The Reaper's scythe is supposed to be more symbolic than practical. It is supposed to represent him harvesting souls in the same way humans harvest wheat.

The scythe is definitely a weapon. I was once attacked by two acres of tall grass and random overgrown weeds. Armed with my trusty scythe, I sliced them all. It was ugly.

So what you're saying is the scythe fighting manual is essentially a Renaissance-era shitpost?

Fun fact, many Poles who fought under Napoleon turned scythe blades into bayonets. Napoleon actually prohibited their use because he felt that they were too gruesome. They had a tendency to remove limbs and bowels when used in that capacity.

How to defend yourself from the farmgirl's father after he finds out you've been fooling aroundwith his daughters. - The manuals

Use salt and pepper to defend against a scythe, because seasons dont fear the reaper

If medieval weaponry and Jackie Chan movies tought me anything -> EVERYTHING is a weapon. Especially farming tools.

Imagine a switch scythe, a double edged scythe with a mechanism to shift the handles and switch the blade upright. One moment you're harvesting crops, the next you're writing legend.

A Polish Warscythe? I prefer Warsaws. Lol I'll be here all week folks... Or at least the next time Skall uploads.

You see, the problem with your scythe is it is not also a high impact sniper rifle.

_"Tonight... _*_Gehrman joins the hunt."_*

"Practically a longsword at the end of a staff" My brain: .... Still my brain: .... hey, remember the sword staff?

I love how you can tell exactly the date of the video only by looking at the density of Skalls beard

Something about a Scythe Infantry sounds like the most Polish thing I've ever heard.

Speaking of ridiculously big and dangerous pieces of metal that can cause brutal damage despite being way too slow for combat... Sharpened bulldozer duel!

Using regular scythes in my day to day work. I could definitely see ways they could be used as weapons. Especially some of the bulkier kinds like shrub blades, or the finnish style blades. From having worked a lot with scythes (especially heavy ones) one should not underestimate their prowess when just making blunt hits, and for tripping your opponent

Two drunk knights argue and fight in a barnyard The only possible scenario for that expensive manuscript's scythe duel

I really appreciate the heavy usage of pictures, drawings, and texts to support whatever you're talking about. Really makes it a lot easier to follow you. Not sure if the emojis in your title are the way to go, and even that effective, though. Anyhoo, I really love these kinds of videos, reminds of the one where you compared silver and iron, one of my favourite videos of yours Edit: Not sure if I played a part in it, but appreciate the title change!

Skall: "unrealistic fantasy thing" also Skall: **swings around fantasy scythe**

Lindybeige: SCYTHES ARE NOT BATTLEFIELD WEAPONS Skall: Okay but how do you *make* them into...

When the manual was made, If you trained in the use of the sythe as a weapon, and you had the opportunity to choose which weapons were used in a duel, you would probably have a huge advantage over your opponent

The scythe is the quintessential exotic weapon ? Monster Hunter has a bagpipe hammer. What is more exotic than subduing your foe with your crushing bardic might ?

The last use of scythe as a war weapon, in combat, was just at the start of the WW 2, when Germany invaded Poland. On polish coast, in "Pomorze" Army, whole battalion armed with scythes was used in combat. They replace scythes with rifles taken from dead German soldiers. The reason of this is because was so many volunteers want join the Polish Army, that there was not enough of rifles in armories to arm all of them.

Sythes in fantasy: good reach, amazing cleave, used by the most agile masters. Sythes in reality: can't do jack shit other than cut your lawn.

Poland had whole formation named after the scythe. My ancestor was one of the most famous ones.

Scythe just isn’t a weapon. The grim reaper only has it because it’s a harvesting tool

When you were showing the sword and showing how it could be used to cut, all I could think is that if it’s attached to a long pole, you’re going to have a lot of leverage and power in that swing. Which you pointed out a few moments later.

As you noticed, there are lots of variations (as for the cropping tool). As my dad said, it is because the scythe is relatively cheap and can be actually customized: each single reaper can have a few scythes that are to his own use and specific lenght/angle/weight/blahblah ratios for (as you mentioned) different types of grain and terrain. Yes, I am from Poland and we still have folks who don't use lawnmowers... like my dad ;) So regarding the fact that some peasants could have had up to five scythes each, we indeed have a very wide variety (regarding grip modifications, numbers and shapes of snaths, shapes of shafts). Oh, by the way, these guys have done some quite cool study on a few techniques that were possible to use in a mano-a-mano scythe combat kzfaq.info/get/bejne/idWVgdp2z9a4dWg.html And Racławice is pronounced more like [ratswavitseh]. As for the weapon training and writing "manuals", well it could have come to not the ones who used it (people who couldn't read) but the ones who prepared a group for battle. Therefore we can imagine some troop training by "'webels" or "hauptmanns" passing knowledge among each other. But that is just my presumption. And sorry to bring it up to you, but you were using the scythe wrong on the zombie head. It is not your fault actually. Your scythe is just not right, it should be a lot less curved, as in the one that is used for cutting grass or your falx. And as in some Miyagi or Chinese training, you should first try to cut grass with it to "feel the flow" or just to use it in the correct manner. It is not easy but after you would cut a morgue of wheat, you would probably be capable of cutting people's hair if necessary (if they would agree to lie face down as you say "this will take just a few seconds" gripping a harvest tool...). Hitting the zombie head with the point of your pretty weapon is just... weird, you should be handling something you could actually aim at the opponent ;)

They're extremely effective in Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, so it has to be true!

I knew a girl her dad chopped off his neighbor's arm with a scythe. They are still friends today

I remember my brother's character in Everquest had an awesome scythe. I played his character once and almost died to the first low level monster I encountered because I didn't realize you couldn't actually attack with it, it was only for stats.

Making the phrase “Don’t fear the reaper” all too literal.

Fun fact, the original depiction of the grim reaper had both a scythe and a sword, which he used was based on how noble you were in life but did so to sever the bond between body and soul, rather than outright weaponry. Also weapon scythes in fiction generally have curved shafts so the swinging momentum eventually made the blade strike with the edge.

In Poland we had many uprising, most of them relay on peasant and scythe.

Skallagrim really helps me with my investigation into "fantasy" weapons. I'm a fantasy writer myself and I love to have characters with badass crazy weapons but I also want to add the touch of realism to it as to "why" their using it. Not just say "magic" but just go a bit deeper. Skallagrim's videos like this help!

I always liked how in RWBY Ruby got around the lack of cutting power from pulling the scythe by using a gun's extreme recoil to provide the power instead of her own strength.

Skallagrim fans: "But does it have a pommel?" R.W.B.Y. fans: "But is it also a gun?"

I can't help imagining a scythe with a Monster Hunter-style mechanism for actuating the blade, folding it out from a reaper-style scythe to a Polish-style polearm mid-combat

War picks had to be baned in polish sejms (the first congres-like gatherings of nobility), too many "congresmen" didn't make it thru the meetings . :D

In Bretagne (France) there’s a myth about the reaper “assistant” named ankou and it’s almost like the reaper but he has a scythe (like a peasant scythe) but the blade is mounted upside down. I wonder if this design wouldn’t be more effective than the “classic” design...

Could you imagine watching a two man scythe fight omg and your ones would be worth sharpening the topside of the blade for slashing and push cutting

The scythes used in Polish uprisings weren't intended to be durable weapons. If successful, it only needed to be used once. After that they would just grab fallen enemy's musket with bayonet.

Tell that to Lyrian Scythemen, they've literally helped me win against Nilfgaard only with their scythes

Has to be the best video on this subject. I love how you combine practical tests and personal opinion with historical background from multiple eras.

1min after upload, without bell, beat this!

The Fencing Master heard about Polish scythes, but never saw the actual weapon... And the legend of Polish obtuseness began...

I was talking about hypothetical situations with a friend and they were convinced that a Scythe would be the best weapon for a close range combat situation and when I countered with "no just use a shotgun" they got legit angry trying to convince me that a glorified kitchen knife on the end of a broomstick would be more effective than a normal sword or an axe

I'd be interested in seeing what you could do with the "weaponized sythe" you show. A polearm with forward curved vertical blade... As opposed to this, which seems to be an impractical fantasy weapon appropriate for heavy metal albums.

I have been doing some digging at the etymology of many bladed and hooked polearm weapons, you know the usual (Glaive, Guisarme, Fauchard, Guandao, Sovnya, Naginata etc) and i found something very interesting, the origin of the names for many of these weapons roughly translate to "scythe/sickle" or in some cases refer to a crescent blade Guisarme: "origin is likely Germanic from Old High German "getīsarn", literally "weeding iron" Fauchard: French, from Old French fausart, fauchart, from faus, faux sickle, scythe (from Latin falx) + -ard, -art -ard Naginata: roughly translated means "mowing down blade"reaping blade" Glaive: likely a French/Welsh? translation from guisarme or the latin "gladius" word for sword. Guandao: yanyuedao (偃月刀; lit. "reclining moon blade" (as in a sickle/scythe) Sovnya: sadly i cant find a solid origin of the name/meaning but it is safe to assume it translates to scythe/sickle or reaping/mowing blade

"tell that to the reaper." I love it!

I cannot describe how much this helps I've been a little toubled as to what to give my mascot character (in my pfp) as his weapon keep up the hard work on these videos, they're quality

My grandfather always used to try and correct me saying "It's not a scythe, it's a scy". I always wondered if he was just batshit crazy or if he confused scythes with the type of dagger called "sai".

Kosynier kościuszkowski in the thumbnail

Exotic weapons require exotic technique for exotic results. If everybody could do it... well it wouldn't be exotic now would it?

I like the mix of history, weapon analysis, marketing of products, and occasional relative sport introduction. Good Channel.

10:37 lmao love the idea of a lord telling his knights to train with scythes just in case there's a peasant uprising and the knights going "Yo it could be better but this is lowkey kinda neat!"

>Ra-kla-Wi-Ce XDDD Amazing pronunciation

My granddad had an old scythe hanging in his workshop when I was growing up it was a cool piece

I'm actualy considering eventualy turning my TTRPG character into a scythe wielder, mainly because he's a follower of the goddess of death, and was interested if it was an at all manageable weapon. And given the benefit of the doubt (because it's fantasy), bit longer and straighter blade, double edge (like you have) and significant amount of practise (to not backstab himself) it seems useable.

I think the scythe's effectiveness comes in disabling the enemy and killing them when they stumble or fall. it can hook arms and legs as he mentioned. More testing please! Scytheman vs Spearman swordsman vs Scytheman!

A sickle on the end of a pole arm is probably a great weapon, it'd probably be a great hook-like weapon with a strong piercing end.

The favourite weapon of Poles: a sword on a pole /Ba Dum Tsss/

In Britanny there are some reverse scythe, like with the blade up, that allows to cut stuff by just pushing it in front of you, this might be a good thing in combat

Regardless of any perceived tardiness on the topic, your video is my favorite among them.

War scythes were used by auxiliary units in Poland even in early World War II. Of course, it was due to lack of weapons for volonteers and guards.

It's worth noting that continental European scythes are the sort that are peened to maintain the bevel. Nordic, English, and American scythe blades follow a different design philosophy and use much harder steel, with many of them being of laminated construction. Those scythes are maintained by grinding, instead, which is done much less frequently than the continental European type. In America there are numerous accounts of escaped slaves using scythe blades as weapons, but this was done not by altering the blades, but simply by grasping them by the tang. The length of the tang on an American scythe blade is about equal to the span of the knuckles, so it was the right size for such a hold. It was awkward, but a more fearsome weapon than the butcher's knives they otherwise had access to. Those struck with a scythe blade in this manner were unlikely to recover.

I had a huge scythe and the way the wood was bent and handles were adjustable, I got it from a yard sale for cheap and used the antique to cut long thick grass and various other small trees and such and you could swing it for a long time but cut a large area clean in one swipe. It was very cool actually.

*Showing RWBY as an Anime example Well that will spark a weeb war almost as great as the best girl war...

"How often are you attacked by someone with a scythe, while you are also using a scythe?" Yeah, keep laughing... I never asked for this life.... -_-

I love this channel keep up the good work

The angle of this grim reaper scythe replica is much larger than on the real utility scythe, on the real one the angle is almost the same as on that "sword" you showed, the scythes were more straight and only slightly curved, but they were very narrow at the end and this gave the impression of a larger angle than it actually was

When you talked about the splitting maul being unwielding, I got Walking Tall flashbacks. Great video! Would be cool if you could have one that went quickly from a 90-degree angle to straight mode easily.

Pretty sure the nagamaki or the naginata were just swords on the end of long poles so not that outlandish to have a European version probably for the same reason to take out horses and such... good content keep it up man!!

Funny, I get a recommendation for shadiversity's scythe video the other day then this pops up... Hmmmmmmmmmmmm🤔🤷‍♂️

Great video! Thank you for mentioning Poland :)

Chrono Trigger reference - you made my day;) Cool, thanks & keep up the good work! Btw: about manuals for scythes: maybe the interest was less about attacking with them - but rather defending against them.

i love when Skall gets sponsored

When the Blue Oyster Cult vibes are growing strong within me. "Don't Fear The Reaper"

there is an japanese traditional weapon called kusarigama which is basically a sickle with an chain and a ball attached to it, its a really exotic weapon and has its own martial arts which still exists and is called kusarigama-jitsu :)

Castlevania curiosity bought me here to your video. Death, one of Dracula's bosses wields the scythe in all its different forms of scythe attacks within the castlevania games.

Not just the Poles, but the Slavs in general were not as well equipped as a lot of European peoples however; what we did have we used to the fullest potential. Not to mention our sheer determination and courage to fight off forces so much greater than our own (even if it took longer than originally thought). The only enemy we could not defeat were ourselves. The infighting kept us in a perpetual weaken state.

@Skallagrim to your question at 0:00 I think shadiversity made a video about it. (Or a similar one (at least something with a scythe))

I've seen a couple interesting takes on the notion of the scythe. Mine was partially pointing the tip of the scythe up a bit and taking the curve down a little, and then at the base of the blade where it meets the pole, have it go down a bit with a much smaller protruding blade pointing a bit down, also thickening the blade a bit(I hope my description was good enough), that way you provide a bit more viable edge to it, and provide a bit more option while keeping the more traditional scythe aesthetic which made the weapon so popular to begin with. That's only really a blade design, and would likely need more consideration for the rest of the weapon to get the best results.

As a person who lives in Poland and loves his heritage I know a bit about it . Scythes were used a lot in uprisings. Particularly in uprisings form the partition of Poland in 1795 and in later uprisings the January's and November's uprisings to be precise . It was and still is a symbol of Poles who can never surrender even when we were under heavy occupation. It symbols the connection of peasants to the country they love and beeing one nation was one of the most important things that helped us stand up from 123 years in literall slavery of Russia , Prussia and Austria ( it also decreased differences in our casts so when time came and we fought side by side we were as one although on battle of Racławice we fought in different formations after that we were one ) . That helped us make our identity . When we needed to survive the bolsheviks army we used them as well in infantry fighting ( that was last Hope's weapon thought) . Our fighter squadron (303) had that in their insignia ( I would really like to point that we had the most kills ;) and also least causalities ) . And yet we still we use it in our today's insignia . It shows how we can't be broken becouse as our national anthem says : Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła kiedy my żyjemy (Poland is not dead , when we're alive ) . Btw I don't know if that's weird but I embrace my heritage and have saber in my room and know how to make that scythe for personal defense (as you said we just grind it for more durable and thick balde and put it on top ). And sorry for my bad english 😅 .

i am here just to apriciate that probably polish kosynier (scytheman if you want to translate) in the picture. Also, i think that straighten scythe could be actually very good cutting weapon, thin blade with nice curve + a shitload of leverage, but still shor enough to be usefull PS. HOLY SHIT IS THIS SOME MUTHERF*CKING POLAND REFFERENCE?!

I just realised, a naginata is just a warscythe with the other side of the blade sharpened

Add a spike or axe head to the agricultural scythe's blade, it gives four options along side 'Hook:' - War Pick (Spike on side) - Spear (Spike on top) - Poleaxe (Axe head) - Halberd (All above)

Excellent historical research! Having used cradle scythes (reproductions for late 19th century), cutting grass or grain is more difficult than you'd think!

I own an old agricultural scythe (hollow metal haft, but curved like an old fashioned European scythe), it's pretty old and rusty but I restored the blade as best as I could and played around with it in my back yard. The blade is on the thin side and would be utterly useless against anything more substantial than basic clothing - Gambeson would stop it no problem, while mail or plate would probably break it. But against an unarmed opponent wearing normal clothing? It could absolutely do some damage. Strangely enough, holding it by the snathes actually provides you with some fantastic leverage for swipes and hooks, and if the blade had been replaced with a "fresh" one, especially one that was thicker and sharpened differently? It could probably be a very formidable weapon. All that said? If I was going into medieval combat I'd much rather have something actually built for warfare, a pike, sword, mace, or better yet, an arquebus would be more my speed.

Hand scythes were also used as weapons by ninjas disguised as farners, since it was fast and would not make anyone suspicious about it.

When people look at the scythe as a weapon they don't think about this so thank you for bringing it up

The grim reaper use to carry a lantern. Brutal video, subbed 🤘

I'd love for you to do another one for kamas/sickles.

I think you could consider a billhook to be a form of heavy scythe. It has the scythe shaped blade. I do agree the sickle is more effective, especially if its thicker.

7:25 Scythmen were suppose to receive great loses while attacking shooting units, but on the same hand they were massacring them while they've met. In terms of one of battles, regiment of handgunners run away after regiment in front of it was massacred by schythmen do to fear factor.

I'm a Market Gardner & I do my landscaping with an Austrian style Scythe. when I cut the devil's patch of grass outside our property I get alot of people who have only ever seen a Scythe in video games- asking me if I plan on getting into fights with it. *I would rather fight with my house keys than an unmodified Scythe* 😂🤣 However, it is an AWESOME tool. I cut twice the volume in half the time than my neighbors with their trimmer, without any noise pollution, no need to worry about gas or battery power, it cuts better with wet grass than dry grass.. its super light weight, it cuts collects & dumps cutting in a single smooth motion and it doesn't leave a crap ton of plastic waste behind. Thank you for the video!

The scythe is kinda curved down too much for my taste

Demeter, the goddess of the harvest in Greek Mythology uses a scythe as a weapon

Agricultural scythes also had a blade that was angled slightly off the haft. So besides the blade being mounted at a 90 degree angle, it was also angled slightly to one side, so the blade would be parallel to the ground during use

That design has a lovely silhouette and looks like it has a nice weight to it.