Talk:Sickle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 The scythe was used for cutting grass and in the latter years, before mechanical harvesting, it superseded the sickle for corn, though the blade's edge was modified for this purpose.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))