04-21-2017, 09:57 AM
This is an interesting thread Jan so thank you for beginning it. I've read about grain flails but never seen one. I see the downside now of inviting people onto the thread who you have known for 45 years. Bubby knows where all my skeletons are buried so I hope they stay buried. So here is a little trivia on Bubby. His name is Bob and his wife's name is Debbie. To their close friends they are known as Bubby and Dubby so I insisted when he signed up for the Exchange that he use his Kansas nickname.
Like Bubby I have a few of these harvesting instruments in storage as well. Here's a picture I lifted from the internet of the two most common styles found in Kansas. I can still remember seeing my Great Uncle Jake using one of these around his out buildings on the farm. He had a push-type reel mower for the grass around the farmhouse and the scythe for the weeds.
Now here's something I put a few hours in on as a kid. Great for cleaning sunflowers out of fence rows. I didn't think it was great, Dad did. A good, healthy Kansas sunflower has a stalk on it as tough as a pine tree. Dad referred to this tool as a "sickle" though.
Every cutting tool we owned, including mom's butcher knives, were sharpened on a bench grinder. I don't remember much burr removal going on unless it occurred as mom was slicing the pot roast.
Finally, here is what we use today for weed removal. Clearly a waypoint on our descent into physical lassitude.
Like Bubby I have a few of these harvesting instruments in storage as well. Here's a picture I lifted from the internet of the two most common styles found in Kansas. I can still remember seeing my Great Uncle Jake using one of these around his out buildings on the farm. He had a push-type reel mower for the grass around the farmhouse and the scythe for the weeds.
Now here's something I put a few hours in on as a kid. Great for cleaning sunflowers out of fence rows. I didn't think it was great, Dad did. A good, healthy Kansas sunflower has a stalk on it as tough as a pine tree. Dad referred to this tool as a "sickle" though.
Every cutting tool we owned, including mom's butcher knives, were sharpened on a bench grinder. I don't remember much burr removal going on unless it occurred as mom was slicing the pot roast.
Finally, here is what we use today for weed removal. Clearly a waypoint on our descent into physical lassitude.