Thanks Alan, but I already knew about the scythe anvil geometry. I have already made a few of the square type, and you are correct, both the square and narrow anvils have gentle arcs from side to side. The only problem I have is the peens on my forging hammers are over 1/2 inch wide. I like wide peens. They move the metal much more than narrow peens and it isn't as hard to hammer the ridges out after spreading the stock metal. All of my cross peen hammers are 3 pounds or more, which doesn't help matters. (I forge most things with a 6 pound rounding hammer.) Scythe peening hammers are around 16 ounces if I remember correctly. I'll make one soon. I am getting ready to buy some 4340 round bar to make a set of ball peen hammers. I'll make sure I order enough to make a scythe peening hammer when I do it.
Hi Frank, you are correct. Dengelstock is the correct spelling.
I too use a scythe stone. The name I've always heard them called is canoe file. They are shaped like a canoe, so it makes sense. You can tell when a scythe blade starts to dull as some of the grass will lie down instead of being cut. When this happens I pull out my canoe file and run about 8 or 10 strokes down the blade. It realigns the edge and hones it back to a razor edge. If not for whetting the edge, the effort needed to cut grass and weeds would increase, along with the speed at which you have to swing the scythe. Since I can cut a 10 foot arc with my scythe, I would wear out in no time if I had to swing it very hard. As long as I keep it sharp I can cut from daybreak until around noon before needing to take more than a 5 minute break.
I lucked out a few years ago and found a vendor on eBay selling canoe files which were found in the back of a warehouse that the vendor had bought. The crates was assumed to be empty, but upon opening it, it was filled with hand made German canoe files and they were packed in straw. The paper labels were intact on all of the files. I bought a dozen of them for personal use and I added the 4 best ones to my antique tool collection.