The scything handbook : learn how to cut grass, mow meadows, and harvest grain with a scythe by Ian Miller

Author:Ian Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Published: 2016-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

A stoker heats blade blanks in the blank forge using tongs.

DRAWING OUT THE BLADE These slabs of welded steel with forged tangs were then heated in the drawing forge almost all the way to the tang, then brought under the drawing hammer to be made into scythe blades. The tang (which had not been heated but was hot to the touch) was held with a cloth or glove in the left hand, and the piece was stabilized by holding it with tongs in the right hand. By passing the still glowing piece evenly under the hammer, the steel was drawn out to form the blade, while the portion that was to form the chine was left untouched at this point. This first phase of drawing out resulted in a piece that was about 1½ in (38 mm) wide and about ⅛ in (4 mm) thick all the way down to the point, excluding the first quarter of the length of the piece which was neither heated nor hammered at this stage.

When all the pieces had been through the first phase of drawing out, the drawing hammer’s face was honed for the next phase. The pieces were replaced in the forge to heat primarily their middle portions and then brought under the hammer again – this time flipped over with the chine-to-be on the left side and then quickly flipped over again between hammer strikes to ensure even thickness of the blade.

The blade was heated a third time at the point, and the point was then forged under the hammer as in the second phase: first upside down, then right side up. Finally, the blade was heated a fourth time at the tang so that the beard could be forged. The heels of the tang and the beard were often reinforced during this phase, either with a “stag’s tongue”– a finger-long, tapered rib parallel to the chine originating at the tang – or by simply forging the heel so that the material was less drawn out and thus stronger.

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