In the depths of winter, when there’s not much around to mow the next best thing is to meet up with friends and spend the evening talking about scythes and mowing. Following on from the National Scythe Association meeting the other week, Paul Kingsnorth, Ian Pettman and I gathered together in the ‘Old Friends’ pub in Ulverston to discuss ideas for the NW group. This group came about following the mowing course at the 1st Cumbria Scythe Festival and led to a number of meet-ups which we’re keen to build on this year. With this active local scene and just the three of us meeting, this seems in many ways to me like a much more exciting and dynamic project and we each came away with a healthy list of action points.
To whet your appetite, here’s a few of the items we’re pursuing:
- improved Cumbria Scythe Festival to build on last year’s success
- a full programme of courses including mowing, peening, rake and snath-making
- the opening of a NW branch of the Scythe Shop
- demonstrations and information stands at shows and fairs around the region
- hay-making weekend
- involvement with local conservation & orchard groups to teach the techniques & benefits of managing their land with a scythe
- local oral history research project
- training a NW mowing team
We’ll be putting up dates and progress on these as they happen – click on the ‘sign me up’ button in the sidebar to get the news as it happens.
The last time I was visiting my girlfriend in Austria we found a hewing axe blade rusting away outside in a chopping block. It was in a pretty sorry state with no handle, rust and some horrendous dents and nicks in the blade. The owner told us he used it for splitting kindling and cutting bones and had no idea what it’s real purpose was. My enthusiasm must have won him over because in the end he said I could have it if I thought it would actually be any use to me.
As a greenwood worker from working-class stock, I wasn’t too familiar with working with gold leaf but some advice from John Meadows of Habberley Meadows made it seem easy enough to have a go. Each coil was wound up flat to make the job easier and the edge covered in ‘size’- a PVA gilder’s glue. The gold leaf, which is attached to a sheet of tissue paper, is then simply rubbed onto the surface like a posh transfer. We’re cautious not to spoil the 
natural beauty of the wood with too much gold so hopefully a 2mm line will be enough to catch the light without being too ‘bling’.
