Much older than both of those, however, is the scythe. I have resisted buying another gas powered tool and have been using the scythe to cut back growing brush along the edge of the cottage clearing and the driveway. A few years ago, I joined other cottage owners to cut back the growth along the main road. Not surprisingly, I was the only one to show up with a scythe. Everyone else had their gas powered trimmers. (It wasn't the first time I was caught doing things differently from the crowd.)
I can tell you it's good workout, but with a sharp blade, it works quite well.
I know Dad used it at his cottage, and I think that's the first place I did too.
By today's standards, its design is quite primitive. The wooden shaft is attached to the steel blade with an unusual hardware design. Instead of a collar with clamp to tighten, it has two pieces that secure a short arm of the 'L' shaped blade against the handle. Last fall, while clearing some brush, the lower end of the shaft of the wooden handle finally broke off just above where it meets the steel hardware that attaches it to the blade. The original end had been shaved and worked to just the right width and shape for the hardware components to fit and two holes through the shaft held the nuts and bolts securing the two main pieces of steel in place.
This week I undertook to cut off the base of the broken handle and replicate that shape on the remaining shaft and reattach the hardware to extend the life of the scythe. Using a wide range of hand tools, including a saw, drills, files and chisels over 5 hours, I was eventually able to reassemble the pieces and reattach the hardware. You can see the results in the picture above. Hopefully, it will all hold together when I next clear the brush around the lot, quietly.
