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Ancient Art Of Grinding A Scythe Comes now a tetter from a fellow hack who asks what I know about a rifle stick, for sharpening scythes. 1 have replied, stating there are better ways, and if he has any hand-mowing to do it is well to hire a big brute of a man with a strong back. A rifle was, and is, an abrasive device made by coating a little paddlelike stick with sand or emery, and you are supposed to rub it around on the scythe to achieve sharpness. The hand that giveth can taketh away, however, and the rifle will put a scythe on the blink just as fast. As there are folks who like plain doughnuts and ballroom dancing, there are those who think a rifle is a good thing, and there is no accounting for tastes. The rifle would probably os popular today if scything hadn't fallen off as an exercise. Putting an edge on a hand-scythe was never a simple matter, and it called for patien-e and know-how, as well as a grindstone. True, there were in early days many scythes that were never ground. They were made of artfully tempered steel, softer than later scythes, and you sharpened them by gently pounding the edge on an anvil. You thus "drew" it to sharpness, and if you put a stone on them you'd spoil them. Such scythes are still used in Europe, and folks with old-country backgrounds remember them fondly. Some of my Slovak neighbors have them, or wish they had. But the harder tempered Yankee scythe required grinding, and a peculiarity of our domestic manufacture was that no scythemaker ever four.d out how to make a uniform temper. Scythes were as different as could be. Some held an edge, some wouldn't even take an edge. The best abrasive was a big grindstone, fairly fine. The little boy to crank it was essential. (Although when my time came I rigged a treadle on my grind-atone and turned it myself. T wanted my son to have happier memories; I hope he appreciates this.) Since the blade is as long as a saber, but shaped inwardly, the grinder has to work evenly along the entire length, and he has to keep a certain bevel. You avoid a "shoulder". The thing cannot be hurried, and plenty of water must be applied to the stone. An emery wheel should never be put to a scythe. What I'm leading up to is the little soft-pine stick that was essential to a true edge on a scythe. You try to tell anybody, today, that you sharpened a handscythe with a pine stick, FIRE FIGHT--Map shows border area where Indian and Pakistani troops have been firing on each other. The fighting violat-. ed a cease-fire signed by both governments last May. and the thing is clearly ridiculous. But that's what all good scythemen used. The grindstone should be turned away from the edge Some said no, that you had to turn into the edge -- but they could never get a decent "wire edge" that way, so they were wrong. You must remember that a grindstone, big as it is, still is icund and cuts in a concave manner. You don't get a V.-edge, but a kind of a V that has been bellied in a little. If the little boy holds out, you can eventually get this pinch-in V along the entire scythe, equal and unvarying. Then you run the stone gently along one whole side, from point to heel, and the thin-thin edge will naturally turn slightly away from this action until you get this "wire-edge". It is turned-up steel, less than tissue-thin, and if you scratch your thumbnail on it you can feel it. You can't see it. If you feel the edge with your thumb you find it just a shade less than sharp, because; cf this wire idea. Don't feel too frisky, or you will have two thumbs where one bloomed before. Now you "hang" the blade to the sneath, and this is as delicate an instrument as setting a turret lathe. The handles and harness on the sneath are adjustable, and you want to blade so your outstretched right toe just touches the point when you hold the sneath against your belt. Very important, for mowing is as balanced as judo. Now you stand the sneath on end, so the heel of the blade is by your left shoulder, the point away from you (always keep it away from you)! And then you take the little soft-pine stick, about ten inches long, and not much bigger than your thumb, and you "cuff off the wire edge." At this time, anything like an abrasive would ruin your edge. But the pine stick massages the wire edge to the ultimate desideratum, and you are ready to mow. Assuming you do not find a length of fence wire, or an old mustard jar--or some such surprise--you can mow all forenoon with relative ease. Perhaps this exegesis ought to be filed in folklore, for the art of grinding a scythe has almost passed. Too many jobs are done today in haste, and grinding a scythe was slow and patient. If you got a poor edg», you fretted all day. Much better to spend the time at the stone and cuff off the wire edge. Many a mower knew his failings, and admitted he couldn't grind a scythe. Every town had an expert, and blades would be fetched to him by the unskilled. There was one such I knew, and I used to turn the stone for him sometimes. H« never spoke while grinding unless it was to say, "More water," cr, "Not so fahst!" Carefully, proudly, he would bring the blade to a wire edge, and scratch his thumbnail on it. It would be done, and he would hand it to the owner with all the pomp of a mural unveiling, lemoving his pinch-nose spectacles and hanging them on a nail over his bench. The owner would thumb the blade, finding it perfect, and then the old man would say, "Now keep the rifle off'n it, or you'll spile it the first swipe!" --by John Gould in The Christian Science Montior. TEETH TOW TO SAFETY While paddling his boat on a near-by lake, Donald Shearman, of St. Louis, spotted two men clinging to an overturned motor boat. He rowed over to them, grabbed a rope trailing from the craft, gripped it firmly between his teeth, and slowly towed the boat to shore with the two men clinging to the vessel. crossword wsaa puzzle - 19. Prevail, 20 Witt: -i i «. Heads «■ fuec^^iUed > Sei"l -o»erlng 22. Lawyers' fee: 5. Scotch 24. Color Mar?saifaeiT] .' Permit . Bombast 5" Planet 2." Hntstlnjr 2" Mentlcal It F:i~': 39 r.n tl It KB, Answer elsewhere on thia page. MUDDY GOING--That pet duck atop the steps of this combine ought to be a mudhen. Abnormal rains halted the wheat harvest in central Missouri early in July. The Boone County Missouri Farmers Association estimates that half of the wheat grown in the county is still in the fields. LeRoy Kircher, seen on combine, and his brother Allen are getting out some wheat after equipping their self-propelled combine with half-tracks. These enable them to get through fields where ordinary combines and tractors would bury themselves in the mud. THETAEM FRONT jorm12UsseLL More than ten per cent of Canada's 5,038,600 cows were bred artificially last year. This information was contained in a report compiled by the Livestock and Poultry Products Division, Canada Department of Agriculture, at the request of the National Committee on Agricultural Services. J. D. Baird, a Division spokesman, ticked off three main reasons for the increased use of artificial insemination: (1) Better quality bulls available; (2) Lower costs; and (3) Possible danger in handling bulls eliminated. Number of calves registered as a result of this method of breeding was 40,911, about the same as the previous year. Nine provinces reported organized artificial insemination businesses, with Newfoundland the only exception. Bulls kept in six provinces supplied the semen for the other three. There were 17 semen producing and 131 semen purchasing organizations operating. In service were 334 dairy, 24 dual-purpose and 105 beef bulls. Average number of services per bull was 1,160,540 and 1,165 respectively. A total of 524,129 first servings were reported--an 11 per cent increase over 1956. The number of first servings performed with frozen semen was 129,270, a 69 per cent boost over the previous year's total of 76,562.' „' , j, A total of 65,425 herds was serviced, and about seven r'er cent were tested on Record of Performance or Dairy Herd Improvement program. Artificial insemination o f swine, expected to be on a commercial basis in 19"'. did not progress beyond .e research stage. » » * A brucellosis control program, spreading gradually across Canada, has so far seen ten areas declared free of the disease. Testing is proceeding in 24 areas, where there are an estimated 430,500 head of cattle. Health of Animals Division, Canada Department of Agriculture, reports that 247 areas have been accepted for testing, over and above the ten completed. Cattle under supervision total 2,878,551. The national eradication program was started in April, 1957. Prince Edward Island was the first area to be certified. Overall level of infection in the initial test is about one per cent. In some areas, however, as high as five per cent of the animals have been found to be infected On a herd basis, the rate is roughly 14 per cent, although in some areas this figure has been as high as 25 per cent. „ , Brucellosis costs the livestock industry about $9,000,000 an- nually through decreased milk production, loss in calf crop and the subsequent replacement of breeding stock. Canada's workhorse is regaining some of the prominence it lost during post-war years. At present there is a scarcity of this type of horse, according to Dr F. J. Leslie, Livestock and Poultry Production Division, Canada Department of Agriculture, and there has been a noticeable increased interest ia breeding. The price, he said, has nearly doubled in the past six or seven years. Dr. Leslie explained that a fair percentage of farms in Quebec and other parts of Canada will always require "Due to climatic and geographic conditions, there will always be a considerable demand for draught-type horses," he asserted. The federal expert outlined three main reasons for the drastic decline in numbers: 1. Mechanization. 2. Sale of horses for slaughter purposes during and after World War II. 3. Farm labor shortage. Hired men preferred driving tractors to horses. Now that a shortage does exist across the country, Dr. Leslie said, many farmers are again breeding their own work horses. Household Hints Soak neglected paintbrushes in hot vinegar to clean and they can be made as pliable as new. Stop leaks in vases or bric-a-brac by pouring melted paraffin over the leaky spots and letting it harden. If your fine curtains develop a hole, you can do a neat job of invisible mending by covering the hole with a piece of white paper, then darning b7 running back and forth with thread under the sewing machine needle. After laundering the curtains the paper will have been soaked away and the darning will be hard to detect. If you have a tear in net curtains, apply a thin coat of colorless nail polish and press the i rayed edges together with fingers until the polish dries. Curtains so mended should not, however, be stretched after laundering. rust from the corners of cake tins that have been in use for a long time, dip a raw potato in cleaning powder and scour. Remove paint splashes from window and mirrors by washing with turpentine pr ammonia or hot vinegar. Never use a razor blade as it may scratch the glass. To clean and shine mirrors at the same time, add a little borax to the water used for washing. To clean doorknobs without injuring the wood finish behind them, cut cardboard shields to fit around the doorknobs and key plates, then use elbow grease. Kathy finally came up with this hitch, which worked all right until the tub hit bumpy ground. JMStHOOl LESSON Temperance and Social Justice (Temperance Lesson) Romans 13:11 to 14:4, 15-21 . Memory Selection: So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall la his brother's way. Romans 14: 12-13. It is the atomic scientist, more than the theologian, who talks feverishly of the end of the age. Sir Winston Churchill at the baptism of a grandchild wept, saying, "What a world for the child to enter!" Paul's view is more optimistic. He says, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us cast off the works of the darknes, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness --. But put ye on the Lord Je'sus Christ." But ' how few are heeding Paul's exhortation. Three miles from out home three people were recently struck and killed by a car. The driver was charged with drunkenness. But people are getting so accustomed to incidents like this that the shock doesn't have much permanent effect except on the families directly involved. The liquor industry will continue its momentous advertising program. In June 1957, Clipsheet documented alcohol advertising expenditures in USA m eight mediae at nearly $400,-000,000 not including the cost of ad production. In Canada the coloured ads will continue in our streetcars and in magazines coming from USA and others published in Ontario but printed outside the province or printed in Ontario and published outside the province. Liquor will be popularized at public functions. The number of alcoholics will increase. Divorces will increase. Lynwood W. Fix, a divorce proctor, said at Seattle, Wash., that the most frequent reason for divorce is "undoubtedly drunkennness. they call it cruelty in court, but it's drunkenness." Circuit Judge Robert L. Floyd of Miami said, "Many couples simply do not put enough effort into getting along, but alcohol is a major factor. And I am not referring to people who drink to excess or get drunk. There are many easel where people drink just enough to get irritable. This leads t» arguments and finally to the divorce court." There is only one remedy for sin: "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ." In San Benedetto di Verona, Italy, a circus crowd watched Strongman Giuseppe Armandoia take on four members of the audience who came forth ta challenge him, saw Giuseppe flatten two of them before the ethers Overwhelmed him, soon learned that the winners were cops and Giuseppe an escaped convict. Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking S ■; .1 3 * KG O NEW UTAH-ARIZONA BRIDGE LINK--The nears completion, 700 feet above the C bridge will provide a new link en Utah and Ari second longest steel arch bridge le Glen Canyon Dam site. The cities by January, 1959.