I also have a couple of ditch blades (which, despite the name, are not used for mowing ditches in particular, but are all-purpose cutting tools that can manage anything from fine grass to tousled brambles) and a bush blade, which is as thick as a billhook and can take down small trees. My collection includes a number of grass blades of varying styles-a Luxor, a Profisense, an Austrian, and a new, elegant Concari Felice blade that I’ve not even tried yet-whose lengths vary between sixty and eighty-five centimeters.
From the genus blade fans out a number of ever-evolving species, each seeking out and colonizing new niches. This thin crescent of steel is the fulcrum of the whole tool. Into this little assemblage slides the tang of the blade. On the bottom of the snath is a small hole, a rubberized protector, and a metal D-ring with two hex sockets. Onto the snath are attached two hand grips, adjusted for the height of the user.
I call it the snath, as do most of us in the UK, though variations include the snathe, the snaithe, the snead, and the sned. THE HANDLE, which varies in length according to the height of its user, and in some cases is made by that user to his or her specifications, is like most of the other parts of the tool in that it has a name and thus a character of its own.
