[TheForge] Knife sharpening

[Mike Spencer]

"J. Petrila" <jlpservicesinc at gmail.com> wrote:

> Now, the original Scythes had no spine.. The spine was a newer
> adaption.. I don't remember what time frame was or where, but the
> very early ones looked like a sword more or less with thimble to
> hold it.

I didn't know that.  My "antique" blade, picked up at antique shop in
Nova Scotia, is clearly hand-forged (well, possibly partly with a
power hammer, but not drop-forged in dies) and has a definite,
well-formed spine and a tail end (whatever that's called) to fit
nicely into the fitting on my 1970s wooden snath.

Apropos of the spine, though: I have a stake tool that I'm pretty sure
is meant for shaping up the spine on a scyth blade after whatever
procedure left thicker metal there.  Rectangular groove adjacent to a
flat, sloped surface, narrow enough not to conflict with the gentle
curvature of the blade.  None of the guys I've gotten tools from over
the years was old enough to have needed to hand-forge a scythe blade
but of course such a tool could be several generations old.


- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^