I'm looking to buy an Allen Scythe or similar, Beds/Bucks/Herts area. Must be in good working order - I'm not a collector, just someone who, now that I need one, remembers how effective these machines were at cutting through long grass.

Hi John
We are not sure of the usefulness of publishing your request on our webpages because, for your privacy and general website security, we don't publish any e-mail addresses. So if someone did have an Allen scythe for sale, they would not be able to contact you. And we recommend that you do not publish any contact details such as address or phone number on a webpage.

We do not wish to become intermediaries in private sales either.

We suggest you search the Yellow Pages for agricultural/horticultural machinery suppliers in your area and ask them to source an old Allen scythe for you. They're probably still going strong somewhere, although the rope start was always a pain, as was trying to stop the machine as it romped away with you! Wonder if they were ever updated with a recoil start?

As one only needs a scythe mower once or twice a year, a good option would be to hire one - possibly a more modern and user-friendly make and model. Take a look at the links from this page to see the modern versions.

Does anyone know the whereabouts of a brush attachment for an allen-scythe. Not a brush cutter but a brush that can be used to clean a yard or driveway. An illustration or photo would help, just in case I have to consider making one.

Our only suggestion is to use Google frequently and search for Allen scythe and Allen scythe attachments. That's what we did (using the advanced search for Allen scythe) on Google Web, and Images, and Video, and discovered that a rotary brush attachment was made for this machine. However, tracking one down could be tricky. There are several interested individuals, message boards, forums, clubs and agricultural machinery dealers who list items Allen Scythes and you might see the attachment for sale or see an illustration that would help you make your own.

Discussing an 'Elfin safety' issue recently I was reminded of the Allen scythe which we used to have on our small holding when I was a lad. These days you probably wouldnt be allowed to drive one unless you were at least 18 and had been on an approved course! :)

It was the early two stroke version we had and although I used it, proudly, from the age of 14yrs (Keeping the long grass in check was one of my 'chores'). I grew to love the idiosyncrasies of the machine and became rather good at using it. Luckily I was a strong lad and you could get into situations where you needed to be. However it was a truly marvellous machine which was VERY effective at doing its job and was an absolutely key machine in keeping the place tidy.

On that model there was one VERY important thing you had to learn otherwise you COULD NOT disengage the drive and the thing would propel itself onwards and goodness me it did have a huge amount of torque at the driven wheels and took some stopping!! In normal motion you could not disengage the drive by pulling in the clutch lever as it appeared to be locked and would resist all attempts to force it. To disengage the drive I discovered that the trick was to synchronise the pulling in of the clutch lever with a sudden downward movement of the handle bars (around 6" or so)!! This action enabled you to move the clutch lever!

Because of this characteristic you had to time this 'manoeuvre' carefully as you approached anything solid; especially if it was made of something soft like wood! If you mis-timed the clutch release and ran into the object the sharp tines, on the cutting bar, would dig into the wood and then you were stuck!

The reason was that in order to disengage the clutch with the trick I mentioned (moving the handlebars down) the cutting bar obviously needed to move up and, of course, if the tines were buried in the wood you couldn't! You were stuck with the machine trying its hardest to penetrate the wood more with the wheels spinning on the grass sap!!! The only solution was to lift the handlebars to minimise contact with the ground and drag it back bodily, against the propulsion of the wheels! (I said you had to be strong!! :) It actually relied on the low friction of grass sap for its operation!

I'm 65yrs old now but I know that I could immediately drive an Allen, even now, as the characteristics of machines are programmed into the brain forever. Oh yes, the two stroke engine could be a bit of a pig to start as well as the British engineers of the day, shamefully, never mastered the design and/or production of good ignition systems and the best you could hope for was a spindly thin yellow spark on a closed down plug gap!! :) Thankfully this is easily cured these days by solid state ignition add ons.

I'd be inclined to try eBay.

regards

Frank