С такой техникой движений быстро устанешь.... В среднем, на покос одного гектара,ручной косой, у меня уходило 3 дня. При том, что мой возраст был 25-27 лет...😅
With syeths you have to go slow and not going fast for it can put your back out it's to feel the cropping of grass and knowing just to not hit the ground
As 30 something South African man with no prior interest in agricultural tools, I had no idea how much a video of a super chilled Swedish dude cutting grass with a piece of kit that would make John Deere blush would entertain me. I have no idea what this is, but it's great and I'll be checking in for more. Subbed.
@@EnglishInfidel Mate, I swear I'm not trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, but it still kinda floors me sometimes that we live in such a weird ass time. A time in which you and I, perfect strangers who will very likely never interact again beyond this, separated by a literal fuggen hemisphere can so easily share the expression of a similar sentiment regarding the actions of some dude who's equally worlds away from either of us. What a time to be alive. Cheers random UK man, hope you're keeping happy and healthy.
why would a scythe make john deere blush? i understand john deere makes, for instance, riding lawn mowers, so i get they're connected insofar as they both cut grass, by why would john deere blush at a scythe? it's the kind of thing that a person says and it makes sense only if you don't think about it at all.
As someone who loves leather working and blade smithing as hobbies it's great to watch ppl who perfect crafts that others would consider outdated. Well done
I know I probably shouldn't waste my time trawling through comments posted on UA-cam videos, but I'll never cease to be amazed about how many people there are out there who find it necessary to tell an expert with 15 years of experience how he's doing it all wrong! And I particularly like your laid-back (and sometimes gently sarcastic) way of dealing with them. Keep up the good work; despite your experience you're genuinely humble, undogmatic and always ready to learn new things - in other words all the things that make a great teacher - and it's for that reason that you're an inspiration to so many of us. Oh and I like to scythe barefoot also (and so far still have both of them attached to my legs). 😀
You should absolutely try the one hectare test. The real question is whether or not you have the endurance to keep that blade moving for 8 hours. I do seem to recall a video of folks in some Eastern European country who were cutting hay with long blades like that. They also had very long straight snathes that had to be approaching 7' or more. I got the impression that the long snathes served as a counterbalance to the blade and made it easier to work, in general.
Thanks, I have pretty good endurance as this is my profession and off-season I do a lot of long distance running and biking. Though it might work easier with a 95 or 85 blade. Weight is all, I do not believe in counterbalance. It is just mass also in the other end you need to change direction in every second! Everything that's reduce weight is good in scything. If you try an easier (but similar) snath for a while and then go back to a heavier - then you realise that the easier was better. A more lightweight blade is better than a heavier, a lighter ring is better than a heavy etc.....carbon fiber snath is on my to do list! As well as a super light ring .
Hello! Here we are used to quite long works in competitions. Scythemen have to cut one our in championship finals, bets sometimes take up to two hours. Here historically we haven't seen any need of any type of counter balance. Take a look to the video, handles, scythes more or less 1.20 meters long, techniques... Not saying this is the only way to do it, it's just the way local culture developed scything. Video is a little bit more than an hour long. Hope you find something useful here. Regards!
The current UK national mens champ cut 5m x 5m in about 30 seconds with a quality score of 8 out of 10. You can't just hack at it. That is like 100m sprint and the competitors collapse at the end. The 1ha challenge is 400 times the area. That's a double marathon at least. I am fully metricated but sometimes an old school unit like an acre (4046.856 square metres) is handy😉
Me to my wife: I don’t need TV anymore, everything is on UA-cam. It’s much better than regular TV. Wife: what are you watching? Me: competitive scything.
@@charlesg5085 That's the point (no pun intended), it's sharp, he's literally cutting grass right down to the dirt, dull POS scythes can't do that. With a lower grade blade, using honing stones at least by hand he can keep it constantly sharp on the job, no mucking or faffing around, then peen it during breaks. Any stronger steel and you can't peen it, then you've got to do insane chisel grinds just to get an edge, and then grind it every time you want it sharp.
The Joy and excitement is contagious. Awesome video. If I ever get a mood swing to the lower side I will try to remind my self to get back to this video🙏
I find, interestingly, that the biggest challenge with very long blades is simply keeping pace with them! It gets to a point where you no longer can comfortably advance one step with every stroke, and instead have to take two or more steps per stroke, which is awkward and breaks your rhythm. When taking maximum-depth strokes with such long blades it necessitates lifting the blade from the ground fully as you advance or else you risk tripping yourself up, as well. As such I find extra long blades best used for sparse and light growth that can be irritating to mow with a more typical blade length, like maintaining lawns or in patchy waste areas. This means the context of use is fairly limited, but they do very nicely under those conditions!
I learned so much in this video. I still have an old scythe from Austria that was brought to America for farming by my ancestors. Even though they were German and Swedish.
Fun fact. In a lot of movies and games we see scythes used in battle. Now, the *normal* scythe is kind of a terrible weapon but there *is* a such thing as a war scythe. A war scythe had a straighter blade more in line with the shaft instead of being at a sort of right angle and it was basically a glaive (a glaive is pretty much spear where the spearhead is replaced with a sword). Peasants who used them in battle typically took them to the blacksmith to have the blade's angle changed to be more in line with the shaft as well.
I often think of them like a double-edged war scythe that does look like the Grim Reaper's or to some extent, from the fantasy themed succubi. You know, magic scythe that can gather everyone's souls or life essence within one swing kind of thing
Imagine seeing this scythe on the battlefield and opposing soldiers having to jump over it like a game , then it all ends when someone throws a spear into the guy lol
I came about this channel by pure chance, I did not know competition/professional mowing with scythes was a thing. Now I'm extremely interested, it looks like an extremely precision-focused kinestetik activity, as well as a very satisfying one. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for being here, happy it sparked your interest :) There is an entire Beginner's Guide on this channel, if you need some help getting started. Let us know if you try it out!
My scythe is my most pleasing garden purchase ever. I can have my front garden plot scythed in the time it would take to get my petrol mower started each spring! (fuelled up; oil change; cleaned spark plugs etc.) it makes my mower and weed wacker redundant and just hangs on the wall.
Thanks for sharing this, really interesting analysis. I’ve been using a 125cm Hartstahl blade occasionally but my grass is generally too thick and the ground to uneven. I love the 95cm though.
I don't remember the length of my scythe blade, so I would call it a standard length from Bauhaus. I haven't practiced scythe mowing for more than one season, and only in my garden, which I let grow except for some pathways I mowe on a ~ weekly basis. We have become 'wild' on purpose or - deliberately. The 'robo cut' was given away to some friends after someone asked me how I mowed the grass. Did I use a scythe or what? Then I saw a video on UA-cam with two guys mowing the same size area with a scythe and a grass trimmer respectively. The scythe was fastest and that made me get going with the scythe. Although in the summer it's quite hot, it's also very, very satisfying! Do the comparison - all in! Eight hours😅
I'm learning to use a scythe(Your videos are helpful but I asked my dad for a tutorial - when he was mowing it looked easy and didn't require much effort. Unfortunately I'm not that easy) I have a lot of meadow around the house and so far I've used brushcutters. In my country, the scythe placed upright is a symbol of the volunteers in the Kościuszko Uprising, because it was an easily obtainable weapon for them and so it became a symbol even in military iconography.
You have to take into account also, that for example, wheat grew more than twice as long as it grows now. I mean Scythian times. It is estimated wheat height was a bit over 150cm = 59 inches. So then also the straw needs to be stiffer and you needed more heavier tools to cut it.
I didn't know people did that for fun. when I was a kid the mowing scythe was my preferred tool for really tall weeds that the weed whackers couldn't cut fast enough for me. still have my old scythe and double bit axe. I spent so much time with those tools I had to keep them. I was the only one that would use tools like that. wish I still had my big 30lb sledgehammer, another tool no one but me would use. the blade on mine is 27 inches not accounting the curve. the handle is 5 feet long not counting the curves. I notice a difference in how the blades sound as well. mine rings like a sword, a satisfying sound. I never sharpened mine except if I hit a rock. I didn't cut hay or grass just really big weeds. my technique is very different than yours. I raise the blade high gravity helps, and the handle placement kept me from going into the dirt. crouching down like you would wear me out. good stuff I enjoyed that.
This is REALLY the most interesting scything video I have seen, and I have seen hundreds. I have learned HEAPS about length of blade, and tang and heft. Thank you. Yes. I want to see how you go with a huge field.
Just taking a rest today from mowing my horse pasture hay block. I'm 67 and orthopaedicaly challenged/ My steady pace is about 60 metres by 2.5 metres every 40 minutes. I have entered competition for fun as a veteran at the UK Green Scythe Fair and needless to say I don't qualify for the final but I have watched my former teachers push those 120cm blades through 5m squares in the final with no.4 snath's (child size) with amazement. Great effort. Come to the Uk and compete next June👍
If you ever wonder why people in the olden days were not fat, even thought they ate lots of fat and sugar, this is it. Also washing clothes by hand and I asked my grandma how they got groceries home from the grocery store, she said they carried the bags home sometimes the bags weight 30-40 lbs. There really was no need to workout when everyday living had so much physical activity.
It might seem like it was great, but consider the amount of time you wasted just washing clothes, and having to pretty much do it every single day because families were bigger, it was very much not great.
@@MrMartinSchou mostly the laundry was done once a week, the entire process of doing the laundry itself was a multi day process, since things need to dry out, it was typically done on monday to give lots of time to dry out before sunday. and generally the people with large families were the poorer working class, and as such had smaller wardrobes per person.
Remember, they did not live very long. They wore out their bodies with labour which we avoid. Instead we can exercise our bodies in ways which are prolonging our healthy lives.
Yeah, this blade is really heavy, but scything is actually great exercise, and if done right it's not as hard on the back as a lot of people seem to think. Quite the opposite in fact :)
Thanks for showing me that you can bend the tang angle to suit your height -snath angle, I was never sure if I could, even though my father said to do so. So I would make my snaths fit my height and blade angles.
I am using similar "huge blade" regulary ( my grandfather's) The way to set it up for your body size is to put the 'shaft' on your shoulder, with the blade on the front of you pointing up. Then you hook the little handle behind your head. Then you reach out to the back of the blade. You have to be able to reach the back of the blade with your fingers all away to the tip. That is when it's set up properly. I think you may have to bend the 'neck' of the blade back the way it was. But it will be much easyer on your back that way and you need half of the power and no need for such a wide stance 😉
I have one of those 120cm blades. Unfortunately I have very few opportunities to use it. Most of the mowing around me has vetch and other weeds that tangle up and make you feel like you are dragging an entire bale with each stroke. I used my 95cm blade in a recent competition and it was almost too much. All the rain we have had here in New England (USA) has compounded the issue as everything is overgrown and lodged. 1 hectare is about 2.5 acres. I've always heard it said that a good mower could mow one acre a day. So I would very much like to see you attempt one hectare in a day!
Yes that is what I regard mowing myself a good working day. But then in more or less tougher meadows in our pro work. One hectar needs to be on flat area with not so dense grass.
I would love to see that challenge! I just stumbled across this video and I guess mowing this way in general, but watching you get excited about it got me excited for it and I bet you could pull it off 😊
I’m 35, I grew up in poor ex Soviet Eastern Europe so I did this quite often as a teen, but now we don’t have a scythe anymore but I am thinking maybe I should get it somewhere and do some work like this at my parents in countryside, just for fun and some exercise
I use one of them things to chop the reeds down around a fishing pond i go to works really well i smear vasaline all over the blade an it helps it even more
I liked working with a scythe when i was a kid but a 2t trimmer is so versatile and needs no sharpening so you can catch a rock with no problem and continue working, you can work slopes too and so on.
i ve had some really thick gras to cut ..took me 2 days..and after that i had to use the mowingmachine aswell...not doing any of those mistakes. but i do sharpen my blade too late..and thats important..to keep cuting well .
Had to use one as a kid on the farm but my dad bought one with an aluminum handle and you would be surprised how much grass and weed you could cut in a day
I learned to use a scythe when I was a teenager. Boy, hammering the blade was always such a pain, the edge was never even. I still mow my grass with a (60 cm) scythe. My neighbours come to me to sharpen the blades of their electric (or gasoline) lawn mowers. When they ask me why do I still use a scythe, I tell them it's for fitness. ;)
Hello Jan have you ever heard about barefoot shoes before, they're super comfortable. And i find that for myself i have better ankle control when i wear them compared to when i wear regular sneakers. I highly recommend you to give them a try. They might help you to scythe even better. Awesome and informative video as always thanks.
Yes! Beside the shoes in the video (that have pretty thin sole and 3 mm drop) I prefere walking barefoot or use Joe nimbels leather running shoe that is also very strong and durable. When it is colder I use feelmax boot , very very good ! So yes I completely agree!
So nice, it brings back memories, as a kid I really loved mowing and always found it quite relaxing but I haven’t had the chance since I moved to the city… I’m a bit jealous actually… ;)
@@slattergubben6702 sure thing. I've checked out a few more videos. They have all been very well done and full of great information. I have an Austrian Scythe and 2 blades and am learning to use them and maintain them better. I look forward to watching more of your videos to help along my journey.
Dear mr .Janne Wester sincei discovered your channel i have been literally bingewatching your videos as i am also a great addept of hand tool gardening. i would realy love to see a video in wich you explain how to tacle mowing an uneven area with holes and small erath mounds
It comes, but for small anthills or mole-hills it's just to play around them pretending they are stones - or just cut through dem and hone directly after
Fantastic! First time have I seen such an effect tool being used from my grandfather's day. Never have I seen a racing blade before. I have one of these in my shard from 100 years ago, though the handle looks a little different, but the results would be the same. What are you using to hone the blade with? A nabour came the other day to look for a Syth. It seems an occurrence that I should trip onto your page accidently on this very subject. Just wanted to see how the Syth was sharpened and with what? Thanking you from NZ.
@@richardwilliams1334 I use mainly the old Mailander honing stone that is just a few left I stock. But we do have other good stones and also a long deep diving video about honing on UA-cam. www.slattergubben.se for stones and scythes
I went for it - I tried to mow ONE HECTARE in one day! Check out the challenge here:
ua-cam.com/video/uWrGlMdGqOI/v-deo.html
In America we use riding mowers, but your method is better to honor Saturn and quite convenient on Halloween
С такой техникой движений быстро устанешь.... В среднем, на покос одного гектара,ручной косой, у меня уходило 3 дня. При том, что мой возраст был 25-27 лет...😅
With syeths you have to go slow and not going fast for it can put your back out it's to feel the cropping of grass and knowing just to not hit the ground
As 30 something South African man with no prior interest in agricultural tools, I had no idea how much a video of a super chilled Swedish dude cutting grass with a piece of kit that would make John Deere blush would entertain me.
I have no idea what this is, but it's great and I'll be checking in for more. Subbed.
Change the South African to English and I couldn't have put it better myself. Also subbed 👌
@@EnglishInfidel Mate, I swear I'm not trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, but it still kinda floors me sometimes that we live in such a weird ass time.
A time in which you and I, perfect strangers who will very likely never interact again beyond this, separated by a literal fuggen hemisphere can so easily share the expression of a similar sentiment regarding the actions of some dude who's equally worlds away from either of us.
What a time to be alive.
Cheers random UK man, hope you're keeping happy and healthy.
Must be hitting SA cause I also randomly found this haha.
That is what great about YT - all hail the glorious algorithm 😀
why would a scythe make john deere blush? i understand john deere makes, for instance, riding lawn mowers, so i get they're connected insofar as they both cut grass, by why would john deere blush at a scythe? it's the kind of thing that a person says and it makes sense only if you don't think about it at all.
As someone who loves leather working and blade smithing as hobbies it's great to watch ppl who perfect crafts that others would consider outdated. Well done
Those old skills are so necessary to preserve if we are to have a less negative impact on our shared planet. Happy to hear you are doing your part :)
Me too! - I do the same as you, also I restore vintage straight razors and mechanical watches 😊
I need to buy this for wheat crops cutting
@@slattergubben6702i need this please send me website how can i buy it
I know I probably shouldn't waste my time trawling through comments posted on UA-cam videos, but I'll never cease to be amazed about how many people there are out there who find it necessary to tell an expert with 15 years of experience how he's doing it all wrong! And I particularly like your laid-back (and sometimes gently sarcastic) way of dealing with them. Keep up the good work; despite your experience you're genuinely humble, undogmatic and always ready to learn new things - in other words all the things that make a great teacher - and it's for that reason that you're an inspiration to so many of us.
Oh and I like to scythe barefoot also (and so far still have both of them attached to my legs). 😀
Thanks! Good to hear, that's how I try to answer. But reality isn't always what you believe you do.
You should absolutely try the one hectare test. The real question is whether or not you have the endurance to keep that blade moving for 8 hours. I do seem to recall a video of folks in some Eastern European country who were cutting hay with long blades like that. They also had very long straight snathes that had to be approaching 7' or more. I got the impression that the long snathes served as a counterbalance to the blade and made it easier to work, in general.
Thanks, I have pretty good endurance as this is my profession and off-season I do a lot of long distance running and biking. Though it might work easier with a 95 or 85 blade. Weight is all, I do not believe in counterbalance. It is just mass also in the other end you need to change direction in every second! Everything that's reduce weight is good in scything. If you try an easier (but similar) snath for a while and then go back to a heavier - then you realise that the easier was better. A more lightweight blade is better than a heavier, a lighter ring is better than a heavy etc.....carbon fiber snath is on my to do list! As well as a super light ring .
@@slattergubben6702 now we need a montage of you training endurance Rocky Balboa style for the one hectar challenge! 😂
@@lekarzjacekbujko he he, yes! Needs someone challenging me with a grinding -scythe!
@@slattergubben6702 if he dies - he dies! 😂
Hello! Here we are used to quite long works in competitions. Scythemen have to cut one our in championship finals, bets sometimes take up to two hours. Here historically we haven't seen any need of any type of counter balance.
Take a look to the video, handles, scythes more or less 1.20 meters long, techniques... Not saying this is the only way to do it, it's just the way local culture developed scything.
Video is a little bit more than an hour long. Hope you find something useful here.
Regards!
The algorithm has spoken, this video is going to be a great success!
I'm from Russia and grew up in a village. All my childhood I mowed the grass with such a scythe, it’s hard work)
I was going to say, it looks like an amazing workout haha
@@ghostrecon3214 It is, my father gave me a normal scythe to try it, just mowing the yard and I was half-dead.
Наши деды километрами косил! Я тоже из России- Башкирии!
And now you no longer can use UA-cam. Slava Ukraini.
I never knew scythes even had competition blades. Who's out there cutting grass competitively?
More than you would think! :)
The same sort of people who cut wood competitively (with both axes and chainsaws). (Racing axes and chainsaws are a thing).
Id love to hire them
The current UK national mens champ cut 5m x 5m in about 30 seconds with a quality score of 8 out of 10. You can't just hack at it. That is like 100m sprint and the competitors collapse at the end. The 1ha challenge is 400 times the area. That's a double marathon at least. I am fully metricated but sometimes an old school unit like an acre (4046.856 square metres) is handy😉
@@joefamliyguy1551just host a competition 😁
The "Never ending honing" was a hilarious joke🤣
I was unaware of how many different parts come together to create a scythe!
Me to my wife: I don’t need TV anymore, everything is on UA-cam. It’s much better than regular TV.
Wife: what are you watching?
Me: competitive scything.
He uses inferior steel and never puts a good edge on it so he constantly has to hone.
@@charlesg5085 That's the point (no pun intended), it's sharp, he's literally cutting grass right down to the dirt, dull POS scythes can't do that.
With a lower grade blade, using honing stones at least by hand he can keep it constantly sharp on the job, no mucking or faffing around, then peen it during breaks.
Any stronger steel and you can't peen it, then you've got to do insane chisel grinds just to get an edge, and then grind it every time you want it sharp.
@@charlesg5085 What if you made a scythe with a tungsten carbide blade? Or Elmax steel
The Joy and excitement is contagious. Awesome video. If I ever get a mood swing to the lower side I will try to remind my self to get back to this video🙏
Haha please do! :D
I find, interestingly, that the biggest challenge with very long blades is simply keeping pace with them! It gets to a point where you no longer can comfortably advance one step with every stroke, and instead have to take two or more steps per stroke, which is awkward and breaks your rhythm. When taking maximum-depth strokes with such long blades it necessitates lifting the blade from the ground fully as you advance or else you risk tripping yourself up, as well.
As such I find extra long blades best used for sparse and light growth that can be irritating to mow with a more typical blade length, like maintaining lawns or in patchy waste areas. This means the context of use is fairly limited, but they do very nicely under those conditions!
Exactly!
*Skill Issue.*
@@ActuallyDeath merely a *comfort* issue. I have the skill for it no problem, but it is a technique for "sprinting" rather than sustained mowing. 😏
@@FortyTwoBlades *Since when did **_not_** being able to bend the Laws of Nature become anything other than a Skill Issue?*
I learned so much in this video. I still have an old scythe from Austria that was brought to America for farming by my ancestors. Even though they were German and Swedish.
we've always made great tools but they've also always been hilariously expensive keep good care of that scythe it's a most likely a gem
That blade is outrageous. Too cool.
I did that once. ONCE!!!! Horse Flies! Heat! Brutal! This dude is a real stud muffin. Man to Man Respect!
Haha thank you :D
Fun fact. In a lot of movies and games we see scythes used in battle. Now, the *normal* scythe is kind of a terrible weapon but there *is* a such thing as a war scythe. A war scythe had a straighter blade more in line with the shaft instead of being at a sort of right angle and it was basically a glaive (a glaive is pretty much spear where the spearhead is replaced with a sword). Peasants who used them in battle typically took them to the blacksmith to have the blade's angle changed to be more in line with the shaft as well.
I often think of them like a double-edged war scythe that does look like the Grim Reaper's or to some extent, from the fantasy themed succubi. You know, magic scythe that can gather everyone's souls or life essence within one swing kind of thing
So Bloodborne weapons
Scythe nerds. Huh.
Imagine seeing this scythe on the battlefield and opposing soldiers having to jump over it like a game , then it all ends when someone throws a spear into the guy lol
I came about this channel by pure chance, I did not know competition/professional mowing with scythes was a thing. Now I'm extremely interested, it looks like an extremely precision-focused kinestetik activity, as well as a very satisfying one. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for being here, happy it sparked your interest :) There is an entire Beginner's Guide on this channel, if you need some help getting started. Let us know if you try it out!
@@slattergubben6702 thank you very much! I'll check it out for sure!
My scythe is my most pleasing garden purchase ever. I can have my front garden plot scythed in the time it would take to get my petrol mower started each spring! (fuelled up; oil change; cleaned spark plugs etc.) it makes my mower and weed wacker redundant and just hangs on the wall.
Exactly! I do not realize how one can live without a scythe anymore
It's a pleasure to see a professional working with such passion!
Thank you!
Thanks for sharing this, really interesting analysis. I’ve been using a 125cm Hartstahl blade occasionally but my grass is generally too thick and the ground to uneven. I love the 95cm though.
That test would be cool to see. 👍
I don't remember the length of my scythe blade, so I would call it a standard length from Bauhaus.
I haven't practiced scythe mowing for more than one season, and only in my garden, which I let grow except for some pathways I mowe on a ~ weekly basis. We have become 'wild' on purpose or - deliberately.
The 'robo cut' was given away to some friends after someone asked me how I mowed the grass. Did I use a scythe or what? Then I saw a video on UA-cam with two guys mowing the same size area with a scythe and a grass trimmer respectively. The scythe was fastest and that made me get going with the scythe. Although in the summer it's quite hot, it's also very, very satisfying!
Do the comparison - all in! Eight hours😅
I'm learning to use a scythe(Your videos are helpful but I asked my dad for a tutorial - when he was mowing it looked easy and didn't require much effort. Unfortunately I'm not that easy) I have a lot of meadow around the house and so far I've used brushcutters. In my country, the scythe placed upright is a symbol of the volunteers in the Kościuszko Uprising, because it was an easily obtainable weapon for them and so it became a symbol even in military iconography.
I start doing it with my father and brother in early age. Every summer at 4 o clock before school. I loved it. Amazing memories.
You have to take into account also, that for example, wheat grew more than twice as long as it grows now. I mean Scythian times. It is estimated wheat height was a bit over 150cm = 59 inches. So then also the straw needs to be stiffer and you needed more heavier tools to cut it.
Yes, would love to see the test. Love the videos and content! Keep it up❤
Thank you!
My youtube recommendations are on LSD again I see...
And to know that 135cm is the biggest competition blade. Holly molly! Fun to see you having fun with these big blades.
Ok! Thanks- did not really knew there were even longer. Have you tried?
I didn't know people did that for fun. when I was a kid the mowing scythe was my preferred tool for really tall weeds that the weed whackers couldn't cut fast enough for me. still have my old scythe and double bit axe. I spent so much time with those tools I had to keep them. I was the only one that would use tools like that. wish I still had my big 30lb sledgehammer, another tool no one but me would use. the blade on mine is 27 inches not accounting the curve. the handle is 5 feet long not counting the curves. I notice a difference in how the blades sound as well. mine rings like a sword, a satisfying sound. I never sharpened mine except if I hit a rock. I didn't cut hay or grass just really big weeds. my technique is very different than yours. I raise the blade high gravity helps, and the handle placement kept me from going into the dirt. crouching down like you would wear me out. good stuff I enjoyed that.
Dude this is badass. I’m so glad this content exists. I farm in the US. So cool to see the old old way.
This is REALLY the most interesting scything video I have seen, and I have seen hundreds. I have learned HEAPS about length of blade, and tang and heft. Thank you. Yes. I want to see how you go with a huge field.
Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Huge field is coming soon! :D
There’s just something about places where people have professions in outside sports they make such great videos like just calming and fulfilling
As soon as they make a riding scythe I'm all in.
Any day now
That is impressive, the cut area is amazingly that it does it so clearly over such a large area per swing
Very awesome, can't wait to see you test yourself on the hectare!
Yes please! I've been thinking about getting a 36 inch or 91.5 centimeters. 8 inches longer than my current grass blade.
16 minutes ago I would not have thought I’d be interested in mowing with a scythe. But 16 minutes and 30 seconds later there you go.
You're welcome! ;D
Just taking a rest today from mowing my horse pasture hay block. I'm 67 and orthopaedicaly challenged/ My steady pace is about 60 metres by 2.5 metres every 40 minutes. I have entered competition for fun as a veteran at the UK Green Scythe Fair and needless to say I don't qualify for the final but I have watched my former teachers push those 120cm blades through 5m squares in the final with no.4 snath's (child size) with amazement. Great effort. Come to the Uk and compete next June👍
Thanks! I am right now preparing for the 1 ha challenge and realised I need to go 100 m every 15 minutes for 10 hours. Feels veeery much!
Took me a while to remeber but No.4 is large but it was cut right down to child size. Only about 1.4m
A true art form.
For anyone using these,👏👏👍
If you ever wonder why people in the olden days were not fat, even thought they ate lots of fat and sugar, this is it. Also washing clothes by hand and I asked my grandma how they got groceries home from the grocery store, she said they carried the bags home sometimes the bags weight 30-40 lbs. There really was no need to workout when everyday living had so much physical activity.
It might seem like it was great, but consider the amount of time you wasted just washing clothes, and having to pretty much do it every single day because families were bigger, it was very much not great.
@@MrMartinSchou mostly the laundry was done once a week, the entire process of doing the laundry itself was a multi day process, since things need to dry out,
it was typically done on monday to give lots of time to dry out before sunday. and generally the people with large families were the poorer working class, and as such had smaller wardrobes per person.
Remember, they did not live very long. They wore out their bodies with labour which we avoid. Instead we can exercise our bodies in ways which are prolonging our healthy lives.
@@thefreedomguyuk thats not actually true, if you lived past the infancy death rate, you typically lived to 60-80 in your average lifestyle
they didnt have alot of sugar. we consume more than any generation ever
I would love to see the challenge done! Most fun would be comparing also to someone else with a 120 cm blade, and to some other lengths or tools!
I never would have guessed that i'd be interested in to scythes and homesteading. A great video
I can feel my back getting sore just by watching this.
Yeah, this blade is really heavy, but scything is actually great exercise, and if done right it's not as hard on the back as a lot of people seem to think. Quite the opposite in fact :)
Awesome! Yeah I’d like to see you do the test
People just don't do that kind of thing anymore good show what a blade👍👍👍👏
That's how my grandfather used to mow his lawns - and his bowling green.
Thanks for showing me that you can bend the tang angle to suit your height -snath angle, I was never sure if I could, even though my father said to do so. So I would make my snaths fit my height and blade angles.
Welcome , I have one film dedicated to that as well.
ua-cam.com/video/mOqYAwQOwto/v-deo.html
Apparently I just spent 16 minutes watching the bright reaper.
Very entertaining!
*Huh?*
I am using similar "huge blade" regulary ( my grandfather's) The way to set it up for your body size is to put the 'shaft' on your shoulder, with the blade on the front of you pointing up. Then you hook the little handle behind your head. Then you reach out to the back of the blade. You have to be able to reach the back of the blade with your fingers all away to the tip. That is when it's set up properly. I think you may have to bend the 'neck' of the blade back the way it was. But it will be much easyer on your back that way and you need half of the power and no need for such a wide stance 😉
I have one of those 120cm blades. Unfortunately I have very few opportunities to use it. Most of the mowing around me has vetch and other weeds that tangle up and make you feel like you are dragging an entire bale with each stroke. I used my 95cm blade in a recent competition and it was almost too much. All the rain we have had here in New England (USA) has compounded the issue as everything is overgrown and lodged.
1 hectare is about 2.5 acres. I've always heard it said that a good mower could mow one acre a day. So I would very much like to see you attempt one hectare in a day!
Yes that is what I regard mowing myself a good working day. But then in more or less tougher meadows in our pro work. One hectar needs to be on flat area with not so dense grass.
I would love to see that challenge! I just stumbled across this video and I guess mowing this way in general, but watching you get excited about it got me excited for it and I bet you could pull it off 😊
Yes 1 hectare test!!
Would love to see it
I would love to see you attempt a hectare in one day! You can do it! Thanks for your helpful and informative videos.
Thank you! :D
Honestly, this just showed up in my recommended, I don't even like yard work, but yeah. The sound is satisfying and interesting.
I have no desire to scythe mow, but the video was great! I'm sure I'll watch more of your videos now.
Thanks!
Amazing video, we need to see the hectare test though. The people need to know.
Can you show the full moveset, not just the R1? 😉
I’m 35, I grew up in poor ex Soviet Eastern Europe so I did this quite often as a teen, but now we don’t have a scythe anymore but I am thinking maybe I should get it somewhere and do some work like this at my parents in countryside, just for fun and some exercise
Absolutely, go for it! You could also offer it as a service if you enjoy it :)
This video is awsome and the link to the shop is amazing. I love this stuff, but it is hard to find new scythes in australia.
I use one of them things to chop the reeds down around a fishing pond i go to works really well i smear vasaline all over the blade an it helps it even more
We still have these) since the times of the USSR they were made of special steel and cut grass like butter. With respect to you from Russia.
A hectare in 8 hours is a phenomenal physical challenge, I think you are able!
Thanks! 8 hour's - I regard a such day will be much longer than that!
I think you sell yourself short with the English subtitles. Anyone who speaks it as a first language understands you perfectly.
I don't need this blade in my life,
but I want this blade in my life!
definitely would still like to see the 1 ha in a day challenge this year, good luck!!
You’ve just gained a new subscriber!
WOW! You'd have to be in marathon shape to handle that big boy!
@@metroplexchl I certainly am.
You cutting grass is definitely ASMR
Thanks, I love the sound of scything
Omg I don’t even know what a “snath” is! How did I get here?
Wow, that looks like really hard work.
Haha you're welcome either way! :D And the snath is the handle or shaft that the blade is fastened to, if you're still wondering :)
I liked working with a scythe when i was a kid but a 2t trimmer is so versatile and needs no sharpening so you can catch a rock with no problem and continue working, you can work slopes too and so on.
i ve had some really thick gras to cut ..took me 2 days..and after that i had to use the mowingmachine aswell...not doing any of those mistakes. but i do sharpen my blade too late..and thats important..to keep cuting well .
so awesome watching a Scythe cutting video :D
Thanks!
This makes me really appreciate my lawnmower. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you :)
Apparently in france they used to use really long blades to cut the wheat. But the guys had to be really strong! This was before petrol tractors
What a way to get in shape.
Had to use one as a kid on the farm but my dad bought one with an aluminum handle and you would be surprised how much grass and weed you could cut in a day
And on this day, the mighty algorithm smiled upon you...
Det var häftigt att se, bra video. Ja försök på fältet med den lien, det vill vi alla se.
Grymt kul att se dig här Janne :)
Tack Erik! Är ju kul att ta greppet om en smal marknad - och dessutom något vettigt och bra som man brinner för.
This was just incredible! 👍😁
Thank you! :D
Learn as much as you can. This is the future of farming in the EU😉
Yes, do the hectare challenge!
I learned to use a scythe when I was a teenager. Boy, hammering the blade was always such a pain, the edge was never even.
I still mow my grass with a (60 cm) scythe.
My neighbours come to me to sharpen the blades of their electric (or gasoline) lawn mowers. When they ask me why do I still use a scythe, I tell them it's for fitness. ;)
Love to hear it! Good job :)
I've never seen one used before. Nice video!
Thank you!
I sighed quite a bit while he was honing that thing is amazing, but what a work out!😊
I can't even imagine what someone's physique would look like after doing that nearly every day for 30 years.
Good shape! But I only do it in season, that's close to three month, also some days is raking and some days off.
The scythe: it's not just for your spooky Halloween cosplay.
I really want to get a scythe, but not sure where to go in South Africa. Great video!
If you want our snath and jig look at www.slattergubben.se, else send me a mail and I think I can give you a retailer in South Africa
Hello Jan have you ever heard about barefoot shoes before, they're super comfortable. And i find that for myself i have better ankle control when i wear them compared to when i wear regular sneakers. I highly recommend you to give them a try. They might help you to scythe even better. Awesome and informative video as always thanks.
Yes! Beside the shoes in the video (that have pretty thin sole and 3 mm drop) I prefere walking barefoot or use Joe nimbels leather running shoe that is also very strong and durable. When it is colder I use feelmax boot , very very good ! So yes I completely agree!
I was just wondering how many square meters you can do in one day of professional mowing.. Go ahead with the one hectar challenge!
So nice, it brings back memories, as a kid I really loved mowing and always found it quite relaxing but I haven’t had the chance since I moved to the city… I’m a bit jealous actually… ;)
It's so relaxing. Nice and quiet. Find a friend in the countryside ;D
Säg till så kommer jag och hejar på dig om du tänker plåga dig igenom ett helt hektar! 😜👍
You just get going mate 👍👍
Looks like helluva full-body workout
For free!
i didnt realize how bad i needed this in my life
Awesome video. I'll definitely be checking out some more of your videos.
@@gregwilkins7649 thanks!
@@slattergubben6702 sure thing. I've checked out a few more videos. They have all been very well done and full of great information. I have an Austrian Scythe and 2 blades and am learning to use them and maintain them better. I look forward to watching more of your videos to help along my journey.
Dear mr .Janne Wester sincei discovered your channel i have been literally bingewatching your videos as i am also a great addept of hand tool gardening. i would realy love to see a video in wich you explain how to tacle mowing an uneven area with holes and small erath mounds
It comes, but for small anthills or mole-hills it's just to play around them pretending they are stones - or just cut through dem and hone directly after
Fantastic!
First time have I seen such an effect tool being used from my grandfather's day.
Never have I seen a racing blade before.
I have one of these in my shard from 100 years ago, though the handle looks a little different, but the results would be the same.
What are you using to hone the blade with?
A nabour came the other day to look for a Syth.
It seems an occurrence that I should trip onto your page accidently on this very subject.
Just wanted to see how the Syth was sharpened and with what?
Thanking you from NZ.
@@richardwilliams1334 I use mainly the old Mailander honing stone that is just a few left I stock. But we do have other good stones and also a long deep diving video about honing on UA-cam.
www.slattergubben.se for stones and scythes
All my years of gaming and anime tell me you’re using it wrong.
1st time I saw it. Very effective.
Indeed! :D
now this look so relaxing/ harwork but relaxing/ better than cardio or gym
Absolutely! But a normal 65, or 75 cm blade is relaxing for sure. 120cm blade is heavy