Improved grain cradle design

In this excellent video by Stephen Simpson, the Slovakian cradle described in this earlier post gets some ingenious modifications to make it perform remarkably well for wheat.

The video is titled "Exploring Small Scale Grain Harvesting part 1" and can also be viewed here.

The peening equipment of Heinz Stalder

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From the village of Trubschachen in Switzerland comes this well-made peening equipment. The anvil (with its elaborate guides), the bench, and the hammer were all fabricated at Heinz Stalder's blacksmith shop, Schmiedetrubschachen GmbH.

Although Scythe Connected is non-commercial and doesn't contain advertisements, we still wanted to highlight these innovative designs.
Hats off to Heinz Stalder!



Photos from Schmiedetrubschachen GmbH site.

Take-apart Travel Snath

Alexander Vido (of ScytheWorks) designed this compact snath for his recent travels to Nepal.


The two halves of the one-grip snath are coupled by a piece of 1-1/4" copper pipe, with a bolt holding each half in place.  Attached to the removeable grip is a hanger bolt which passes through both halves of the snath (note the diagonal joint) and secures the grip to the pipe. 

                                                                           

The grip can be attached to any of the three holes, making the snath adjustable to the user's height; and the orientation of the grip can be changed to make it suitable for right-handed and left-handed users (with the appropriate blade, of course).

In the photo below, Alexander demonstrates the use of this scythe to cut wheat, using a grain cradle that he also designed.  (More about this cradle in a future post.) 

Additional information about the Scythe Project in Nepal (SPIN) can be found here.  
An excellent video showing this scythe being demonstrated in Nepal can be found here.  


Kudos to Alexander for imagining, planning, and implementing this worthwhile project!


[All photos by Alexander Vido]

The "Missouri Method" of Blade Attachment

Jeff Adams (from Ashland, Missouri) designed this method of blade attachment. He writes, "The wedge can be almost any angle to custom fit any tang angle to any height person. Haft angle is easily adjusted. So far it's working well for me (cutting lawn grass)."  Thanks, Jeff for sharing this with us.


A novel way to attach a scythe blade to a wedge, and the wedge to the snath, allowing modification of tang angle, haft angle and sideways tilt.
Designed by Jeffrey H. Adams, April 2011

Since people vary in size and mow under various terrains with diverse kinds of plants, the scythe must be custom fit to work well, and so must the blade. If not, the scythe may be all but useless. This design should work well for fitting the blade to the snath, and is very inexpensive.

The photos show an example with the following assumptions:

1) The snath is 1.25 inches wide at its bottom.
2) The blade's tang steepness is 10 degrees, but you desire a 27 degree angle.

Before reading further, it is helpful to look at the photos.

Get a block of wood 4.25 inches by 1.5 inches by 3.5  inches. (The required size will depend on angle of wedge desired and snath width.)  The 1.5 inches is the fat end of the wedge. The 3.5 inches will cover the width of the snath and provide space for the clamps bolts, described below. The 4.25 inches accommodate the tang and the pivot bolt described below. I used a piece of scrap softwood lumber.

Hollow out in the shape of the tang the bottom of the block just short of the thickness of the tang.
(That is, a rectangle about  3.5 inches long, 1.25 inches wide and an eighth inch deep). The tang will fit in the slot, with the tang's thickness rising a small amount just above the slot.

Drill a hole a little narrower than tang's knob, then with a chisel square it up to accommodate the tang’s knob.

Now cut the block to a 17 degree wedge, with the thick end having the tang’s knob hole. The thin end should have some thickness too -- say about 1/4 inch.

Clamp the wedge on the bottom of the snath and drill a hole about a half inch to the rear of the knob hole and thru the wedge and snath. Put a large washer on a bolt. I used a 1/4 inch diameter bolt. This bolt does three things:
(a) clamps the rear of the tang into the depression of the wedge
(b) is a pivot for rotation of the wedge to modify haft angle
(c) clamps the wedge to the snath.
(Instead of a washer I had on hand 2 small metal plates with bent ends that worked well. A large washer or a metal plate with a hole in it should also work.)

Toward the front of the wedge (about 1.25 to 1.75 inches from the front of wedge) and on both sides of the wedge drill holes to accommodate two bolts. The holes are drilled about a half inch from the sides of  the wedge. I used 1/4 inch diameter bolts. The distance between bolts corresponds to the distance between holes in the metal plate. The plates are 3 inches by 1/2 inch by 1/8 inch thick. Other sizes could also work.

These two bolts, in conjunction with an upper metal plate ( I used two upper metal plates) and a lower metal plate, will clamp the front portion of the tang to the wedge and will also clamp the front portion of the wedge to the snath.

Wedges that are 1.25 inches high (or whatever the snath's depth is) are placed between one (or both) bolt(s) and snath sides to lock in haft angle. Another way to lock and strengthen the haft angle is to make a 1.25 inch wide, 4.25 inch long  and about an eighth inch deep depression on the upper half of the wedge to accommodate the snath’s bottom. The angle of the depression will depend on the desired haft angle. This approach also helps lock the wedge onto the snath.

I also place a piece of leather along the lower portion of tang, i.e., between the tang and the large metal washer and between the tang and the bottom metal plate.

Instead of a single rear bolt, you can probably make another clamp for the rear part of the wedge in the same fashion that the clamp is made for the front portion of the wedge.

Tips:

1)  Use washers and lock washers with the nuts and bolts.

2)  To reduce strain on bolts and wood, it helps to countersink holes to match the angles of bolt heads/nuts/plates to wood. Or use small wood wedge washers to match up the angles.

3)  At first I angled  the wedge slot that accommodates the tang and thus modified the haft angle. But then I realized the resulting haft angle was too acute. I was still able to pivot the wedge and fix the problem.

4)  This same basic approach will likely work if you want to reduce the tang angle. The fat end of the wedge will face to the front of the snath. The narrow part the wedge would have to be a little thicker to give some strength to the pivot area.

5)  I did not need to modify the sideways tilt. But here are some ways to do so:

5a)  The wedge can be modified on its top surface to change the angle it makes to the ground. That is, a wedge is cut out of it to modify its angle to the snath’s bottom.

5b)  The wedge can be modified on its bottom surface to change the angle the blade makes to the ground. That is, the slot to accommodate the tang is modified to be at an angle.

5c)  The snath’s bottom surface can be modified by cutting out a thin angled wedge shape. The Scythe Connection site discusses this approach here. The wedge is not modified.

6)  To increase strength of attachment use a hardwood wedge and/or increase the thickness of the bottom side of the wedge.

7)  Do not hammer in the small side wedge(s) (that help lock the haft angle) too severely, otherwise the main large wedge could be split.

8)  It is possible to avoid the use of one or both of the small side wedge(s) if the bolt holes for the forward "clamp" are judiciously chosen. That is, if they can be placed adjacent to the snath on each side.


-- Jeffrey H. Adams, April 2011





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Grain cradle design from Slovakia

These photos show the classic type of grain cradle used in Central Slovakia.

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This simple design requires only a short length of chain, a suitable tree branch (or sapling), some cord, and a screw at the end of the one-grip snath.

The loop of chain is used to loosely attach the branch to the snath, as shown in this photo.

Moving the branch into position will then tighten the chain and hold the branch firmly against the snath.

When the branch is perpendicular, the chain is tight and the branch starts to bend.

The snath grip acts as a brace to hold the branch in place while the scythe is being used.

The cord is tied to the branch and looped around a screw at the end of the snath.

After making easy adjustments to the length of the cord and the position of the chain, the grain cradle is ready for use.














Peter Vido has this to say about grain harvesting and this cradle design:


"This rather quickly written piece on a very pertinent subject is meant as a provisional response to the growing interest in the grain harvesting scythe, often referred to as a “cradle scythe”. 

To begin with, I’d like to present some “facts” (call them opinions if you wish), which I intend to substantiate here at a later date.

1. For harvesting relatively small (family bread supply- size, for instance) plots of grain, the sickle (rather than the scythe) may well be the tool of choice.

2. For larger acreages of grain than you may feel like tackling with a sickle, the grain-harvesting outfit traditionally used in Central Slovakia is a relatively simple and efficient alternative.

The body of the cradle consists of a green (and thereby flexible) hardwood branch or thin sapling and a piece of string. (The wooden piece used in these pictures is a branch of a wild plum – hence all the knots.) The string is tied to the end of the branch as well as a small nail/screw/staple at the lower end of the snath. By lengthening or shortening the string, the branch is pulled into a position most suitable, depending on the height of the grain, to hold the cut stalks. The weight of this cradle is a fraction of the more complicated contraptions – and, most importantly – is easily owner-made!

3. None of the snaths mounted with a cradle that I have seen in museums in several countries (as well as pictured in books) had the lower grip facing backwards (meaning toward the person operating them). This was the case even in regions where the general purpose (“grass”) scythes had their grips pointing backwards – the way the now popular version of Austrian/European snaths have them.

The logic of the upward (and at the same time slightly forward) pointing grips will be apparent to anyone who actually tries out the two options, side by side…

In any case, I think that the folks in the UK (using the Swiss made snath version sold by the Scythe Shop along with the cradle made by Steve Tomlin), as well as all those buying their “grain scythes” from Scythe Supply and Botan Anderson (mystic prairie) will end up working a lot harder for their bread than is necessary…"

(Source:  Photos and quoted text from Peter Vido, used with permission.)

Universal Scythe

Is there an off-the-shelf scythe which can be adjusted to fit anyone, regardless of height?  Is this even possible?  The answer is "Yes".
Here is a method of blade attachment which, when combined with an adjustable one-grip snath, can be adjusted to fit any height person for virtually any blade (regardless of tang steepness).  


A one-grip snath can be made at home from hardwood lumber, as detailed on the ScytheConnection website:
http://www.scytheconnection.com/adp/snathmaking/index.html


To make this type of snath adjustable, the method of grip attachment can be changed from the mortise and tenon connection (shown in the instructions) to a bolted connection, using a hanger bolt to secure the base of the grip into a dado in the snath.  Some examples are shown at the ScytheConnection site, with dadoes made on the snath for two grip locations:
http://www.scytheconnection.com/adp/retail/outfits.html


To make the snath adjustable to fit anyone, a number of dadoes (six or more) can be made on the snath for additional grip locations, and the total length can be more than six feet (with a longer rounded section for the left hand position).

Now that the snath can fit any person, it must now be fitted to the blade.  With this "Universal Scythe" design, the blade is bolted to the snath, requiring a hole in the tang of the blade.  Some blades already have a hole in the tang, such as blade #00 from the ScytheConnection catalogue, pictured here.  A hole can otherwise be drilled into the tang of a blade to make it work with this attachment method (I've previously had a local machine shop drill a hole in a scythe blade for a few dollars).


The chosen blade (in this case, the pictured blade #00) will have a certain tang steepness which in most cases will be different from the required tang steepness for a one-grip snath.  For details on the required tang steepness, refer to my previous post here or the discussion at:
http://www.scytheconnection.com/adp/snathmaking/snath2.html#steepness


The "Universal Scythe" design can accommodate a wide range of wedge sizes for adapting the snath to a specific user/blade combination.  In this example, let's use a blade with a tang steepness of 25 degrees (such as blade #00), and let's assume that a tang steepness of 45 degrees is required for a given user of the one-grip snath.  A 20 degree wedge (45-25=20) would then be used to adapt the blade to the snath and user.  

The blade and wedge are bolted securely to the snath using a special "Piesslinger patent" metal plate which has been modified for this purpose.  (The Piesslinger patent attachment was mentioned in a previous post here.)  This photograph show the modified Piesslinger plate, with the wedge and two bolts used for this example of the "Universal Scythe".  This method can accommodate a blade with a single hole and a wedge of any angle. With the two bolts tightened, this blade attachment is extremely strong.  No ring clamps are needed.

In these photos, the snath has been reduced to seven inches in length for simplification.  The snath section is left square at the blade end, since there is no need for partially rounding it. Because of the added angle of the wedge, the end of the Piesslinger mount needs to be bent to conform to the snath end.  It is not necessary to nail the Piesslinger mount to the snath, as it is held quite solidly without nails.


The wedge is connected to the snath by the two bolts. The lower bolt also holds the blade against the snath. Since the bolt is a quarter-inch diameter, and the tang hole is a half-inch, a piece of white nylon bushing is used to hold the blade solidly.  

Since the nuts protrude from the snath at an angle, the tops of the holes were countersunk to provide flat contact with the wood.

A washer is used under the blade, and smaller washers and lock washers are used with the two nuts.

A groove was made in the back of the wedge to hold the knob of the tang.  Hafting angle considerations for the specific blade will influence the location of this groove.  I cut the corresponding end of the Piesslinger mount with a hacksaw and bent the metal flaps into the groove to hold the knob more securely.  I figured that this would be stronger than simply cutting a keyhole into the metal (i.e., cutting away the flaps).  The flaps were easily bent by putting the cut Piesslinger mount and wedge into a vise, and gently hammering the tang knob into place.


When the blade is being mounted to the snath, the upper bolt is first attached (since this is located under the tang near the knob).  Then the Piesslinger mount and tang are put into place and the lower bolt is attached.  The nuts are tightened with a small wrench.




















A wide range of wedges with various angles can be made available for a precise fitting of the "Universal Scythe" to the user.  This type of blade attachment can also be used for other snath designs, including the Oregon Snath (described here).








(Source:  Photo of  "Spiral Galaxy M100", from NASA, HubbleSite,
 http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/the_universe/pr1994002c/)  

John Muir's Scythe Clock and Hay Rakes

"...mowing and cradling, the most exhausting of all the farm work..."
                                       - John Muir  (1838-1914)
















John Muir was no fan of the heavy American scythe and cradle, but his many inventions include a pendulum clock shaped like a scythe with "All flesh is grass" written on the snath.


John Muir was eleven when his family emigrated from Scotland to "Amaraka."  They initially were headed for Canada, but they ended up in Wisconsin to establish a farm and grow wheat.  This is a picture of Muir's Lake (Fountain Lake) and Garden Meadow that he sketched from their shanty roof: 

Of his farming life, Muir later wrote:


"In those early days, long before the great labor-saving machines came to our help, almost everything connected with wheat-raising abounded in trying work — cradling in the long, sweaty dog-days, raking and binding, stacking, thrashing — and it often seemed to me that our fierce, over-industrious way of getting the grain from the ground was too closely connected with grave-digging. The staff of life, naturally beautiful, oftentimes suggested the grave-digger's spade. Men and boys, and in those days even women and girls, were cut down while cutting the wheat. The fat folk grew lean and the lean leaner, while the rosy cheeks brought from Scotland and other cool countries across the sea faded to yellow like the wheat. We were all made slaves through the vice of over-industry. 


"The same was in great part true in making hay to keep the cattle and horses through the long winters. We were called in the morning at four o'clock and seldom got to bed before nine, making a broiling, seething day seventeen hours long loaded with heavy work, while I was only a small stunted boy; and a few years later my brothers David and Daniel and my older sisters had to endure about as much as I did. In the harvest dog-days and dog-nights and dog-mornings, when we arose from our clammy beds, our cotton shirts clung to our backs as wet with sweat as the bathing-suits of swimmers, and remained so all the long, sweltering days. In mowing and cradling, the most exhausting of all the farm work, I made matters worse by foolish ambition in keeping ahead of the hired men. Never a warning word was spoken of the dangers of over-work. On the contrary, even when sick we were held to our tasks as long as we could stand. Once in harvest-time I had the mumps and was unable to swallow any food except milk, but this was not allowed to make any difference, while I staggered with weakness and sometimes fell headlong among the sheaves. Only once was I allowed to leave the harvest-field — when I was stricken down with pneumonia. I lay gasping for weeks, but the Scotch are hard to kill and I pulled through. No physician was called, for father was an enthusiast, and always said and believed that God and hard work were by far the best doctors."


John Muir was no fan of the heavy American scythe and cradle, but his many inventions include a hand-carved wooden clock shaped like a scythe, which he displayed at the 1860 Wisconsin State Fair.  A drawing of the Scythe Clock is shown above; the original document and actual components of some of John's inventions, including the Scythe Clock, are kept at the Wisconsin Historical Society Museum and can be viewed here:
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/artifacts/archives/003314.asp;
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullRecord.asp?id=4949&qstring=http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/results.asp%3Fsearch_type%3Dbasic%26keyword1%3D4949%26Submit%3DSearch


Regarding this Scythe Clock, Muir wrote:


"Inventing and whittling faster than ever, I made another hickory clock, shaped like a scythe to symbolize the scythe of Father Time. The pendulum is a bunch of arrows symbolizing the flight of time. It hangs on a leafless mossy oak snag showing the effect of time, and on the snath is written, "All flesh is grass."


An acquaintance of Muir's named Harvey Reid wrote this description of the clock:


"The other clock, also fashioned with no other tools than a jackknife and a hammer, was a wonderful revelation of rustic ingenuity and poetic instinct. It was wholly emblematic of old Father Time, being a combination of scythes, wheels and arrows. A rough bough of burr oak was set upon a base incrusted with moss. In one of the branches hung a miniature scythe with a regularly fashioned snathe and handles. At the place of union were attached two wooden scythes [blades], swelling slightly from each other, but united at the points. Filling the space between the scythes from heels to points was a succession of wooden cog-wheels and small wooden dials.

"Depending from the scythe points was a wooden pendulum in the shape of an arrow, hanging point down. At its lower end forming the ball of the pendulum, was a cluster of six copper arrows, crossed. These had been hammered out of the large copper cents in use at that day. To the upper end of the arrow pendulum was attached two tin copper scythes (also formed out of coins) which, as the pendulum swung, would move as in mowing, the points of the scythes at each swing catching a cog in the little wheel placed there, thus setting in motion the whole machinery. In addition to the records of the larger clock, this one told also the month and the year, and could be attached to the bed alarm... [...an apparatus attached by a light cord to a delicate set of levers at the foot of his bed. The frame of the bed was hung on trunnions; and, at a desired hour the clock would release a catch and the sleeper be tilted to nearly a standing posture.]"


In 1864, Muir went to Canada for a few years, where he got a job in a woodworking factory in Ontario.  He was contracted to produce 12,000 hay rakes and 30,000 broom handles, as well as to make improvements to the production process. 

From an essay by Bruce Cox:

"...he nearly doubled the production of broom handles...  He placed one handle in position while the other was being turned. It required great activity for him to put away the turned handle and place the new one in position during the turning process. When he could do this there would be eight broom handles turned in a minute."  

"...He designed and started making several automatic machines for the manufacture of different parts of agricultural tools, for example a machine to make teeth for the rakes, and another to install them. The man who designed the alarm clock bed now had a number of ingenious new arrangements of gears, belts and pulleys to play with."

During this time when Muir was making hay rakes and broom handles, he wrote the following in a letter to Jeanne Carr:

"I have been very busy of late making practical machinery. I like my work exceeding well but would prefer inventions which would require some artistic as well as mechanical skill. I invented and put in operation a few days ago an attachment for a self acting lathe which has increased its capacity at least one third, we are now using it to turn broom handles, and as these useful articles may now be made cheaper, and as cleanliness is one of the cardinal virtues, I congratulate myself in having done something like a true philanthropist for the real good of mankind in general. What say you?

"I have also invented a machine for making rake teeth, and another for boring for them, & driving them, and still another for making the bows, still another used in making the handles, still another for bending them, so that rakes may now be made nearly as fast again. Farmers will be able to produce grain at a lower rate, the poor get more bread to eat. Here is more philanthropy - is it not?"

Muir later went on to become a well-known naturalist, writer, and advocate for the preservation of wilderness.  He was a co-founder of the Sierra Club, and his activism helped establish Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, among other accomplishments.

Although he survived the affliction as a child, Muir died of pneumonia at age 76.  The US Postal Service honored Muir with stamps in 1964 and 1998, and the California Quarter issued by the US Mint in 2005 featured John Muir in Yosemite Valley.

(Sources:    Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State Street, Madison, WI 53706:  
 Scythe Clock full image at higher resolution:  http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullimage.asp?id=4949;
 Wisconsin Historical Museum, 30 N. Carroll St, Madison, WI 53703, http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/visit.asp;
"The Story of My Boyhood and Youth", book by John Muir, with illustrations from sketches by the author, 1913,
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18359/18359-h/18359-h.htm, http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18359;
"College Friend Describes Muir's Mechanical Marvels", article by Harvey Reid, Outlook, November 28, 1903, v. 75, pp. 763-764,
Reprinted from The John Muir Newsletter , V.4, No.3, Summer 1994:
http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/frameindex.html?http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/john_muir_newsletter/mechanical_marvels.html;
"John Muir and His Canadian Friends", essay by Bruce Cox, http://www.johnmuir.org/canada/cox_essay.html;
Letter from John Muir to Jeanne C. Carr, 1866 Jan 21:
http://digitalcollections.pacific.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/muirletters&CISOPTR=17978&REC=2;
Other references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir,
http://www.martinezhistory.org/html/muir_history.HTM,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Muir_1964_Issue-5c.jpg,
"A passion for nature: the life of John Muir", book by Donald Worster, Oxford University Press, 2008)

Bolting blades onto wooden snaths

The Schroeckenfux company (FUX) from Austria offers a couple options for attaching a scythe blade to a wooden snath without the use of a ring clamp. 

This is the "Piesslinger-Patent-Scythe" mounting set, which is used with special blades having two slits in the tang (without the usual "knob").  The metal plate attaches to the end of a wooden snath using small nails.  Holes are drilled into the snath for the two carriage bolts which hold the blade against the snath.

Pictured are two of the blades that work with this attachment.  The vertical and diagonal slits allow for "infinite" adjustments to the hafting angle.

FUX also offers this "mounting set for patent scythe with round pivot" for use with wooden snaths.  The metal plate with the multiple holes is attached to the bottom of the snath with the two screws.  A hole is drilled in the snath for the the blade attachment bolt (which goes through the bigger hole on the right side of the plate as shown).  The square shaped metal plate is presumably attached to the top of the snath (using the four small nails) for securing the top end of the bolt with the wing nut and lock washer.  (For metal snaths, such holes can be drilled directly, and only the carriage bolt and wingnut are required.)

Special blades, with one slit in the tang and a rounded tang knob "pivot", are required for this type of attachment.  The tang knob goes into one of the holes on the left side of the bottom plate, and the carriage bolt goes through the vertical slit and holds the blade against the snath.  The choice of one of the five holes for the tang knob determines the hafting angle.  The hafting angle adjustment is limited to these five possible positions. 


To my knowledge, these blades and attachments are currently not available in North America.


(Source:  Franz de Paul Schröckenfux Ges.m.b.H. Rossleithen Austria, http://www.schroeckenfux.at/index.php/en/home1
http://www.schroeckenfux.at/index.php/en/scythe-models
http://www.schroeckenfux.at/index.php/en/scytheequipment)

Hand-cranked portable peening machine

Here's an invention that was designed to peen the edge of a scythe blade when the hand crank is turned.  The device can be taken into the field for convenient use.


Patented in the United States by German inventor Michael Humpfner in 1887, the machine "...allows the scythe to be so struck that no warping or notching can occur even though the metal be extremely thin... obliges the clumsiest and laziest workman to hold the scythe in right position... allows only one point to rest, and the guiding-bow, set at the correct angle, renders too great an inclination of the scythe impossible... The apparatus is mounted in oblique position on one end of a board about fifty centimeters long for the purpose of rendering possible work in the open field, which is done by holding the board fixed on the ground by means of the right knee, while the right hand turns the crank and the left hand draws the scythe through. In this manner my apparatus secures safe sharpening even on the loosest sandy soil and on wet meadows."


The above quotes are from the patent document which can be viewed at:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=za1UAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false


(Source:  United States Patent Office, Patent number 375708, Issue date Dec 27, 1887, Device for Sharpening Scythes by Michael Humpfner of Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany.  Patent information found using Google patents.)