Scything hay with Lance Harvell

4 mins read

I must confess that I love hand tools. I have been fascinated with them for years: axes, bucksaws, hoes, etc. The hand tool I am most fond of, however, is the hand scythe.

My obsession (my wife and children would say) with the scythe is now nearly a decade old. I had used the tool in my younger years but with little success. Then nearly a decade ago my father bought a European scythe at the Common Ground Fair. It was far lighter than the traditional scythes I had tried before. I immediately began to use it.

Then followed a few years of practice, followed by designing my own snath, (the wooden handle) and learning the skills of sharpening. The results were impressive. A sharp well designed and fitted scythe is a wonderful tool to use. I now mow two to five acres a year with my scythe and find it to be great exercise.

In a recent poll on the greatest tools ever invented, the scythe came in sixth. It was used for hundreds of years in the harvest of grains and hay. Here in Maine until very late in the 19th century it was the primary method for cutting hay. Most of the small farms that dotted the hillsides of Western Maine never even saw a horse drawn mower. There are areas today in Eastern Europe and the Middle East that still rely on this tool for the harvest needs.

Mowing season generally begins in late June. You want to mow the grass before the stalks become to dry causing the hay to lose some of its value and taking greater effort to mow.


The author and Joshua Harvell, using scythes

The hay was mowed by groups of people staggered far enough apart not to cut each other. A person can generally mow a swath (width of cut) of six to eight feet. The mowed grass will form a pile called a windrow to the mower’s left. The windrow is then spread back out to dry more evenly. Historically, the mowing was usually done by men and the spreading done by children or women.


Rachel Harvell, spreading the windrow with a fork.

After the hay has dried it is usually raked into windrows or small piles to be collected. If it is ready to be put into a barn then it is merely picked up and taken to storage.

In many regions though, the hay is made into haystacks to be further cured or picked up at a later date. Haystacks are generally made on some kind of rack. The idea is to keep the hay off the ground and form a top that will repel most water. When done correctly only the outer layer will be exposed to the elements.

These haystacks will then at a later date be brought into storage. Some locals in the world will bring many small haystacks to a central location and make a giant haystack. This is usually done because they lack other means of storage.

Using this tool has given me a whole new understanding of how our forebears actually did the work they did. Give it a try some time you may be amazed as well.

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5 Comments

  1. Lance,

    You can have mine….too much work. When a teenager I used one that was made in France and it was sharpened with a hammer and small anvil.

  2. Got one of these a few years ago, threw my weed wacker away and never looked back.No pull cords,no strings,no fumes,no gas, no oil, no noise, no problems.

  3. Lance is a great representative. He shows us that he is just a common working individual. It is nice to have someone represent us who doesn’t loose their head when they go to Augusta. So many go there and have their heads swell because they are smarter than us common folk. Thank you Lance for listening to your neighbors and for being such a good neighbor.

  4. Lance,
    Enjoy the story very much.
    The husband of my great aunt, Arthur Hall Johnson born in Wilton, Me. 27 Nov 1826 was a well respected scythe maker for fory-five years. He moved from Wilton to Waterville about 1850. Maybe you have one of his scythe.

  5. Good job Lance…I used to do that very same job when I grew up on the farm. I thought at the time it was ridiculous to do such hard work, but it builds character and makes you appreciate life more. Lance, can you do anything about the loud exhaust law?

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