International Peening Day 2013

Grab your hammers, it’s time for International Peening Day again! (cue fanfare)
Last year was great fun with  group of us getting together in Cumbria to sharpen up our scythes and push-mowers while others took part across the UK, in Germany, Austria, the USA and more.
This year it will be on Sunday 7th April. I know a few of you think that I picked 1st April deliberately last year but in truth it was just conincidence that the first sunday fell on that date. It’s also an odd date for those of you who scythe in the southern hemisphere and are just coming to the end of your mowing season. Nevermind, that’s also a great time to peen, so your blades get put away sharp – just make sure you protect them from the rust.
For anyone who’s new to the scythe, peening is the process of hammering out the edge of the blade to make it thinner and give it the correct bevel angle as the first stage in sharpening. It’s the same part of the sharpening process as grinding a chisel except here the work is done with a hammer and anvil or a jig. This way, there’s no chance of burning the delicate edge and you aren’t grinding away steel, rather pulling it out from the body of the scythe blade.
This April I’ll be in Sweden so hopefully meeting up with some scythe experts over there. The real reason I’m there is to do with my woodworking, read about it on the Steve Tomlin Crafts blog.
Get together with friends, share tips and techniques or just use it as motivation to sort out your scythe blades and get in some practise. I look forward to seeing your photos from the day, happy peening!