US1338272A - Scythe - Google Patents

Description

W. WORTHINGTON.

SCYTHE. APPLICATION FILED MAR. 1'; 1919.

1,338,272, Patented Apr. 27, 1920.

WITNESSES I INVENTOR a yMQM. I I lz WARREN WORTHINGTQN, or New YORK, N. Y.

Specification of Letters Patent.

" s I ,soY'rHE.

Patented Apr. 27, 1920.

Application filed March 1, 1919. Serial No. 279,385.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, l/VARREN VORTI-IING won, a resident of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Scythes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to scythe blades. Its object is to provide a scytheblade which, as compared with scythe blades as heretofore constructed, is cheaper and easier to manufacture, is of lighter weight, thereby lowering the cost, has a thinner web portion, thereby making it easier to sharpen, and is nevertheless of great stiffness.

The invention comprises a scythe blade constructed as hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a plan view of the improved scythe blade; Fig. 2 is an end view thereof; and Fig. 8 1s an enlarged sectional view on the line 8-3 Fig. 1.

Scythe blades are ordinarily formed by forging a steel blank to form a blade of the usual construction with the web portion having one edge thin toform the cutting edge, and increasing in thickness toward its opposite edge,which latter edge is thickened or ribbed to give the necessary stiffness. Since these blades must be made of a fairly hard steel, the forging operation is slow and quite diiiicult, and this adds to the cost of the finished blades. Furthermore the webs cannot be reduced by forging beyond a certain thickness, and as a consequence the blades are quite heavy, and as the steel is quite costly this also adds to its cost. The relatively thick webs also add to the difficulty and labor of sharpening the blades.

The improved scythe blade, forming the subject of this invention, overcomes the foregoing difliculties. The blade in form and contour is the same as heretofore constructed, having the web portion 7, of the usual curved shape, with the cutting edge 8 along one edge, and the strengthening rib or back 9 on the opposite edge. This blade, however, instead of being forged. from a comparatively thick blank is made by taking a steel plate of uniform thickness which is somewhat thinner than the webs of standard scythe blades, and forming the strengthening back or rib 9 by a bending or folding operation to provide a flange or rib at substantially right angles to the plane of the web. This rib or back is composed of a rib or flange 10, with its extreme edge bent at Tlglt angles, as shown at l3, and lying subyet have them equally as stiff and strong as the forged blade. In this way the amount of metal used in making the blade is reduced, giving a light weight blade, thereby reducing the cost, and forming thinner webs than with forged blades, thus facilitating. sharpening. Any desired degree of stiffness can be imparted to such light blades by merely forming the rib or flange of the desired width.

In forming the new blade the back or strengthening rib can be formed by simple bending operations, while the plate is hot, which bending operations can be easily performed by simple apparatus, and either forging or grinding the free edge of the web to produce the cutting edge.

This blade will be provided with the usual shank, shown at 15, which will be of the usual construction of such shanks, and

which may be either integral with the body of the blade, such as making it by folding the sheet steel over double or triple to get the desired strength and then spot-welding or riveting the folded parts together, and Lip-setting to form the nib or lugs 16; or it may be of a separate piece, either formed as a drop forging or a malleable casting, and riveted or spot-welded to the web of the blade. Inasmuch as both methods of forming the shank are already old, the same need not be further described, and no claim thereto is herein made.

The advantages of the improved scythe blade over such blades as ordinarily constructed are, reduction in weight and amount of material used, thereby reducing the cost; reduction in the number and difliculty of operations in manufacture, thus further reducing the cost; decreasing the thickness of the web, thus facilitating sharpening; and yet provide for a sufiiciently great thickness of the back of the scythe to give a stifiness equal toand, if desired, greater than that of forged scythe blades. a

What I claim is:

A scythe blade comprising a thin steel.

plate of uniform thickness having one edge formed as a cutting edge and its opposite edge disposed at a right angle to the Web and then extending in a plane substantially parallel to the Web to form a stiffening 10 lVARREN WORTHINGTON. V

Witnesses 7 E. WV. BARENTHER, VVIRTMAN EAsoN.

Images