It seems like last weekend was the day that everyone in Europe started to mow. Christiane made the first cuts in her meadow in Austria, Beth Tilston was leading a gang of mowers on a tussocky field in SE England and I was teaching my first group of students on a Learn to Mow course in Cumbria.
The course was fully booked with 8 people including Martin who’d come up from Bristol specially to do the course with me and my friend Stefan who’s finally learned after being surrounded by scythes for the last few years.
As always we started out with setting up the scythes before going out to get cutting. Because of the weather the grass we had was all very short but that’s a great tool for learning. One of the most difficult things for beginners is to learn to keep the scythe blade on the ground but with only 4″ of grass you’re forced to do that or nothing gets cut!
After an introduction to the tai-chi mowing style and instruction on sharpening we had lunch then walked over the fields to Stefan’s place where he had the main scything for the day, a large lawn full of dandelions and a rougher patch in amongst fruit trees. This gave us a chance to try out the scythe in different situations and was useful for the folk who’d come to learn to mow in their own orchards.
You can see from the photos what a great job they did and, for me the nicest thing is to look at their posture. Everyone is upright and making use of their legs to do the work rather than their shoulders. This is success for me and hopefully those skills will stick when they continue mowing on their own.

It was so much fun that we kept going and finished the job which meant that, once we’d cleaned the scythes and I’d explained and demonstrated peening we were late finishing but everyone seemed happy and they all went home with a scythe kit to start the real job of learning.
I’ve two more courses planned in Cumbria this summer but the places are going fast. Alternatively I still have some dates available when I can come to you and teach your group on your own land. Email me if you’re interested in either of these.

The venue is the beautiful smallholding Sprint Mill, Burneside just outside Kendal. We’ll spend the day setting up the scythe to fit your body and then get straight out to the field to learn and practise my gentle efficient mowing style. Lots of time and a small group means I am able to watch every person and offer individual guidance on developing your technique. I’ll also teach you to hone the blade safely in the field for a razor edge and show you how to peen and care for your scythe.



For anyone who’s new to the scythe, peening is the process of hammering out the edge of the blade to make it thinner and give it the correct bevel angle as the first stage in sharpening. It’s the same part of the sharpening process as grinding a chisel except here the work is done with a hammer and anvil or a jig. This way, there’s no chance of burning the delicate edge and you aren’t grinding away steel, rather pulling it out from the body of the scythe blade.
My second museum on the trip through Scotland was the


My Learn to Scythe course in May is now full with places booking up on the June and September dates too. I’ve been getting steady interest since before Christmas and it’s a great indication that the interest in scything is picking up as people get away from powered garden machinery and use the scythe instead. It’s also encouraging that so many people recognise that mowing is a skill that’s worth investing time in to learn.
I have two more Learn to Scythe courses in Cumbria on 28 June and 7 Sept 2013.
On my way up to teach a ‘Learn to Scythe’ weekend at Forres last summer I took the opportunity to visit two museums on the way and see if I could find out more about the Scottish scythe. In 2011 I’d been given a Scottish snath of the familiar Y shape and was interested to find out why it had developed and it’s use.

