Scythes are awesome

The continuing adventures of Scythes are awesome and vastly superior to those stinky, noisy whipper snippers/brushcutters/line trimmers (and to a lesser extent motor mowers)
why?

1: We are past peak oil. Petrol will never get cheaper. So it is cheaper. Even if petrol was 40c/L again, $0 is still cheaper.
Plus you need to go get petrol for a snipper. And you should empty the tank after use. So adds that bit more time overhead.


2: Climate change. No carbon monoxide pollution!

3: No petrol engine farting fumes near you and being noisy.
Personally snippers hurt my back from the vibration and give me a headache from the smell and noise.
Plus it is noisy. It is pretty rude to say get home from work and start up a powertool and annoy your neighbours.
I used to like getting home after work and doing just a few minutes of scything in the yard to relax.

4: It's relaxing, meditative and good gentle exercise.
You aren't hacking and using force. The shape of the snathe (handle) and the placement of the blade slice through, the scythe does the work. You just step forward into position.
Does take some skill to learn. A few hours say.

5: No changing that damn cord. Supposedly there is a new nifty quick change head now for brushcutters though. *shrug*.
But from my experience that is just a frustrating and annoying part of the job.
The scything equivalent would be running the whetstone over the blade. or at worst peening (sharpening edge with a hammer). Both probably quicker and easier. Especially the stone.
Albeit this is most dangerous bit of scything, might cut your fingers here (I can't remember last time I have though)

6: Safer. It's a giant blade on a stick!
Yes, versus a rotary blade on a stick. You would have to try really really hard to hurt yourself when using a scythe.
Snippers fling stones and stuff into your shins or nearby windows etc all the time.
Bystanders (especially children, chickens and dogs) might be at some risk but that's the same with both tools.

7: Faster! Really? Yep. Go find some of the videos on youtube.
The scythe usually wins. Even vs honking big mowers.
My favourite is where the 12yo girl wins.

8: Scythes are actually more effective. I initially got mine when my snipper (and I had/have a really good one) was having trouble getting through a big clump of (IIRC) pampas grass.
None the less don't use them on stupidly thick things, finger thickness would be pushing it.

9: They look cool.
I've had hunters wander onto my property and they are very respectful when I walk up with my 2m polearm over my shoulder. :)

My opinion and experience, Your mileage may vary etc.