Talk:Sickle

message: In my experience, the tool held by the man shown reaping is a sickle and the tool labelled 'sickle' is a rip-hook. The latter is (or was) used for trimming weeds, particularly in a more or less confined space. Where there was more room but uneven ground such as roadside banks and ditches, a (two-handed) slashing hook was used. A sickle was primarily a harvesting tool and had a serrated edge where used for cutting hard stems such as those of ripe corn. I think the rip-hook (at least in the form shown, where the blade is detachable) was invented after the use of sickles for harvesting had become obsolete, in Britain at least. The scythe was used for cutting grass and in the latter years, before mechanical harvesting, it superseded the sickle for corn, though the blade's edge was modified for this purpose. (RJP 10:14, 24 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Rip hook

message: I have included a note about Dresd. C 93 and it's section on fighting with the sickle.  --Meversbergii (talk) 14:03, 30 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Fighting

message: What is meant by Scriptures from early natives in the Americas section? In the Americas, writing was developed only in Mesoamerica, but this section seems to be referring to Arizona and parts further north. -- 202.63.39.58 (talk) 09:16, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Scriptures from early natives?? 

message: QR code in place — Preceding unsigned comment added by ‎ Elrebe56 (talk • contribs) 6:32, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: QR code installed

message: I see no mention of the billhook, but the two seem very similar to me. Some text about the differences would be nice. --Palnatoke (talk) 06:52, 18 July 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sickle vs. billhook? 

message: I propose that Bagging hook be merged into Sickle because the content in the Bagging Hook article seems to be already covered in the context of Sickle, and the Sickle article is of a reasonable size that the merging of Bagging Hook will not cause any problems as far as article size or undue weight is concerned.  The two articles appear to be talking about one and the same thing.Ex nihil (talk) 10:56, 17 June 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merger proposal 

message: 'When held in a bunch, the sickle action is typically towards the user'
This is simplistic, confusing and dangerous.
I have been cutting grass tussocks for years, and always cut away from me.
Real advice would be good.
First, hook a bunch of grass stalks with sickle in right hand, with the point away from you.
Then grasp the bunch with left hand.  For trimming tussocks, hold the stalks high and cut low, so that few of the blades of grass are cut.
It would be dangerous to swing a sickle toward oneself, and whoever wrote this should be ashamed of giving dangerous advice.  
PS I have trouble logging into WikiPedia, but I only get insults to my comments when I sign them anyway.
* Your practice is certainly safe, but I've never seen it done left to right outwards. Many sickles have offset handles to clear the ground, so these would make it impossible, and also a convex side to the blade designed to keep the blade from hitting the dirt.  Maybe you have a left-hande sickle? Regular ones must be used right to left. The action is across the body, rather than towards; it would be pretty hard to injure yourself in practice. Also, (I imagine but haven't actually tried) would be more tiring because we have stronger muscles for pulling in than flicking out.  Not sure that I would ever hold the grass either, that sounds really dangerous. If I had to hold the grass I would suspect that a sharpening is long overdue; I do it about every 30 minutes. Anyway, if it works for you, great! Ex nihil (talk) 17:10, 28 December 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  dangerous advice