adjustable wooden snath
blue rubberised sanding block garryflex
Quick Set Up Guide new

One Blade Scythe Set – Lawns and Meadows

£189.00 – £233.00

This is the set you need if you will be mainly mowing large areas of soft green vegetation, such as hay meadows, lawns or large grassed orchards.

Scroll down for help deciding which options to select.

Sets come with a plastic stone holder as standard.
Note the metal holders are smaller and some stones may “stick” slightly when you are pulling them out for use.

SKU: N/A Categories: , Tags: , ,

Description

This set comes with a Profisense blade

A fine blade for mowing meadows, soft weeds and lawns. This blade sets up and mows easily so is ideal for learning to scythe.

Which blade length do I need?

Most people can mow well with the 75cm blade, given an open situation with at least 6ft of width to mow in.

A longer blade will allow you to move forward further with each stroke of the scythe and so mow a given area more quickly. But the mower will have to move the weight of more grass across the stroke, so a compromise has to be made between speed of mowing and the weight the mower is able/willing to move.

In more confined areas, or with grass that is very thick, collapsed and leaning a 65cm blade is more appropriate.

  • In light to medium meadow grasses and lawns a longer blade is best.
  • A shorter blade may be preferred in heavier grasses or in confined areas eg small lawns, paths, “garden meadows”.

FAQs

Each kit contains

  • One Scythe Blade
  • An adjustable wooden snath (inc movable hand grips, clamp and wedge)
  • A whetstone holder (for carrying the sharpening stone whilst out scything)
  • A natural Sharpening Stone (for regular sharpening of blade when scything)
  • A Peening Jig (What is Peening?)
  • A Garryflex block (for cleaning the blade prior to peening)
  • An artificial Stone: Carborundum (for use after jig peening)
  • A Quick Set up Guide

Snaths are available in four lengths. The length needed depends on your height

Your Height———Snath Number

Less then 5ft ———-Size 1 (small)
5ft – 5ft 10————-Size 2 (medium)
5ft 8 – 6ft 4————Size 3 (long)
6ft 2 and taller——–Size 4 (extra-long)

Each size of snath has adjustable handle positions so it can be fine tuned to suit your height and mowing style.

If you are at the edge of the height range you may not be sure which snath length to choose.

If your legs are long in proportion to your body length you should choose the longer snath. If they are short in proportion to your body length choose the shorter snath. This should give you the most useful range of adjustment of the handle positions.

We are often asked if two people can share a snath.

  • If your heights fit onto one size, it is relatively easy, though you may have to move grips between users.
  • If the difference in your heights is large you are likely to need different snath lengths and it will be hard to share.

If you really only want to buy one snath but don’t fit on the same size:

  • Buy the snath length for the person who will use the scythe most frequently.
  • Or buy the correct length for the taller person, if the shorter person is not far off fitting on the bottom of that size.

La Saurat

As standard, we recommend a La Saurat sharpening stone as we find this stone offers a good compromise – it is easy for a beginner to use, yet is fine enough that it does not wear away the peened edge too quickly.

Rozutec

As you gain experience with sharpening the finer Rozutec stone will enable you to achieve a good sharp edge whilst removing even less metal, increasing the length of time a peened edge will last.

We offer a choice of two jigs with our sets.

Standard Peening Jig

The standard jig is a cost effective way to begin peening. This jig is the better choice for peening blades used for coarser mowing.

If you end up doing a lot of peening you may, in the future, want to move onto a Fux deluxe jig or freehand peening with an anvil.

Fux Deluxe Peening Jig

Fux Peening JigThe Fux Deluxe Peening Jig is more expensive but is a better quality jig.

It is a good choice if you expect to stick with jig peening over your scything career or you will do a lot of peening (multiple blades, many times a year).

It is best used to achieve a finer, grass-mowing edge. Blades need to be peened regularly for this jig to work most effectively.

Each set comes with a printed copy of our Quick Set Up Guide.

Additional instructional books you can add to your set:

Learn to Scythe by Steve Tomlin

We highly recommend adding this comprehensive instruction book to your scythe set. It is clear, informative and easy to read. It’s the next best thing to going on a scythe course! 

£10.50Add to basket

Managing Grass with a Scythe by Simon Fairlie.

Newly revised and extended edition, this excellent book contains guidance on how to manage grassland with a scythe, everything from hay making to mowing the lawn.

£8.00Add to basket

All new blades should have the lacquer cleaned off the cutting edge to prevent it clogging the sharpening stone. See this guide for further details.