Annual race between brushcutter and scythe – honours go to the first to cut a stand of grass. This is the British Scythe Champion against an experienced agricultural worker with a three-tine brushcutter, working flat-out.

Held at the Annual Green Fair and South West Scythe Festival in Somerset, UK, on 13th June, 2010.

A scythe is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or reaping crops. It was largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor machinery, but is still used in some areas of Europe and Asia.

Mowing is done by holding the top handle in the left hand and the central one in the right, with the arms straight, the blade parallel to the ground and very close to it, and the body twisted to the right. The body is then twisted steadily to the left, moving the scythe blade along its length in a long arc from right to left, ending in front of the mower, thus depositing the cut grass to the left.

Mowing proceeds with a steady rhythm, stopping at frequent intervals to sharpen the blade.

For the curious, in war while it was probably more common to take the blade off the shaft and re-haft it to be parallel to the shaft, there actually are Renaissance manuals describing how to scythe fight, specifically those of Paulus Hector Mair (see the illustration immediately above).

(Naturally, I’ve tried it; it’s unbelievably awkward, but the bizarre angles are kind of fun.)

Video below isn’t from the school I train at, but it was nice to see someone was brave enough to film an attempt to replicate it.

Top image, video, and top quoted text via on YouTube.
Bottom imagery and quoted text via Wikipedia.