1

Function

:

The sickle is general purpose harvesting hand tool. It is used for the harvesting of vegetables, cereal crops and cutting of the grass and other vegetative matters.

2

Specifications

:

Overall length (mm)

260-420

Overall width (mm)

145-200

Overall height (mm)

25- 75

Blade thickness (mm)

1.5-4, tapered to the cutting edge

Length of cutting edge (mm)  

130-210

Hardness of the cutting edge  

37-46 HRC

Weight(g)

150-400

3

General information

:

Sickle is one of the most common hand tools used for harvesting of the crops, grass and cutting of other vegetative matters. It consists of curved steel edged blade fixed to the wooden handled the cutting edge may be plain or serrated depending upon the design. The curvature of the blade differs widely in plain edged and serrated sickles. The blade is fabricated from medium carbon or high carbon steel and hardened to resist wear. Manganese steel, tool and alloy steel can also be used to produce better quality sickles which have more than the sickles fabricated from the plain carbon steel. The blade has a knife section and  thickness reduces towards the cutting edge. The tang of the blade is inserted in to the wooden handle for joining the blade to the handle. The wooden handle is either straight or bent at the end. For cutting, the part of the plant to be cut is held in one hand and sickle operated with other hand. Cutting is I achieved by imparting translatory and rotary movement to the blade around the point of cut. This action leads to applying frictional and shearing force components required to achieve cutting.