Poldark Style Scythe

[bigegg]

They were bloody hardcore, and continued into their 70's / 80's over here.

It was what they knew, and they didn't put up with all this modern sh1te.

I just bought a Stihl strimmer...
Needs new fuel lines, and potentially new rings(?)/piston rebuild.
Ok - it was only £15. The bits will only cost me about £20 + a couple of hours. Then I will sell it for about £100. I *like* my scythe.

 

[Miranda]

If it's for just cutting long grass in a garden use a hedge cutter. Did mine last week and won't bother with strimmer again for long grass as the hedge cutter did it in a fraction of the time. Remember the Allen Scythe ?

I have a triumvirate of Allen Scythes for sale if anyone wants them. One was working for sure, regularly did 3 acres of rough grass with it maybe 10 years ago, one was working when last it was used maybe 40 years ago, the other is an unknown…. I bought it and started pulling it apart with the idea of fitting a modern 2 stroke or 4 stroke.

 

[bigegg]

I have a triumvirate of Allen Scythes for sale if anyone wants them. One was working for sure, regularly did 3 acres of rough grass with it maybe 10 years ago, one was working when last it was used maybe 40 years ago, the other is an unknown…. I bought it and started pulling it apart with the idea of fitting a modern 2 stroke or 4 stroke.

Wrong end of the country.

They come up at farm auctions quite regularly - I used to buy them at between 20 and 60 quid, then sell them on the bay for +£100.
Now they seem to go for £150 at auction.

 

[Miranda]

Smiles. I drove to Whitehaven a few months ago to pick up a tractor cab…..

 

[Onoff]

Mate bought an agricultural building in Brittany years back. Much lower at the back than the front, some sort of cow shed? Converted it and raised the back. Gite do they call it?

Think he still has it but his main residence is near Cognac now.

How the other 2%(?) live!

 

[bigegg]

I once bought a walk along flail mower.
That was a *proper* piece of machinery.
I put my back out (about three months of debilitating pain) lifting it onto the trailer.
I lent it to the next door neighbour to clear her 100yd X 20yd "back garden" which was over-run with 10ft high rose bushes + brambles. An hour later, it was just *mulch*.

I regret selling it, tbh - but the £400 profit was very useful at the time - it was two month's mortgage paid when I couldn't even walk.

 

[octo0072000]

who remembers the onion johnnys
coming to the UK on push bikes selling onions

 

[Barking Mat]

who remembers the onion johnnys
coming to the UK on push bikes selling onions
View attachment 300841

I've never seen one.

This is allegedly how Brittany Ferries was born.

 

[julianthegypsy]

I have a friend who's dedicated his life to doing farm work the traditional way. A couple of years ago he was helping us set up Tewkesbury medieval festival, as he does every year, but this year the camping area was completely overgrown. Unfazed, he went to his caravan and fetched his scythe, much to the amusement of the younger crew members. They weren't laughing an hour later when they saw just how fast he was knocking the grass down. Nothing like the race above, but a fast, steady pace, and way faster than a strimmer, which would have been available if he'd wanted it. The kids were in absolute awe of him!

 

[bigegg]

who remembers the onion johnnys
coming to the UK on push bikes selling onions
View attachment 300841

Genuinely: no. Was it a southern thing where they came across from Dover?

Tbh, around here pretty much everyone grew their own veggies in the garden. (When they weren't over-run with rhubarb - which grows like an invasive species, here)

 

[julianthegypsy]

who remembers the onion johnnys
coming to the UK on push bikes selling onions
View attachment 300841

I saw one in the seventies, but in a battered old Citroen van!

 

[Miranda]

They’re a good tool in the right hands…. A bit like R P. . Oh God that could be another ban ….

 

[bigegg]

I have a friend who's dedicated his life to doing farm work the traditional way. A couple of years ago he was helping us set up Tewkesbury medieval festival, as he does every year, but this year the camping area was completely overgrown. Unfazed, he went to his caravan and fetched his scythe, much to the amusement of the younger crew members. They weren't laughing an hour later when they saw just how fast he was knocking the grass down. Nothing like the race above, but a fast, steady pace, and way faster than a strimmer, which would have been available if he'd wanted it. The kids were in absolute awe of him!

(Without me googling it)
Wasn't an acre the amount of land that one man could reap in one day?

That's a *big* lawn.

 

[Barking Mat]

Genuinely: no. Was it a southern thing where they came across from Dover?

Tbh, around here pretty much everyone grew their own veggies in the garden. (When they weren't over-run with rhubarb - which grows like an invasive species, here)

Ahh, back in the good old days...

 

[Miranda]

(Without me googling it)
Wasn't an acre the amount of land that one man could reap in one day?

That's a *big* lawn.

No… an acre was the area one man with a pair of oxen could plough with a old wooden plough.

edit ….. in one day. What constituted a day was perhaps a bit vague.

 

[Barking Mat]

They’re a good tool in the right hands…. A bit like R P. . Oh God that could be another ban ….

Care to expand on that....

 

[Miranda]

Care to expand on that....

Lol. Probably not.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

@Tinbasherdan , whereabouts are you?

Just shy of Burnley, bought what used to be an old stables for the local works horses in the 1800s

 

[Barking Mat]

Just shy of Burnley, bought what used to be an old stables for the local works horses in the 1800s

Well, look, I'll see if it's feasible to post these three scythes, next week, with the blades detatched, that way it's a 6 foot tube, should be doable but who knows ? Bear with me.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Well, look, I'll see if it's feasible to post these three scythes, next week, with the blades detatched, that way it's a 6 foot tube, should be doable but who knows ? Bear with me.

I’m on the look out for all sorts of oldy-worldy farming stuff to use as decoration. I fear my old man might have something to say about it as he’d probably still use half of it. He was still working shire horses when he was on the farm