Bought a scythe!

[secuono]

Several layers of the goo & it's mostly rust free.
First layer of rust converter on. I will paint it black to protect most of it & oil the edge often.

 

[Baymule]

It’s looking good.

 

[secuono]

Gotta stop taking pics at dusk...
Two coats of black.
Now to go back to sharpening & keeping it oiled...

 

[secuono]

Frick...When I say I'm not a morning person, I mean it!
I can't eat, I can't drive & now I can't handle sharp things!
But it's oiled & I need to find the spray can of wd40...

 

[secuono]

Bad pics, didn't have enough tall grass to show it, but can see other parts.

 

[Stephine]

OOOh yet another thread for me to gather answers! Among the many boxes in Dad's barn is a huge scythe & I am most certain it is antique. It has a beautiful swoosh to the wood and the metal has long been rusty, but I know he used it within the last 10 years. Would it be better I wonder to just buy a new one and keep the old one as one of his treasures? He was a very frugal and thrifty man and it was quite rare for him to buy anything new, I think he would like it if some of his things were still being used.

I will have to keep clearing out more of the barn so i can reach it, but it is definitely something to treasure.

There‘s a type of eraser that you can use to clean off the rust, it works really well. You only have to clean off the cutting edge (front and back), 1/4“ or so (just enough so you don’t catch the rust with your whetstone when honing.

 

[Stephine]

That's kind of how things are with tools these days. Modern metal is not like the old metal, it is basically trash compared. If you could find an old scythe blade it would probly serve you much better. Our scythe cut everything and as I said we never sharpened it, to be fair we only used it for 2.5yrs and we not like mowing entire hay fields.

The Austrians and Swiss have always sharpened their scythes. They get peened and honed. If you don’t sharpen it, it‘ll require a lot more force and at some point it won’t cut fine grasses, or matted weeds... Maybe if you never hit a rock or a gopher mound... I don’t stand a chance here!

 

[Stephine]

 

[misfitmorgan]

The Austrians and Swiss have always sharpened their scythes. They get peened and honed. If you don’t sharpen it, it‘ll require a lot more force and at some point it won’t cut fine grasses, or matted weeds... Maybe if you never hit a rock or a gopher mound... I don’t stand a chance here!

We didnt have any exposed rocks or gopher mounds at out current or old place. It was a farm for over a hundred years and it only every had livestock and hay cut so they were on it for rocks and stuff being cleared. We mostly just used it to cut sections of long grass to throw over the fence to the livestock daily.

 

[Stephine]

We didnt have any exposed rocks or gopher mounds at out current or old place. It was a farm for over a hundred years and it only every had livestock and hay cut so they were on it for rocks and stuff being cleared. We mostly just used it to cut sections of long grass to throw over the fence to the livestock daily.

You could try sharpening it, you’d be amazed at how much easier it makes the mowing.