I am very happy with the hand sickle. Cutting grass is simple, but you need to be careful. With one hand you grasp the tall grass and pull it taut. You place the sickle blade at the base of the grass and with a slicing motion you sever the grass. Since some force is exerted pulling the sickle toward you and it can come quickly swinging clear, you should keep limbs well out of the way of its path. Also, take care not to slice the hand holding the grass. You can fold the green grass in half (if it is several feet long) and use it to border the planting. This acts as a mulch, keeps the ground moist and dissuades weeds. A weed whacker would work, but it flings the grass about and could damage the plantings. The garden sickle is very precise since you encircle the grass to be cut with the hook before cutting it.w have the cut grass in your hand, it is easy to place it where you wish.Here you will find a selection of traditional Japanese garden sickles. It is a pleasure to work with them.

Traditional Japanese sickles are not stainless. The same thing is true today as in years gone by the best tool blades are made of carbon steel, which simply is not stainless. However, it requires only a little care to keep them from getting rusty. Just dry them after use! From time to time they need to receive a smear of oil. You can sharpen a sickle with a Japanese sickle stone or mini-combination Stone with handle.

A sickle is a hand-held agricultural/gardening tool with a curved blade typically used for weeding, harvesting grain crop or cutting grass for hay. The inside of the curve is sharp so that the user can draw or swing the blade against the base of the plant, catching it in the curve and slicing it at the same time. The material to be cut may be held in a bunch in the other hand (for example when reaping), held in place by a wooden stick, or left free. The blade of a sickle is often cranked to one side, to make it easier to keep the blade closer to the ground; this makes it right- or (more rarely) left-handed. Sickles used for reaping are usually serrated.

The sickle was largely superseded by the scythe, which is more comfortable and efficient to use for many purposes, but it continues in use in many parts of the world, and for certain uses where a scythe is not convenient. The most noticeable difference between a sickle and a scythe is the length of the handle. A sickle is a one-handed tool with a short handle, used while bending down to the ground, while a scythe is a two-handed tool, used standing up, with a long, often curved shaft and a much longer blade. A blade which is regularly used to cut the silica-rich stems of cereal crops acquires a characteristic sickle-gloss, or wear pattern.