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Scythe Works Without Borders

scytheworks.ca

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Re: Scythe Works Without Borders

#11

Post by vdupras »

broken-kebab wrote: post #8
burnte wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's usually lack of knowledge/understanding and simple inertia, "this is how we've always done it."

I'm afraid you just dismissed the question, not answered it. Plenty of things changed in agriculture in spite of simple inertia. Why does sickle-for-wheat-scythe-for-hay concept seem to prevail for different cultures in distant lands for so long?

I'm not sure, but what I've read is that there's a loss of grain associated with using the scythe on wheat when it falls on the ground. Maybe it's a concern in some areas.

But I think that with a proper apparel such as the one we see in the video on the website, the fall can be made gentler while still keeping the significant efficiency gain that the scythe offers over the sickle.

Re: Scythe Works Without Borders

#12

Post by vdupras »

troupo wrote: post #10
vdupras wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of joules spent per blade of grass cut, a well honed scythe in the hands of a skillful operator is more efficient than mechanized solutions. If you have an area where you already have an abundance of agricultural workers, it might be that scythe is a better solution than having your agriculture sector being dependent on fossil fuels.

"If you already have a bunch of people doing back-breaking labor, do not even think about giving them efficient machines"

Working in the field is difficult, yes, but the western world still hasn't figured out an answer to the question "what happens when we run out of dead dinosaurs[1] to eat?". Until it has, any idea to not exacerbate the problem until we figure it out is, in my mind, a good idea.

[1]: fossil fuels, with poetic license

Re: Scythe Works Without Borders

#13

Post by Syonyk »

troupo wrote: post #10
vdupras wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of joules spent per blade of grass cut, a well honed scythe in the hands of a skillful operator is more efficient than mechanized solutions. If you have an area where you already have an abundance of agricultural workers, it might be that scythe is a better solution than having your agriculture sector being dependent on fossil fuels.

"If you already have a bunch of people doing back-breaking labor, do not even think about giving them efficient machines"

"Efficient" in terms of what outputs, for what inputs?

You can't just handwave the term as a synonym for "I think it's better!" - it actually does imply inputs, outputs, and depending on what you want to optimize for, you may get very different results.

If a scythe is genuinely better for the job than a sickle, great!

But in a country without a lot of infrastructure and without modern supply chains, I'm pretty sure a tractor is the wrong solution to the problem. Unless, of course, your problem is "how to burden nations with loans they will never be able to pay back so you can come in and take over."

Re: Scythe Works Without Borders

#14

Post by xupybd »

troupo wrote: post #10
vdupras wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of joules spent per blade of grass cut, a well honed scythe in the hands of a skillful operator is more efficient than mechanized solutions. If you have an area where you already have an abundance of agricultural workers, it might be that scythe is a better solution than having your agriculture sector being dependent on fossil fuels.

"If you already have a bunch of people doing back-breaking labor, do not even think about giving them efficient machines"

You have to incrementally improve. You can't jump an economic step.

I'd love to have everyone have no labour to do and be served by robots but let them eat cake doesn't work in reality.

Re: Scythe Works Without Borders

#15

Post by crabbone »

broken-kebab wrote: post #8
burnte wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's usually lack of knowledge/understanding and simple inertia, "this is how we've always done it."

I'm afraid you just dismissed the question, not answered it. Plenty of things changed in agriculture in spite of simple inertia. Why does sickle-for-wheat-scythe-for-hay concept seem to prevail for different cultures in distant lands for so long?

Well, with a sickle you hold what you cut, and then you bind it together, so the grain doesn't fall on the ground. With a scythe you will have to somehow pick it up and organize in such a way that you can later collect it (without much dirt stuck to it etc.)

NB. In high-school, I worked one summer cleaning and otherwise maintaining the local after-school building. It had a huge lawn behind it, which I had to trim with a scythe once every few weeks. So, I thought I knew how to do that reasonably well...

And then, one day, some years later, me and few friends of mine went on a trip into the mountains, and we put our tent, as we later discovered, on some farmer's field. He got mad at us, and wanted us to cut the grass for him, as a form of compensation. Using a scythe on an incline, as opposed to flat surface is a... whole different story. I lodged it into the ground a few times, and then the farmer almost killed us :) In the end, we bought him some alcohol and left.

So, the moral of the story: scythe might not be always the best tool, and in some situations it's far from obvious how to use it efficiently.

Re: Scythe Works Without Borders

#17

Post by insane_dreamer »

> regions where sickles (or machetes) are traditionally used

I don't understand how it's possible that there are regions that don't use scythes (for crops that warrant them), when scythes have been around for over a thousand years?

I would venture to say that if they haven't transitioned yet it's because they don't want to (for whatever reasons--no idea what those might be).

Re: Scythe Works Without Borders

#18

Post by haccount »

crabbone wrote: post #15
broken-kebab wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm afraid you just dismissed the question, not answered it. Plenty of things changed in agriculture in spite of simple inertia. Why does sickle-for-wheat-scythe-for-hay concept seem to prevail for different cultures in distant lands for so long?

Well, with a sickle you hold what you cut, and then you bind it together, so the grain doesn't fall on the ground. With a scythe you will have to somehow pick it up and organize in such a way that you can later collect it (without much dirt stuck to it etc.) NB. In high-school, I worked one summer cleaning and otherwise maintaining the local after-school building. It had a huge lawn behind it, which I had to trim wit…

A high speed processor And lidar with digital blade angle control will probably make it work effortlessly on an incline too.
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