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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

As circumstance would have it, I read this having just come up from the 
hayfield where I began this year's cutting today.

> >Lisa, is that perhaps an American-style scythe?  They are murderous to 
> use, in addition to the fact that the metal is a pain to work with 
> (can't easily be sharpened in the field, needs wheel).  What you want to 
> work with (for any size job at all) is a European or Austrian scythe.  


-------------------------------
Exactly.  American made blades, the most common being  the Seymore blade, are 
drop forged from a single piece of sheet steel.  You cannot whet the blade, 
only file it.  You cannot strop it nor peen it.  

The Austrian blades are damasked steel, made of at least three layers of 
steel folded over each other and welded many times.  Because of this the soft 
layer is still malleable and can be peened and stropped, but the hard layers 
can 
take a razor edge from the whetstone.

There is simply no comparison.  The drop forged blades are the worst of both 
worlds:  they neither take a razor keen edge nor are they soft enough to 
still 
be malleable.  You have a mowing blade that is hard to sharpen and when you 
are finished it still really isn't sharp.




> Only places I know of that still sells those blades are Marugg (TN) and 
> Scythe Supply. 

There's also hte Sythe Connection (http://www.scytheconnection.com/), Farm 
Hardware (www.farmhardware.com)   and about a score of others that carry them.


James   </HTML>