Scythe with a cradle rake

At a glance

• Materials: forged blade, ash handle and rake
• Use: reaping grain with a cradle to lay the stalks
• Related tools: pitchfork, pruning hook
• Look for: original joints and a sound blade

What it is

A scythe cuts with a long curved blade set at an angle to a long handle, the snath. For grain, a light frame or rake of curved wooden teeth could be mounted above the blade. As the reaper swung, the stalks fell against the teeth and were laid down neatly, heads together, ready to be gathered and bound.

The book notes that the ash assembly holding the rake to the handle is purely practical and yet gives the whole tool its beauty.

Forged tools of the fields

A nineteenth-century wrought-iron pitchfork and a pruning hook complete the group shown in the book, each perfectly adapted to its job. The chapter on the edge-tool maker explains how such blades were forged by hand and why a good one lasted a working lifetime.

Collecting and displaying it

Old scythes are long and fragile. Make sure the blade is firmly attached and protect the edge, which can still cut. Worm in the ash should be old and inactive.

Mounted high on a barn wall or in a large entrance, a scythe with its cradle is a striking piece of rural sculpture.