Scythes are Neat

As has probably been mentioned our block is hilly. It also started being nearly all covered in grass. We're slowly replacing it with garden beds but there'll be a lot of grass for a few years yet.

For the flat(ish) bits the mower is ok but a lot required a brush-cutter. To get to edges, do some of the heavy weeds and to do the really hilly bits.

I hate using the whippersnipper/brush-cutter. We've got a good one so it starts ok. but you have to fuel it. It smells. It's noisy. It's heavy. It's dangerous. The vibrations hurt my back. I really hate rewrapping the cutting cord when that runs out.
It's just hard work.

I'm not sure if I will ever use a brush-cutter again. There is a better way.

We've had the scythe (from scythes australia) for a few weeks now and I find for us a scythe is better than a mower or a brush-cutter for pretty much everything.

It is so much easier.
You have to sharpen the blade with a stone every 5 minutes or so but that takes seconds.
You have to peen the blade which takes a bit longer but that's probably about as often as you need to fuel a mower.
You can cover huge areas the same way as mowing. The grass can be long or short.
You can do a couple of sweeps to clean up an small area with no effort. Not like the power tool with its annoying setup overhead.
So I can get home from work, wander the yard and see some taller grass I find aesthetically displeasing, grab the scythe, give a couple of swings, admire the view, walk back, peacefully tidying other grass I pass, wipe it down and put it away. All in a few minutes. Less time than getting the mower from the shed and pull starting it.
And it's easier! Did I mention that? It's light to carry, which really matters going up and down hills.
I still have to refine my technique. I can do the big gentle swings that cover a 2 meter wide frontage and are good for 'mowing' but I still get distracted and do short cuts to get some particular weed which isn't as efficient. Plus I find myself using it as martial arts practice. Explosive starts and stops rather than gentle swings that use minimal effort.
Even with the recent stupidly hot (for November) I can walk and keep the grass on the entire block under control quite comfortably. I'd be very disinclined to do that with the power tools. And after using them I'd be tired and sore.
I was worried the scythe would be bad for some of the steep hills, but its good for that.
I was worried the scythe would need the grass to be particularly long or have trouble with heavy weeds, but it does that much easier than the brush-cutter. That was what really sold me on them, when one of Belindas friends from the Community Harvest group went through a clump of weeds in 20 minutes I take hours with the snipper.
I was worried the scythe would be hard to make things neat but because you can place the blade between the plant with the back against objects and just slice away you have a heap of control even with a long blade.
Initially watching the scything technique videos I thought they were nuts doing it in bare feet but that's how I normally do it now. Sure, be aware its a 3 foot long razor blade on a stick, but its a long way from you. It won't fling rocks at you. And you are direct contact and control. You do need to be wary of chickens but hey they thought the mower was interesting too.
Quite a relaxing, enjoyable task.

What was a brush-cutter invented for? didn't they have a scythe?
Once again another aspect where our modern energy intensive tools seem far worse and use more human energy than what they replaced.
(Similarly my digital guitar amp effects are probably never going to used again now I have more homemade analogue effects boxes)

So I might still use the mower for the main yard by the house to look a bit flatter and prettier but I expect as I get the technique down I won't even need that.