Scott Obar wrote:So what I bought is a "toothed sickle"? Dumb question, but do the direction the teeth are oriented towards, indicate the direction you should cut?
Scott Obar wrote:I just bought a couple of these
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If you can't tell from the photo, the teeth are oriented towards the handle. I'm right handed so I assume I just pull out to the side away from my body with a slight wrist flick motion at the same time.
Anyone?
Watched this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nI0GK6qrdk
and thought it sounded like the right way to use it , but sure enough someone at the bottom of the comment section begs to differ. It's probably not the same thing as what I bought though. Not sure if that makes a difference. Here's the comment I'm talking about:
Improper use and a low quality example of the tool. It is not a sickle, but rather an offset grass hook--sickles are of different form and used for the manual harvest of cereal grains. There are several varieties of the American type grass hook, of which the shown tool is one of the economy sorts. A properly hard American grass hook does not benefit from peening and should have the bevel set with a file or water cooled grinding wheel. The edge is then maintained with a stone. Edge angle should be very thin and the scratch pattern forward facing. A very fine edge is desired. The grass hook shown is intended to cut on the push stroke--one made for a pulling stroke would have a more open angle of presentation to the blade.