Japanese Sickle Review
Why consider this little-known tool.
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At a Glance
A Japanese Sickle is a hand-held cutting tool useful for cutting small amounts of cover crop, grain, comfrey and herbs like nettle or mint.
Where to Buy
Recommended: Hida Tool
Sickle Review
I’ve been a tool geek ever since I moved onto 5 acres of beaten-down horse pasture and overgrown woods. (It’s not quite so beaten-down or overgrown, anymore).
One of the first things we did was plant fruit trees followed by comfrey to protect the soil, compete with grasses, and add much-needed organic matter.
Comfrey can get pretty tall depending on conditions, and in my experience can be cut back two or three times per season. I’ve learned that a scythe is the fastest way to cut comfrey; but a sickle works well, too. And it’s a much less expensive tool with a shorter learning curve.
In addition to cutting comfrey, I find the sickle useful for chopping down small amounts of cover crop (again, a scythe is faster) and for harvesting herbs like nettle, mint and lemon balm. For plants like lemon balm and mint, you can grab a handful with your non-dominate hand, then use the sickle to slice it off. It’s much easier to harvest this way than with hand pruners.
The final way I use a sickle is for cutting grass and weeds in tight areas where a weed whacker or scythe are impractical. This is usually around the beds in our greenhouse.
When The Tool Merchants sold tools, this was our single best selling tool, and it received many positive reviews from our customers. You can read them below.
Weights and Variations
You’ll likely come across three weights and a serrated option. Here are my thoughts on each:
Light-Weight Sickle:
This version is incredibly light! If you have hand, wrist or elbow difficulties then this is a good choice. It’s best for immature (green) grasses and weeds.
Medium-Weight Sickle:
This is the a good all-around choice and my personal “go-to.” It’s not heavy, but it’s thick enough to handle dry stems and more mature plants.
Heavy-Weight Sickle:
This version seems an oddity to me. It’s very stout and too heavy for extended use. It might make a replacement for a machete, but I find a machete more useful.
Serrated Sickle:
You can’t slice with a serrated sickle as you would with a smooth sickle because one hand has to hold onto whatever you’re cutting. This is useful when cutting bundles of plants like mint or lemon balm, but that can be done with a smooth sickle, so why bother with a serrated sickle? Serrated sickles are smaller and more pack-able, so I would only suggest one for wild-crafting or camping.
Where to Buy | What to Look For
Hida Tool and Hardware in Berkeley, CA is the best source for Japanese sickles on the market.
What makes their sickles different is the steel quality and excellent overall balance.
Both Seikouba and Kusakichi (their two manufacturers) use laminated steel. This means that a super-hard steel is sandwiched between to softer layers of steel. The benefit to you is that the hard carbon steel stays sharp longer, while the softer outer layer makes sharpening easier and protects the hard, brittle, inner layer from chipping.
NOTE: Go with the Seikouba brand if it’s in stock. It has better balance than the Kusakichi.
Just be sure to wipe your blade dry after use and oil it periodically. Carbon steel tools tend to pick up rust easily.
Amazon also has a selection of sickles; and while they are less expensive, their steel quality and overall balance is worse than the sickles from Hida Tool.
Videos
Japanese Sickle User Reviews
OverallUserRating
OverallUserRating
Nice Hooks
These hooks are a nice compliment to the shorter grubbing tool, and keeping them sharp is easy. The retired gardener always had a routine of wiping the blade carefully after use, in respect perhaps.
Love this sickle
I love this sickle. It’s exactly as advertised and demonstrated in the video. I had hoped to use it to slice away some extending branches of a hedge, but as the video demonstrates, its best use is for slicing away at tall grass and weeds, not branches.
I like this tool.
I like this tool. It is particularly useful at the edges of the vegetable garden bed, where the mower does not get to. The mower can get only so close.
Sometimes I forget to bring my pruning shears and this sharp little devil will do the job. If you like to use small hand tools (like I do), this hand tool is a gem.
So far the sickle
So far the sickle has been doing great! I’ve used it to trim grass that the push reel mower can’t reach (e.g. under bushes, on small patches of grass, in ditches).
Very nice
This is the first time I’ve one of these. It handles great. Takes care of weeds easily and cuts fodder nicely. This is a well built tool.