Tomita Stainless Steel Weeding or Harvesting Sickle

A stainless steel bladed medium sized saw sickle from Tomita, of Niigata Prefecture, Japan. With a fairly short, fine but very sharply serrated blade, this tool can be used in multiple ways — drawn through the surface of soil to cut down weeds at the root; used higher up to mow or trim grasses; as a pruning saw, and for the cutting of twine or rope. Typically used for gathering rice whose coarse stems it severs with ease, these are useful in the garden as a vegetable harvesting tool, for trimming this year's still green woody growth, or perhaps more aggressively for cutting back fibrous annoyances such as nettles and thistles should one face such misfortune. 22cm handle length, with a blade of 15cm.