9604 Scythe Mower

Hi Nicola
Try these guys, found them very,very helpful and the prices were great.........good luck
[url=http://stores.ebay.it/AgrieuroCom]Negozio eBay - trattorino: rasaerba, decespugliatore, forno[/url]

Sorry I should also have added, that if you have a lot of grass, maybe better to look at a ride on, scythe mowers are great but a lot of clearing needs to be done afterwards .........good luck

Thanks D and R

We cannot have a ride on as it would be dangerous - our land is in a slope and too lumpy, bumpy. Hence the scythe mower, resigned to it being a very long and ardous job!!!!!!! Thanks for info

Do you mean a moto falcatrice that you walk along behind Nicola?
If so we would tell you that we bought one to cut the grass around our olives. A reasonably flat piece of land for Umbria. My husband is over 16 stone and he finds it hardwork to push across the field and thinks it a bad buy. A heavy duty strimmer would be better if you can cut fairly regularly. Try before you buy is our advice. We have lots of slopes and strim. As there are various types of strimmer again take advice and don't forget protective clothing!

Thanks very much for this, and yes we do mean the machine you describe. We have a strimmer and my husband has had a go, but we thought this might be better given the amount of land we have which is on a slope and very bumpy.

Definitely will re-consider in the light of your comments

Thank you again
Nicola

As you are in Umbria too, you are welcome to try out our motorised sythe, we'd even sell it to you if it is what you want to use! I am not the expert on the subject but a strimmer with sort of "bike handle bar" handles seems to be better suited to hilly strimming.

Hi Nicola,
I cut my 2 acres in Puglia with an austrian scythe which I bought from here :

[url=http://www.thescytheshop.co.uk]Austrian Scythes for sale.[/url]

Simon, the guy who runs it is great. He imports these from austria for the uk market and can advise you on all matters regarding blades, scythe size etc. Failing that you could pop up to the schroekenfux factory in Rossleithen (Austria) and buy it direct from the manufacturer. When you try scything you will never want to use another strimmer so go for it and good luck. If you want any more info or help feel free to pm me.

Cheers

grazie on two counts - firstly, nice to see consideration given to a traditional & environmentally friendly option. Second, for lnking to the website that quotes Tolstoy when trying to shift agricultural kit ... highbrow or what :-)

[quote=deborahandricky;90105]Hi Nicola
Try these guys, found them very,very helpful and the prices were great.........good luck
[url=http://stores.ebay.it/AgrieuroCom]Negozio eBay - trattorino: rasaerba, decespugliatore, forno[/url][/quote]

I am driving down to Marche for the summer ( house will hopefully be finished! ) and it would be nice to have some gardening equipment waiting for me when I arrive so I can get stuck in straight away. The prices on the agrieuro site look very good and I would like to purchase a couple of things. I cannot find a website for them other than on ebay. I presume that I will have to register with Italian ebay but can I use a UK paypal account to pay for the goods.

Adrian

[quote=Adrian Brown;90919]I am driving down to Marche for the summer ( house will hopefully be finished! ) and it would be nice to have some gardening equipment waiting for me when I arrive so I can get stuck in straight away. The prices on the agrieuro site look very good and I would like to purchase a couple of things. I cannot find a website for them other than on ebay. I presume that I will have to register with Italian ebay but can I use a UK paypal account to pay for the goods.

Adrian[/quote]

Hi Adrian,
There prices are good, there are contact details for them on ebay.it, and they do answer emails , the guy there speaks english and is very helpful, he also takes and prefers credit cards and bank transfers, so he does not pay the Paypal percentage, our rideon was delivered within 48 hours of placing the order......

Some more info ....hope it helps

2) tramite email all'indirizzo [email]info@agrieuro.com[/email]

Per particolari richieste di informazioni. Questo metodo ci consente, ove richiesto o necessario, in pochi attimi e pochi click di inviarvi immagini, foto, tabelle tecniche, saggi tecnici del produttore, quindi un inesauribile bagaglio di dati che nè tramite i messaggi ebay nè per telefono possono essere forniti.

3) Telefonando allo 0743.299016 dopo aver letto quanto segue:

One thing you might consider (and I dunno either the Italian or English for this bit of kit) is a strimmer which is mounted on three pram sized wheels (suitable for non level terrain), plus a handle a bit like a serious power driven lawnmower, with all the controls on the handlebars.

Seems to me (I have never used one) that this arrangement has the advantage over the scythe mower in that it cuts about 1m swathe with a 50cm 'strim', and doesn't care whether the land is level over the 1m cut of the scythe mower. Scythe mower blades don't like hitting rocks, and the blades are costlier to replace than a strimmer 'wire'. Just a thought.

[quote=deborahandricky;90929]Hi Adrian,
There prices are good, there are contact details for them on ebay.it, and they do answer emails , the guy there speaks english and is very helpful, he also takes and prefers credit cards and bank transfers, so he does not pay the Paypal percentage, our rideon was delivered within 48 hours of placing the order......[/quote]

Thanks for that. I am looking at a rideon mower and a petrol strimmer. A lot of things these days come with instructions in a number of languages. Do these sort of things come with instructions in Italian and English as I wouldn't to knacker anything by putting oil/petrol in the wrong place as soon as I bought it!

We bought our rideon from this guy....and the manual was in english, as with nearly all the other we have bought.

An Austrian scythe indeed??? Boh...those two fit and muscular men shown in the picture gallery are no fair comparison to my pensioned off, arthretic husband, surviving on a pinch of steroid who is willing to cut grass using a petrol strimmer when ever his body is up to it!

Damm, I should have bought an Austrian Scythe while still in Blighty, but I didn't know our stony terraces were going to make it a worthwhile purchase! Does anyone know where I can buy an Austrian scythe (or paradoxically, an Italian ditch blade - made in Austria!) in Umbria or thereabouts?

"Thanks for that. I am looking at a rideon mower and a petrol strimmer. A lot of things these days come with instructions in a number of languages. Do these sort of things come with instructions in Italian and English as I wouldn't to knacker anything by putting oil/petrol in the wrong place as soon as I bought it!"

That is a major reason for buying from a local supplier. You will also foster a relationship with your supplier, who will be your point of contact when things go wrong! They will. Hidden tree stumps, rocks can cause a load of damage.
Any local supplier will be able to give you advice on what you need and give you full instruction on how to operate and maintain your equipment.

Rough slopes are definately better with a good quality strimmer/brushcutter with a heavy duty head, maybe even the sort with lengths of chain blade, depending on how rough and stalky your land is.

I've been doing "rough gardening" in le Marche for 5 years and tried out various machines and coped with some really nasty terrain.
Good luck

Thanks David. I wonder if I need to post this under a new thread. I'm trying to find a hand scythe and perhaps the mower bit in the old thread title misleads? Anyway I've found the Austrian Scythe Association who do mail order, but it's all in German! Might enlist the help of my German neighbour.

Ciao Lupo, just looked at the Austrian scythe site, very good. I love it. Maybe I should think about recycling my trusty strimmer and going back to scything by hand!
The Falciatrice for me was a falciatriste (unhappy scythe). I spent more time unravelling russian vine from it's wheels than I spennt actually cutting.

In bocca al lupo

Well, I went back to Simon Fairlie's website, referred to much earlier in this thread, because he's the only one in the world, as far as I can see, that supplies Italian ditching blades (at least, in English anyway!) and now that we've got over a slightly (delightfully?) old fashioned payment protocol, I now have an Ash adjustable snath and two blades: one a standard Austrian, the other an Italian blade for olive groves and terraces, and a peening jig for re forging and sharpening, on their way here! When I spoke to one of my neighbours about this they expressed scepticism initially. However, after I explained that the scythe is Austrian, not English, he offered an extremely precise description of how they are made and how they are sharpened - interesting. I do use a Stihl strimmer, but I must say that the vibration to my 59 year old arms and hands is a little wearing and I always hated the sound of strimmers in England on Sundays!

[quote=lupo;121472]Thanks David. I wonder if I need to post this under a new thread. I'm trying to find a hand scythe and perhaps the mower bit in the old thread title misleads? Anyway I've found the Austrian Scythe Association who do mail order, but it's all in German! Might enlist the help of my German neighbour.[/quote]
The local ferramente sells Austrian scythes. I'd check in your area- could save shipping charges.

Sounds like a retrograde step to me, going from a strimmer to a scythe. I scythed for two years, and yes, it's a pleasant 'close to nature' activity, if you don't mind worrying about the odd heart attack.

But I've not for one second regretted buying my beautiful Stihl FS480 brushcutter, which has been going five years now without a murmur of dissent, and slices through everything with the greatest of ease..