This 1890 photograph by Peter Henry Emerson is titled "In the Barley Harvest". Two workers are resting while the third is sharpening his scythe.
This is an original 1898 halftone print of "The Man with the Scythe." In this image the man with the scythe is not death coming to take away the sick child. This image focuses more on the feeling of a summer evening.
Farmer with Scythe" Profile of elderly man with mustache and suspenders, leaning on long handle of scythe, surrounded by plants - Kentucky Digital Library
When I was a little kid the county used to have work crews of old men trimming the roadside with scythes. Later they went to tractors with mowing machines eventually they just gave up in many areas.
When I started, with the Utility Company, we would occasionally use scythes to clear right of ways. Years later a neighbor lady gave me an old curved scythe, and I replaced the blade with a brand new Schwanen Austrian scythe blade. The swans on the blade flew away long ago! While working the older guys joked about all the old-timers who had wooden legs.......!
I still have an old scythe, but haven't tried it in years. It needs a new snath, as the handles are loose. Scythes work amazingly well in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing (not me). I also have an old broad-axe.
My scythe. The handles will tighten, but they won't stay. tightened. I don't think there is anything wrong with the long wood part (snath, had to look it up).
This picture reminds me of when the road crew uses 3 mowers running side by side, or the big tractors mowing fields in the midwest.
My handles have worn grooves into the snath. I think that is why they won't tighten. I once contacted Lehman's about a replacement, but I never ordered it.
Maybe I'm just afraid to apply too much force to tighten them. Inherited it from my father, and I'd hate to break it. I can use it fairly well for small patches, but you would have to be in really great shape to do it for very long.
....this is how the guy to your right ends up with a wooden leg. The workers should be staggered, front to rear.