This is a new style of a narrow scythe anvil, designed by Ernst Schoiswohl for the Schroeckenfux Scythe Factory. It is now available in a tall model. It features an adjustable support platform that can now be mounted at two different levels, a guide for the edge of the blade, plus a precisely and expertly shaped normal radius on the anvil face. The anvil is made from extremely high quality steel, hardened to 58-60 Rockwell. It is available in both a short (10cm) and a tall (16cm) styles. Both styles that I carry have a normal radius.

An Announcement from the Heritage Wheat Conservancy:

HERITAGE WHEAT FIELD DAY - BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT
SUNDAY JULY 25,  2010

Join us for a wheat field day in Brattleboro, VT at the SIT Farm.

They said we couldn't do it, but we did! We're building a local wheat-to-bread system, variety by variety, field by field.

Help us harvest almost-extinct ancient wheats einkorn and emmer,
delicious Rouge de Bordeaux French heritage wheat, and robust Banatka,
reknowned for baking quality in Eastern Europe. Take home a sheaf of what you select, to plant in your own farm or garden.

Schedule:
10:00  Select for local adaptability and robust resistances
11:30  Workshop: Restoring Heritage Wheat and Bread Traditions
12:30  Potluck Lunch with tastings of delicious einkorn bread
            that is safe for most gluten allergies!

Directions: I-91 Exit 3, South at rotary onto RT 5, take first right onto Black Mountain Rd, Drive up the windy road. Right at SIT, at the Wheat Festival sign.
Contact: Eli Rogosa:  [email protected]
See growseed.org for details

Hello Botan, Your site is a great resource for folks (like me) wanting to learn about sustainable farming. 

 I think of the thing that I made as a "catcher" or "pusher" modification to a mowing scythe for the purpose of harvesting grain.  From watching the video on your site, I could not tell if those German farmers had a temporary addition to their scythe or not (though I thought so because at the end, the guy detached his blade and re-attached it under the clamp along the snath), but I wanted mine to be detachable.  And that's the real difference in my mind-- one is a temporary modification to a tool to get a specific job done and the other is a permanent and specialized tool.  For example, one would not want to use a grain cradle to mow a lawn!  (The cradles I've seen have really short snaths and long, wooden tines going out over, parallel to the blade.)  David Tresemer, in his The Scythe Book, shows an "F.A.O cradle" (figure 26) that is very similar to the catcher, but it is bent inward (at the blade end) out over the beard of the blade.  It does appear to be a temporary attachment.

New for 2010. 75cm (30in.) long, 50 mm wide, 495g. This new model is the result of a research and development project conducted by Gerhard Wagner, consulting engineer for the SFX factory. His goal was to design a new scythe blade that mows the most efficiently.

First let's start with how NOT to mow with a scythe.

I hope Enne doesn't mind, but this video is such a typical example of how most people instinctively swing a scythe, that I would like to utilize it for educational purposes. Most beginners swing the scythe through the air, and slash and hack at the tall grass and weeds, just like in the above video. This would be fine with a primitive scythe, like the Japanese scythe (more of a long handled sickle), but with the more sophisticated Austrian scythe that she is using here, she is wasting a lot of energy, and could very easily damage the thin metal edge of her blade. The Austrian scythe is a very sophisticated mowing tool. I say it over and over again; the Austrian scythe blade has 3 curves. The slashing and hacking that most people want to do with a scythe, would only require one curve: the crescent shape. The Austrian scythe blade has three curves for a reason. Form = Function. The three curves (which I call the crescent, the rocker, and the belly) enables the blade to slide over the ground, without the tip or the cutting edge, hitting the dirt. The rocker enables the blade to slide over the ground, without tip digging into the dirt. The belly enables the cutting edge to stay off the ground, when it's sliding forward on its belly.

The Jolly Scythers of New Zealand have created some very nice videos for beginners on how to set up their scythe. Our wooden Swiss snaths are the same as in these videos.

WWOOF, formerly known as Working Weekends On Organic Farms, then Willing Workers On Organic Farms, but currently stands for World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms. It started in England in 1971 and has been gaining popularity around the world ever since. In exchange for learning experiences, food, and shelter (though this is flexible and many farms ask volunteers to bring their own tents) WWOOFers voluntarily work on organic farms or ecological building projects. You can WWOOF on your neighbor's farm or you can WWOOF on the other side of the world. There is often an element of cultural exchange as well as agricultural. It allows city-dwellers to experience a different lifestyle and deepen their understanding of their food sources, potential farmers to "test the waters" and gain ideas, and current farmers to see different types of farms and methods.

Terra Preta, or "Dark Earth" is the name for the super-fertile, man-made soil, covering a combined area, the size of France, that has been discovered in the Amazon. The above video and it's accompanying article at 
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/11/081119-lost-cities-amazon.html  gives an excellent synopsis of what it is, and why it's such an incredible and significant discovery.

Terra Preta is now being intensively studied as a hopeful solution to the impending climate and agricultural crises.
 Terra Preta seems to have many ingredients that seem to act synergisticly, but the key ingredient is charcoal. Below is an excellent video on how to make your own charcoal, in a non-polluting way, on a family garden-sized scale. The finished charcoal is ground up, and moistened, and mixed 50/50 with compost (and other needed soil amendments), and then it is tilled into the garden soil.