Scythe or sieve?

[FredPuli43]

Ever feel old because young people don't know what something is ? I went into the village ironmonger's to buy a scythe. The young assistant looked blank when I asked for a scythe. He asked "A sieve?" "No," I said, "a scythe, for cutting", and demonstrated a scything action. Still mystified, he was rescued by a senior who picked a scythe off a rack and said to him "I don't suppose you know what a scythe is". Now, this was in a village, not some city centre, but he apparently had never knowingly seen a scythe, or at least, didn't know the word.

[boxtops]

You'd think he might wonder about items in the shop, even if he didn't know what they were..... try asking for a darning mushroom!

[Clanad]

So... there's no hope he'd recognize a sickle, in either form or description?

[twix123]

Ask him for four candles, or should it be fork handles?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz2-ukrd2VQ

[emmie]

surprised they would know what an ironmongers is. we have one but admittedly they don't sell scythes, not much call in the city..

[vulcan]

All is not lost, we have an Ironmonger in the village and all the staff, including the young ones, would not only know what a scythe is but ask if it's long or short handled and is it left or right.

[Wharton]

Scythe is an anagram of 'chesty' - I'll bet he knows what that means.

[tenrec]

LOL at Wharton!

[emmie]

couldn't cut the grass with that though?

[woofgang]

amazed they are still legal to be sold. Many years ago we lived in Wells and there was a shop there called Self Sufficiency. They sold everything for the Tom Goode lifestyle. In the shop along with rakes and hoes, they had a barrel full of machetes....you wouldn't see that now.

[emmie]

woofgang, perhaps you don't live in the capital, there are still shops that sell them.

[Frank97]

I didn't know that village ironmongers still existed, let alone that they still sell scythes!

[emmie]

you can get them

http://www.thescytheshop.co.uk/

[Hopkirk]

How about a strimmer?

[FredPuli43]

Thank you , Wharton. I'll go back and tell him !

I'm just old enough to remember gangs of men cutting the corn with scythes. At season's end, the man would hang the scythe in a tree. The logic was that water would run down to the blade edge and rust it a bit. This resulted in a slightly serrated edge, come the Spring, which made the scythe more efficient.

Did buy a brashing iron in an enormous ironmonger's in Cambridge. Was understood, but only later did I wonder what it was called elsewhere than around here . I think it's a bill-hook, a long, ash handle with a short somewhat curved, steel blade at the end. That would have confused the assistant!

[woofgang]

golly em are they still legal?

[karenmac60]

Has he not even seen one of these?

http://www.google.co....1t:429,r:25,s:86,i:84

;)

[Caribeing]

A friend of mine went to BQ and asked for suction grips for holding tea towels etc they were very useful kitchen items, the assistant looked at him as if he had two heads

[woofgang]

I had to hunt all over the place for those, finally got them on ebay

[Old_Geezer]

Introduce them to this Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation