All Topics  
Sickle

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Sickle
 
 
  Topics Sickle Topic Home

A sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool
Tool

A broad definition of a tool is an entity used to interface between two or more domains that facilitates more effective action of one domain upon the other....
 with a curved blade
Blade

A blade is the flat part of a tool, weapon, or machine that normally has a cutting edge and/or pointed end typically made of a flaking stone, such as flint, or metal, most recently steel....
 typically used for harvesting grain
Cereal

Cereals, or cereal grains, are mostly Poaceae cultivated for their edible brans or fruit seeds . Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore staple foods....
 crop or cutting grass for hay
Hay

Hay is a generic term for Poaceae or legumes that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing animals like cattle, horses, domestic goat, and sheep....
. The inside of the curve is sharp, so that the user can draw or swing the blade against the base of the crop, 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
Reaper

A reaper is a person or machine that reaps crop when they are ripe....
), held in place by a wooden stick, or left free.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Sickle'
Start a new discussion about 'Sickle'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


A sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool
Tool

A broad definition of a tool is an entity used to interface between two or more domains that facilitates more effective action of one domain upon the other....
 with a curved blade
Blade

A blade is the flat part of a tool, weapon, or machine that normally has a cutting edge and/or pointed end typically made of a flaking stone, such as flint, or metal, most recently steel....
 typically used for harvesting grain
Cereal

Cereals, or cereal grains, are mostly Poaceae cultivated for their edible brans or fruit seeds . Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore staple foods....
 crop or cutting grass for hay
Hay

Hay is a generic term for Poaceae or legumes that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing animals like cattle, horses, domestic goat, and sheep....
. The inside of the curve is sharp, so that the user can draw or swing the blade against the base of the crop, 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
Reaper

A reaper is a person or machine that reaps crop when they are ripe....
), held in place by a wooden stick, or left free. When held in a bunch, the sickle action is towards the user (left to right for a right-handed user), but when used free the sickle is usually swung the opposite way. Different types may be referred to as a grasshook, swap hook, rip-hook, slash-hook, reaping hook, brishing hook or bagging hook.

Sickleuser Wb
The blade of a sickle is often crank
Crank

Crank may refer to:...
ed 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
Scythe

A scythe is an agriculture hand tool for mowing grass or reaping agriculture. It was largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor machinery, but is still used in some areas of Europe and Asia....
, 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 haft, and a much longer blade.

A blade which is used regularly to cut the silica-rich stems of cereal crops acquires a characteristic sickle-gloss
Sickle-gloss

Sickle-gloss, or sickle gloss, is a silica residue found on blades suggesting that they have been used to cut the silica-rich stems of cereals and forming an indirect proof for incipient agriculture....
, or wear pattern. When this pattern appears on ancient stone tools, it can indicate early use or development of agricultural use.

In Greek myths, the sickle was used as a weapon by Cronus
Cronus

Cronus or Kronos, , was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titan , divine descendants of Gaia , the earth, and Uranus , the sky....
 and Perseus
Perseus

Perseus , the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Mycenae there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits in defeating various archaic monsters provided the founding myths in the cult of the Twelve Olympians....
.

Additional uses

  • The sickle is used as part of the well known symbol of the hammer and sickle
    Hammer and sickle

    The hammer and sickle is a part of communist symbolism and its usage indicates an association with Communism, a Communist Party, or a Communist state....
    , which is the symbol of Communism
    Communism

    Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
     or Revolutionary Socialism. The sickle represents the agricultural working class or peasantry in this symbol.
  • Sickle is a fictional unit
    Units of measurement

    The definition, agreement and practical use of units of measurement have played a crucial role in human endeavour from early ages up to this day....
     of money in the Harry Potter series.
  • SS-25 Sickle is the NATO reporting name
    NATO reporting name

    NATO reporting names are unclassified code names for military equipment of the Eastern Bloc . They provide unambiguous and easily understood English language words in a uniform manner in place of the original designations ? which may have been unknown at the time or easily confused codes....
     for the RT-2PM Topol
    RT-2PM Topol

    The RT-2PM Topol is a mobile intercontinental ballistic missile designed in the Soviet Union and in service with Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces....
     intercontinental ballistic missile
    Intercontinental ballistic missile

    An intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, is a long-range ballistic missile typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery, that is, delivering one or more nuclear weapon....
    .
  • Tacitus
    Tacitus

    Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman Senate and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories —examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those that reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors....
     reports that golden sickles were used in Druid
    Druid

    A druid was a member of the priestly and learned class in the ancient Celts societies of Western Europe, Great Britain and Ireland. They were suppressed by the Ancient Rome and disappeared from the written record by the second century CE....
    ic rituals.


See also

  • Hammer and sickle
    Hammer and sickle

    The hammer and sickle is a part of communist symbolism and its usage indicates an association with Communism, a Communist Party, or a Communist state....
  • Scythe
    Scythe

    A scythe is an agriculture hand tool for mowing grass or reaping agriculture. It was largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor machinery, but is still used in some areas of Europe and Asia....
  • Sickle-sword
  • Linoleum knife
    Linoleum knife

    A linoleum knife is a small knife that has a short, stiff blade with a curved point and a handle and is used to cut linoleum or other sheet materials such as wood panelling and wood veneer and sheet mica....
  • Kama
    Kama (weapon)

    are Okinawan and Japanese traditional farming implements similar to a sickle used for reaping crops and also employed as a weapon. Before being used in martial arts, the kama was widely used throughout Asia to cut crops, mostly rice....
  • Sickle probe
  • Sickle-cell disease
    Sickle-cell disease

    Sickle-cell disease or sickle-cell anaemia is a life-long blood disorder characterized by red blood cells that assume an abnormal, rigid, sickle shape....