Scythe work
A scythe factory (also scythe forge or scythe hammer ) is an industrial plant in which scythes , sickles and heavy knives are produced.
history
Scythe works are a special form of hammer forge and have been created in Europe since the high Middle Ages with the development of the mill . Early industrial, semi-manual scythe hammers were widespread until their heyday in the 19th century and into the first half of the 20th century, the decline in the use of scythes and sickles gradually led to the extinction of scythes.
Scythes were one of the best-known and most important export products of ancient Austria and were shipped worldwide. While there were 125 scythe factories in today's Austria in 1850, a process of concentration began in the late 19th century, which, together with the mechanization of agriculture that began in the 1950s, led to only two factories forging scythes in Austria today.
Procedure
The drive ( water wheel , more rarely wind and ship mills ) was used to operate a large forge's hammer. Scythe factories were therefore mostly located along smaller rivers, where the driving force of the flowing water was transferred to the production machines via water wheels.
The transmission of the driving force from the waterwheel to the drop hammers took place via simple mechanisms, later via flywheels and transmission belts . The flywheel in the production hall was driven by the waterwheel attached to the outside in parallel. The speed of the subsequent shafts was increased via various transmission belts, so that finally the massive drop hammers rushed down onto the workpieces at high speed. The resulting noise in the production halls was considerable. It was not until the early 20th century, when the scythe industry was declining, that electric-hydraulic forging hammers appeared.
In order to achieve a high cutting ability of the scythes, they were made of steel and soon forged from a blade steel and a soft iron using layer technology, analogous to the technique of swordsmiths. Therefore, blade weapons were also produced in many scythe factories . In order to heat the blanks for the production of the scythes so far that the material was sufficiently soft and malleable, a forge made of charcoal was used .
In addition to a sufficient and even amount of water (see Ache ) and the necessary weir height for the necessary strength, the typical scythe-making regions - due to the enormous need for coal or charcoal - are located in the vicinity of the coal mining areas or in wooded areas, and of course preferably in the vicinity of good ones Iron deposits.
