Setting the edge geometry with a hammer...

[David Weaver]

Not necessarily something that's going to be applicable for woodworkers, especially not on planes and chisels (maybe on soft-bladed hacking knives if you have a hammer harder than the knife, though it'd be easier to just belt sand them).

..but I thought this was interesting. Ran into it browsing plow-day videos while drinking my morning coffee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JbSqcl-EAk&feature=related

The guy in the video is cleaning up the bevel on the scythe by hammering it.

Harry and George may have seen something like this before, maybe even often, but I'd bet most of us haven't. Always interesting to see new ways tools are sharpened. If you live in an old house, chances are, someone left a scythe behind, beat up and rusted with no evidence that it was a practical tool at one point in its life.

[george wilson]

Yes,the flea markets in Pennsylvania are well supplied with those old small anvils for sharpening scythes. They have a semi sharp end on the bottom so you can hammer them into a nearby fence for use. There was another variety which used the little anvil mounted on one end of a turned wood piece that you could stab into the ground if you were not near a fence.

We had to make several scythes for our rural trades program in the museum. Not a job I much cared for! Did a lot of PITA jobs as toolmaker.

The blades are not real hard. Peening them no doubt work hardens just the cutting edges to help them hold an edge. You couldn't peen a hard blade like that or it would crack.