Mowing preparations

If you have six acres of grass to mow, then most people in Britain would expect you to use a tractor and mower, or at least a ride-on mower.

But not us. Thanks to the water crisis, we had no money left for a tractor and mower, not even for a sickle bar for the rotovator.

We did try asking a few farmers if they could top the field for us, but despite being offered cash the responses ranged from general disinterest to "it's too small a job".

Now, we can't let the field go to rack and ruin as most of the grass is fairly good and we're making good progress on clearing the poisonous weeds like ragwort and buttercup.

Our solution was to turn to the past and buy a scythe. Not just any scythe though.

We bought an Austrian scythe wth two blades of thin, high-quality steel and an adjustable snath (the handle). With it came a spindle stone, peining jig, peining anvil and several other bits and pieces.

Some people will tell you that using a scythe is the hard part. It's not!

The hard part is getting the scythe properly set up for your height, your mowing style, the type of vegetation you're cutting and the type of ground you're working on.

It's very complex, so we began by starting with another job that is almost as complex - sharpening the scythe.

First, you have to clean the blade up by scraping away the lacquer and paint that stop it from rusting. A chainsaw file is recommended, but as we don't have one I used a fine flat file.

Then, it's time to pein the blade by hammering the bevelled edge very, very flat. As I've not yet managed to source a good cross-pain hammer (in fact, I haven't found any at all), I decided to use the peining jig that came with the scythe.

This involves driving an anvil into a suitable lump of timber - which I hold between my knees - and then placing the blade normal way up on the anvil. A cylinder of steel is then place over a shaft, and hit with claw hammer to flatten the blade.

It's not the best method as it does not produce the keenest edge, but it will do until I find the right hammer to use with a peining anvil.

With the blade peined as flat as I could get it with the jig, I then turned to the scythe stone.

A good deal of care is needed at this point because the blade is already quite sharp from the peining and you most certainly do not want to remove a finger!

The stone is used wet, and wiped along the edge of the blade with a long sweeping stroke. The angle is right when the scythe stone is tapping along the back of the blade.

The result is a blade that, while not quite sharp enough to split a hair, is sharp enough to slice through a sheet of paper with almost no pressure.

Now I just have to get the blade and snath properly adjusted.