Large Fierce Mammal

If you seek to understand steel and its role in primal living, study ALL blades goode Scholar. (Click the picture to enbiggen, and let’s play “Spot the Bowie”.) Mrs. LFM photo.

Nursie:  “You’re so clever today, you’d better be careful your foot doesn’t fall off!”
Queenie: “Is that what happens to people when they have brilliant ideas?”
Nursie:  “Oh yes!  My brother had this brilliant idea of cutting his toenails with a scythe, and his foot fell off!”

~ Blackadder the Second ~

If you follow us here, you’ll know my love for the scythe. You’ll also know I have an equal appreciation for pretty much any implement with a blade, and why I persist in honing my skills with any such that come to hand.

Strange to tell though that, of all the sharp and pointy tools at my disposal, and with which I can lay claim to at least some passing proficiency, many folk look upon the ever so peaceful scythe as being particularly fearsome and dangerous. Knowing this, I suppose that I shouldn’t have been surprised to read the headlines from a 9 April 2014 article posted by BBC News titled Sword and scythe found during Ipswich drugs raids.

In that piece, Chief Constable Douglas Paxton was quoted as saying that the “weapons” were “… the sort of thing that comes with that marketplace”. Well, the sword notwithstanding, I suppose harvest time comes around in every agricultural endeavour sooner or later.

Now with typically perfect timing having absolutely nothing to do with the aforesaid, the ever informative Lindybeige has provided his own entertaining observations – this time on the weapon potential of the scythe – but before I turn you over to him, let’s pause to take a quick look at a historical precedent.

As it turns out, in the real world, the mounting of a scythe blade on a sword hilt (for whatever reason) isn’t exactly unknown and, at least in German, such “scythe swords” even have a name: Sensenschwert. The one pictured at left, engraved with a runic calendar, allegedly belonged to Thomas Müntzer whose role in the German Peasants’ War led to his capture, torture, and execution.

My own feelings on this item are that it’s symbolic and/or ceremonial in nature; possibly even whimsical; and never crafted for use as a weapon in spite of appearances. Knowing what I know about the structural geometry of a scythe blade and what happens when sharp steel meets flesh at speed, in a fight requiring an equalizer, I’d rather pick up a rock or a stout stick.

So now, over to Lindybeige.

But wait! There’s more!