In the field, i was shown how to touch up the blade with a long sort of oval stone. I was (come to think of it, I still am) left handed. My uncle, who taught me a whole lot of things that i carry with me still, showed me how to di it left handed. He taught me that to use my left hand for sharpening could be a tad on the dangerous side. i could rip the back of my hand and possibly even sever a finger or two. The only person i worked with when using the scythe was y left handed uncle.
Fast forward to about five or six years after i left my uncle's farm, i was asked to take a crew of Boy scouts out to do a clearing job and to teach them how to use hand tools. among the tools i took along was that old scythe. I showed several of the older boys how to swing level and slice the grass. The tendency is to sort of chop with the tool. A few rocks were struck along the way so I decided i would show how I do field sharpening with a stone. I knew I was not going tto allow any of the boys to do it, but i wanted to sharpen the safest way. I was sure that none of those youngsters were ever going to use a scythe after that day.
As i prepared to sharpen, I recalled the voice of my uncle as he warned me about the danger to a worker's hands if he used the stone in his left hand. I decided for this project, i would demonstrate sharpening right handed. The first thing one needs to know is that, as my uncle had taught me, it could be dangerous to sharpen a scythe. With the very first sliding motion of the stone along the knife edge, i made an amazing discovery. One should never hold one's thumb in a position parallel to the stone and perpendiculr to the blade. [oops]
That day, the most important, and probably most lasting lesson I was able to teach was one of first aid in the field. I walked to my truck and retrieved the first aid kit, explaining the principles of not panicking at sight of a very deep wound, importance of carrying a first aid box with bandages and anticeptics, and a whole lot of other things. I stopped, or slowed the flow of blood and applied iodine (that was the primary anticeptic in the early 50's and before) and bandage, doing it all by myself. I then removed bandage and allowed those who wanted to repeat. I don't think any of those kids, by now old men with grandkids of their own, ever forgot the lessons learned about first aid that day. i don't know if any of them ever have even seen a scythe since that day.
Tinker
[popcorn]
