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| Mowing with ease at seven years young. |
Q: I'm planning to get a scythe, but I'm left-handed. I know there are
left-handed blades out there but, in your experience, do southpaws
simply adapt to scything with a right-handed bias (as with so many other
things)?
A: [from Peter Vido] The
basic 'switch' to an opposite-handed scythe can -- in some cases -- be
made before the morning's worth of mowing is over (after which the
refinements will continue, of course). My daughters, one naturally
left-handed and the other right-handed, would agree. They both started
with right-handed blades at the age of 7 or so, and only tried a
left-hand version several years later, 'just for fun'. But it was no big
deal for either of them to make the 'wrongly-aimed' blades cut grass
just fine.
However, my daughters (as
well as their uncle Alexander Vido, who is a natural left-hander)
continued to use primarily right-handed scythes. The chief reason is
that they were interested to try out different blade patterns, and
during any one season would end up 'fooling around' with many of them.
And, although left-handed blades have long been produced, the diversity
of available models was always FAR less. The privilege of our
left-handed scythe collection notwithstanding, they can try out MANY
more right (as opposed to left) handed models, and so they stuck with
the 'right-hand bias' for the most part.
I
have recently experimented 'somewhat' (meaning about 10-12 hrs of
actual work) with left-handed scythes because my long ago right wrist
injury more or less 'ordered' the trial. As a fringe benefit, it was an
interesting way to gain insights about the learning process for a
beginner -- something I now feel I ought to have done long ago...
We
can speculate that it would be easier for a natural left-hander to
begin with (or later switch to) a right-handed scythe than for a natural
right-hander to meet the same challenge, simply because in our
'right-dominant' culture the left-handers grew up adapting to many
'right hand only' tools. (An example -- ever heard of a left-handed
chainsaw? Yet thousands of natural left-handers have made professional
careers of using them just the same; a statement to our potential
ability to adapt.)
So let's speculate why would someone specially chose to use a left-handed scythe?
Some of the possibilities:
a) They're one of the 'committed left-handers' who prefer left-handed equipment whenever it's available.
b)
They are a natural left-hander who initially learned to mow with a
left-handed scythe and do not want to relearn (or override) the motions.
c)
They are natural right-handers but as a result of an injury to the
right shoulder/arm/wrist have more available strength in their
'unnatural' side and consequently can mow better with a left-handed
scythe, especially in dense and/or tall grass when the strength factor
comes more into play.
d) Some people
simply desire to balance their body's muscle usage in general, and while
scything they can occasionally switch between right-handed and
left-handed scythes.
[Yes, we do know individuals actually doing this.]
Team mowing with left-handed scythes
One
of the most frequently offered reasons against
obtaining/learning how to use a left-handed scythe has been "but
then you can't mow in teams". Those making this argument may be
'under the influence' of the illustration on page 61 of David
Tresemer's Scythe
Book.
They probably also haven't used the scythe enough themselves, and
consequently fail as yet to grasp the range of individual expression
that -- potentially -- the use of this tool can entail. That "round
and round around the field" represents a 'boxed in' approach to
forage harvesting, a must to most forage-harvesting machines. Yes, it
may well have been the way the large, flat and evenly-standing areas
of America were mown (even with scythes) in bygone days -- but is NOT
how a group of mowers traditionally progressed most of the time, in
most of the scythe-using world.
Whatever
the definition of 'teams' may be and how frequently groups gather (in
relation to solo scythe work) these days in the 'West', I do not
really know. What I do know is that whether there is a 'team' of 2
mowers or 25 who wish to cut a respective area together, there are
usually several ways to accommodate either-sided folks.
Regardless
of the specific numbers of people involved, some can begin moving
diagonally from opposite sides of a field. Also, the traditional
Swiss 'double swath' approach can effectively be implemented by equal
number of left and right-handed scythes -- by the leading person (it
could be either right or left-hander) starting a strip which deposits
the cut matter against
the still-standing grass. A person with a blade pointing in the
opposite direction can then follow in the leader's heels and deposit
the grass against the already accumulating (leading person's)
windrow. That is not exactly how the Swiss do it, but the end effect
would be the same -- a swath twice the width of one cutting movement
of a blade, with all grass accumulated within a 'double windrow' in
the middle. (In Switzerland, this approach is still features in at
least some of their national mowing competitions. It consists of a
person mowing the given length first towards
the standing grass, and then turning around and making a pass away
from it. It takes more than the usual judgement and skill to assure
that everything under that 'double windrow has been shaven clean --
an element, besides the time taken, that is taken into consideration.
That is, before the judges announce the final score, all grass is
raked away to see just how cleanly the mowing was performed.)
However,
the majority of folks making up the Western eco-crowd do not usually
mow large fields together as 'teams'. Most end up working in
irregularly-shaped terrain where adhering to certain direction is not
the issue, or at least shouldn't be. In fact, all seasoned mowers who
have faced a wide variety of mowing conditions would likely tell you
that there were times they wished their blades were pointing in the
opposite direction. That is to say, there are
situations where -- due to topography and/or the predominant lay of
the plants to be cut -- having a left-handed scythe in hand (or a
friend with one at your side) would be advantageous. An experienced
leader of a group ought to be able to quickly access the site, and
then place the right and left-handers (regardless
how many of each the group consists of) in positions where their
respective scythe be made best use of.
Availability of left-handed blades
All
the above notwithstanding, it would be unreasonable to advocate
'equal rights' in this regard, simply because the present
availability of left-handed blades is severely limited.
The
Schroeckenfux company of Austria makes one standard (#201 pattern)
model - but in 70cm/28" only. They also still, from time to
time, make a wider model (#108 pattern) for an old customer in
Portugal, where apparently in a few select regions everybody mowed
'left-handed' once upon a time. That (Portuguese) model has been made
in lengths from 18" to 28", but is not listed in the
company's regular catalogue. Any wholesale customer could, I assume,
ask for it although it may not be laying on the shelf in their
warehouse in all the lengths at any one time. The Falci enterprise in
Italy makes one of their standard models in a left hand version, but
only in one (65cm/26") length. That may be the extent of the
options today. In Bob Dylan's old words -- "The times they are
a'changin'..."
To
buck the trend would require a large scale revolution (akin to the
feminist, gay or 'black power' movements). Even then, anywhere near
matching the right-hand blades' models and
lengths availability? Forget it. And this, from my perspective, is
the only justifiable reason for advising a natural left-hander
against getting stuck on their 'natural right' of bucking the present
norm. In the meantime, Scythe Works
still offers an inexpensive option to experiment with -- a blade
model made in Austria, 20-30 years ago, made for Argentina. It is not
extra light (but neither are most scythe blades today), has a
relatively steep tang (making it easy to fit the simplest-to-make
straight one-grip snath) and comes in 20, 22 and 26 inches, at least
for now.
We have in our collection still other left-handed models, but it
would take more digging than we can presently take time for to get
them all out whatever boxes they are hiding in just to pose for a
picture. Hope this suffices as a statement that, yes, left-handed
scythe blades have long existed.
-- Peter Vido
Sources:
Mirror images from Mowing with ease at ScytheConnection.com
Photos from Vido family collection.
