted back that it was just like we’d been doing all morning, to work the same way. In the field we found the farmer with his son and daughter working to stack up a single pike while hay lay on the ground covering almost an half an acre of steep hillside. We set to work and suddenly everything fell into place and the confusions and irritations of the morning fell away, leaving an efficient haymaking team in its place. I could certainly feel the adrenalin running through me as we raced to beat the weather while lightning crashed around us. Everyone found unknown reserves of energy which at times came out as whoops of joy which were echoed back by others.
