Scythe Q & A / Demo by Jim Kovaleski @ Common Ground

www.greendream...
We went back to Maine to see our mentor & favorite farmer friend, Jim Kovaleski! We decided that we needed to grab a few more shots for our upcoming online course & scheduled it just right so that we could be able to attend Common Ground during the same trip! (This is our 2nd time in attendance.)
Every fall, approximately 70,000 people come out to attend the Common Ground County Fair in Unity, Maine. This fair has been run with consecutive success by the great folks at MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association.) In this video, Jim demonstrates the proper scything form & answers questions from the participants for his favorite company, Scythe Supply.
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If you missed the last few videos with Jim - you can find them here:
Grass-Fed Garlic? & The EDGE EFFECT - goo.gl/KGAmL9
Grass-Fed Veggies & Hugelkultur Raspberries - goo.gl/bdKwFD
Wild Blueberry Buffet: Harvest - Pack - Sell - goo.gl/kkdRWx
Scythe With a Pro: Old Tool / New School - goo.gl/TQNbnW
Farm to Table / Harvest Day - goo.gl/6wqmoz
Living the Dream / Making a Living - • LIVING THE DREAM : Mak...
Common Ground County Fair - • Common Ground County F...
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Jim has been a pivotal role model of ours since 2011, not long after we first began to grow food. We can truly say that he was a big catalyst for change in our lives & we owe the foundation of our success to Jim's influence. Now it is your turn to spend a week with Jim, at your own pleasure.
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While a considerable amount of content will be offered to everyone, we are working to create an epic video course that is geared towards those who are looking for a more in-depth focus. The foundations of the content are beneficial for everyone, regardless of climate, but just to be transparent - we will also be offering an extended version for our fellow Florida residents, once Jim travels back down in October.
We are condensing down countless hours of footage to create an 8-12 hour course featuring:
Grass-Fed Vegetables
Apples, Blueberries, Raspberries & Many More Cold Climate Fruits
The Art of the Scythe: Everything You Need to Know
Annual & Perennial Polycultures
Planting Grids for Esthetics + Intensive Planting
Tangible Planning & Site Analysis
When Permaculture Doesn't Always Work: Ethics Over Technique
Land Connections & Observation
Hugelkultur vs. Hugeleski?
Seeds & Starts: Suggested Varieties
Soil Blocks 101: Step-by-Step, Unique Ingredients, Planting Instructions & More Tips
Crop Circle Squash & Other Unique Methods for Growing Potatoes, Melons, Garlic & Onions
Books & Resources
Specialty Equipment & Tools That Work Forever
Harvesting & Market Preparation
Connecting to the Community & The Land
Journal & Record Keeping
Farmers' Market Display Tips & Packaging Concepts
Additional Income Opportunities: Co-Operatives & Buyers Clubs, Health Food Stores & Restaurants
Jim's Philosophies & What Living Looks Like
www.greendream....
Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter so we can keep you informed as the project with Jim progresses! Thank you for the support!
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Each year in late spring, Jim travels up to a little town just outside Eastport, Maine, to grow the most delicious, clean & vibrant food you can find. Then in early fall, he packs up & heads down to Florida to repeat the same plan.
Jim does not follow rules, He creates his own evolving adaptations; a mixture of pure refined classic agriculture (the scythe), techniques passed along by elder growers, elements from books that have proven their worth & the intrensic download from living with the land & slowing down enough to read it's own suggestions.
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[@rustedoakhomestead]

I'd love to spend a day with Jim, help him on his farm and just listen to him talk. He's a wealth of knowledge.

[@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL]

Rusted Oak Homestead that's the feel we are going for with the upcoming course.

[@rustedoakhomestead]

Pete Kanaris GreenDreamsFL Looking forward to hearing more about it as things develop. Thanks for sharing him with the world!!

[@geeapilan282]

Rusted Oak Homestead exactly he is real genius

[@dandelion_fritters]

Wow 🤩 this is so cool! Gotta get a good sythe. I hate the sound of lawnmowers, so this is perfect for my sound sensitivity!!!

[@willievanhetkerkhof286]

He is the most professional, he uses his hips instead of the shoulders. Best video.

[@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL]

Willie van het Kerkhof thank you!

[@magicdaveable]

Excellent Video. I started out with a scythe from Scythe Supply. A 26" blade that is light weight that is tough enough to be a Ditch Blade but mows grass extremely well. I made a couple more Snaths that are similar to the Schroenfux Snath since I have a premium hardwood saw mill not too far away. It doesn't take much sorting to find enough quarter sawn Northern White Ash boards to build a dozen Snaths. I hand crafted the blade clench and snath saver but next time will just buy those parts. My original custom length snath is still in excellent condition but I wish the shaft was an inch longer. My adjustable homemade Schroenfux style snaths are 160 CM long and are a tiny bit heavier than the one from Scythe Supply but much less delicate too. That isn't meant to imply that the Scythe Supply snath is dainty. It has held up extremely well over the last 5 years of mowing grass and slicing through 1" diameter burdock "trees" that grow along the edge of the property along my neighbor's pasture fence line. I don't like cutting in his pasture when there are cattle in there. That Angus bull is too aggressive for these old bones so the burdock went to seed last year. Now it is everywhere. I keep scything it on my side of the fence and the leaves keep coming back smaller maybe eventually it will give up and die. If not I keep my blade very well peened and honed. Oh yeah I almost forgot. I even fabricated my own anvils for peening the blades. One narrow and one wide. I used the wrist pin from a Cat Diesel engine rebuild for high grade steel. Fired up the forge and whacked on some really hot steel for an hour or so. They both turned out pretty good. I'm not really a blacksmith but learned some skills as a youngster when there was still a blacksmith in my hometown. Only open on Saturday as his trade faded away. That was in the mid-1950's.

[@shandke]

This is simply amazing! Now I want a scythe.

[@jacknissen6040]

Excellent video, more so the information transferred. Clear and to the point.

[@Andreas-tq7it]

Wow, your voice is very similar to Edward Nortons (great video by the way!)

[@workinonitSurge]

Pete Thanks for all the videos! Its super hard work to make all these!

[@Eden894HisBiome]

I hope everyone who contributes to mother earths land are doing well during the year of opportunity.

[@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL]

Thanks!

[@safetyfirstintexas]

The grass is in effect of boundary layer adhesion to the blade that is moist. The same effect that allows the leafless gutter systems to work..

[@kabuti2839]

dew makes grass firmer, not limp. Tool must be adjusted properly. There are many many nuances. I've learned a lot from Jim & a couple other videos. Appears most people 'try' too hard, crouch or are bent over, use arms too much. Actually, once it becomes so effortless, you dont even think about it & can 'daydream', then you are getting close to being a zen master!

[@Alex_in_Pisgah]

Just bought my scythe from scythesupply after waiting months for them to be in stock. IM SO EXCITED TO START MOWING!!!!!!

[@johnpaulramsay]

Thanks Pete! He mentioned stacking hay. I've been wrestling with that lately. Would he be willing to talk through that in detail on a video? I'm loving my scythe.

[@hudson8865]

Thank you.

[@TheArchersTungsten]

Love these videos thanks!

[@austinclarke2514]

Hay fork has 2 curved prongs not 3. I got my fathers Scythe,wooden hay rake and hay fork. Nice video thanks.

[@a234633]

We're is a good maker of scythe I was looking at one in main but not taking orders till September 4 probably still order from them seams like a good maker

[@gashintheatticus]

My ground is very uneven and has shrubby bushes and hidden rocks. I'm struggling to keep the scythe horizontal because I can't rest it on the ground. Any tips?

[@SunAndMirror]

Some marketing but waaaay more knowledge behind it. This is what I like to see, very different from modern "sales" pitches selling you useless untested unhealthy stuff somebody invented 3 months ago and is trying to mak a buck off...this stuff tried and true, and the man seems like hes just spreading knowledge based on physics/nature. Very informative.

[@patrickmurphy9266]

I've a neglected haggart which had 30year old briars some were 25mm thick. Tried a petrol brush cutter and useless. In the end the scythe was successfully.

[@LarsOliverMuff]

10:00 "I Fell in Love with a Woman, AND SHE HAS TWO BOYS, and they're ALL MOWERS now we have four people mowing." The MOWERS. That's a new name for a sports team, isn't it?!The UPPER MAINE MOWERS.

[@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL]

larolimu she's even pregnant now! I'll be following up with Jim this coming week :)

[@zacharywatson8021]

awesome

[@ultrakool]

I met this guy one night. he had a black hooded robe on.

[@danielsalach1234]

Ill bet you can tell if a storm is coming in by just poring a cup of coffee and it does work.

[@seraphimwiththecheese5880]

What?

[@argentorangeok6224]

Yeah, we need to hear about this...

[@danielsalach1234]

@@argentorangeok6224 Well ok ill tell you when your pore a cup of coffee it will form bubbles will form all in the cup or just around the rim of the glass, its do to the barometric pressure if its high the bubbles will form on the outer rim of the cup noting a storm is coming.

[@liannannette359]

Lots of commonalities to a golf swing

[@danutahachlica9318]

Jim mega kosa .

[@jasonsol73]

What blade is he using?

[@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL]

Hey Jason! I believe this is the brush blade.

[@scottblodgett8546]

Were do I order a scythe

[@solfeinberg437]

They need to coordinate the grass mowing (not Jim's) and the demonstration site. Leave some long - leave a lot. And leave some in the shade - so he can demo.

[@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL]

Sol Feinberg agreed. I'm hoping they worked the bugs out for this year.

[@michaelwight9163]

That cow scared me half to death.

[@davidpope2544]

Where can you buy the Austrian scythe. I'm in Denmark.

[@mfr58]

Just like Tai Chi swinging practice....

[@MistressOP]

can you talk to someone about meadow grass lawn mixtures?

[@Ouwkackemann]

Sharpening in the field. I always see it to be done downwards, but you won´t sharpen any other edge that way, knives, axes and so on, are always sharpened upwards, or lets say "against" the edge, and not "with" it. And sharpening against the edge is done because you don´t want the metal surface standing against the cutting direction, you want it "laid" onto the other side. So, I just wonder if it wouldn´t be better to sharpen scythes the same way? What do you think?

[@260160nl]

While sharpening, going 'with' the edge and from the heel to the tip creates microscopic prongs right on the cutting edge. When swinging the blade around the prongs do bite into the grass. But those micro-prongs wear off pretty fast of course.

[@bustedkeel]

How critical is the sizing? I'm getting ready to order from Scythe Supply but the measurements seem so exact that it won't work well for anyone but me? People a few inches shorter than me will also use it.

[@jkovie]

Not critical, the better the fit the more the tool will teach you how to use it. these days I could use a scythe fit for a child or a giant.

[@fredo3161]

Not sure if I'd look like a pretentious douche using a scythe on my lawn, but damn I want one...

[@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL]

Who’s the pretentious douche?!?

[@argentorangeok6224]

I live in a town that is well known for being full of weirdos of both the good and bad variety. I'm getting a scythe to bring in my next wheat crop and I don't care.

[@歡樂年華]

where to buy this?

[@shkico4513]

1:00 does he use dry or moist sharpening stone? Links to Jim's page in video description don't work

[@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL]

Moist with vinegar. Jim doesn’t have a page. I’ll check the links. Thanks

[@Silanghet92]

Feel like I wasted money on a weed whacker

[@stuttgurth]

Swinging that thing 4 hours a day. You'd have to be a little crazy.

[@motoz30]

...or sick of mower noise, smell of fuel/oil, reliance on unnecessary machinery, want some exercise, enjoy working w/ your hands, etc. but, yeah, probably looney.

[@richardalvarado-ik9br]

Get rid of your lawnmowers people....why the heck did people ever stop using these things?

[@wittwashere]

short answer; speed and scale. long answer: for residential lawns where the grass has no further use as well as more frequent cuttings a mechanical mower that can cut 10 acres in a day becomes more efficient. In the case of food production a scythe like these is fine for self-sufficiency but for large scale food production mechanical harvesters win out

[@maxdecphoenix]

1) collapse of agricultural labor network during the Industrial Revolution. 2) consolidation of farmers/farm land due to social traditions. 3) complete loss of skilled labor in the developed nations in post-war economy 4) availiability of mechanized alternatives. Simply put, over the last 200-years social/tech changes, have caused food production to be relegated to the hands of fewer and fewer and fewer people, while at the same time demand remained the same, and generally trended upwards. Efficientcies had to be maximized to maintain the quality of output. 200 years ago there might be 40-50 migrant farmhands harvesting fields the labor expectancy per-man was less, today there's a farmer and one or two hired hands and the labor expectancy is exponentially higher.

[@andyprem]

hoe bout a machete demonstration on how to behied.

[@kennyc388]

Woman taking notes regarding sytheing LOL

[@EM-cg4iy]

And?

[@mason2971]

i wish i could work for jim, he's so laid back and knowledgeable.

[@solfeinberg437]

He mows a wide swath! I used my scythe to mow a bit of my 1 1/2 (or so) acre front yard for the first time today during and after a big rain. Doing some things wrong, I'm sure (sharpening way too much based on what Jim said), but it seemed pretty efficient - comfortable and ripping through the grass. My top handle didn't glue successfully. It came off the first time I glued it, so it's been reg-lued and came off today - I just wrapped some paper around it and twisted it on. The clover is very easy to mow but sometimes parts of the grass clumps remain standing.

[@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL]

Sol Feinberg yes he can mow a 10ft swath I believe. I need to start using mine more. Jim really makes it look easy.

[@solfeinberg437]

I was excited because I could use the grass as mulch - I only have some berry plants currently in the ground but I made a pile around the base of each of those, put 3 trash cans (I was using a 32 gallon trash can to move the cut grass around - it was very heavy with wet grass but still manageable) in the chicken coop - also a new thing we have new chicks, and put a bit around some potted berry bushes and trees I'm not ready to plant yet. So - the two for one aspect - mowing plus generating mulch plus playing with the scythe makes me feel a lot better about grass and mowing.

[@safetyfirstintexas]

Sol Feinberg mowing when the dew is on the grass? Boundary layer adhesion causes the grass to stick on the blade and not slide off.

[@profoundgreetingsfromneptune]

I'm working on a project about scything and am trying to find out when brome and timothy are typically harvested. Are they harvested/ready for harvesting at the same time? Can they be, depending on when the seeds are planted? I thought I saw a picture of harvested brome and timothy in a bowl in this video, but now I can't find it. If you can help me find out if it's possible to scythe brome and timothy at the same time, I would appreciate it.

[@leighannamarie3992]

I'm so excited about the in-depth series that you're planning with Jim, for Florida residents!

[@allaroundtown]

Pete Kanaris ask JimKovaleski if he has ever thought of using another scythe made to swing from left to right. Thinking the workout he gets would be balanced left and right side of the body.

[@TheArchersTungsten]

If you listen to when he’s starts demonstrating the swing he answers that question .

[@safetyfirstintexas]

The bacck swing works the opposite muscle groups. Balanced farm workout.

[@SuperLooneyrooney]

new golf exercise

[@johnchilds1355]

Pete thanks for another video with jim. I never tire of watching and learning from him. looking forward to your project with him.

[@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL]

John Childs thank you! I'll be shooting a follow up video with Jim this week.

[@Marllang]

How to do you get the scythe leveled with the ground when its on the snath?. mine are on an angle up.

[@bill84345]

My grandpa had a scythe that had a big curved handle with with just small hand grips, what is the advantage of this type scythe over that style?

[@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL]

bill84345 it's strictly personal preference. This is the European scythe. The one you are talking about is the American Scythe.

[@solfeinberg437]

I'm told - from watching videos with Jim - that the European scythe is very light compared to the American one and, therefore, a much greater pleasure to use and much more efficient.

[@jmshaw357]

The European scythe is far superior to that coarse, heavy, unsophisticated American scythe--everybody knows that. Americans are always said to be stupid, dull, they don't live a real 'quality' life like a european.

[@safetyfirstintexas]

jmshaw357 careful now your european snobbery is oosing from your words

[@maxdecphoenix]

The knobs in the comments here are just regurgitating the same stuff they heard in other scything videos. The 'curved' snath design was not unique to the Americas. If you look up an 'English' scythe, you will see it is identical to the so-called 'American' scythe. England is obviously not the U.S., but any of these nuevo-scythers would swear it must be an 'American' scythe because youtube. There is no such thing as 'the' european scythe, as there were endless designs from region to region in county to country. Some guy would venture off into the woods, find a suitably arched tree or brach, or even festoon a suitable branch on a tree to cause it to grow in the desired arch and come back a few years later and cut it. What actually changed was the blade style. Different crops, different grasses, different vegetation required different blade designs to achieve a specific goal. If you were mowing annuals on the side of a mountain with uneven terrain you're going to want something lighter with a shorter blade. If you're mowing a field that is basically flat and densly grown, you want something with a longer blade and a bit of heft in the stock to aide momentum. The moronic idea that german garden-keepers in the Kaiser's palace used an identical scythe to the plebs mowing grain in the field is laughable if you put any thought into it. The so called 'austrian' scythe, which has now become the so-called 'european' scythe was just some style of snath someone picked because it was suited to post-Industrial, mass production. All the woods are straight, and uniform so it was much easier to just use off-cut lumber from a mill by every metric than tinker around with finding/producing purpose grown bent staffs, laminated snaths, or even steam bent snaths. Ships easier too. Follow that with commercialism's desire to classify or brand items with specifics and you get the current situation. Go back and look at ancient paintings, Greek or Roman, you will see scenes of field scythemen mowing away with "American" Scythes. This was quite the feat being 2000 years or more before europeans discovered the continent.