!!!Sensen

Scythes: the manufacture of scythes has been of great importance to 
Austrian ironworks since the Middle Ages. From the late 16%%sup th/%  
century, iron has been beaten out by means of water-powered swage 
hammers. The numerous scythe manufacturers were organised in 11 
guilds: Hainfeld, Waidhofen an der Ybbs, Kindberg, Uebelbach, 
Rottenmann, Judenburg, Wolfsberg, Jenbach, Mattighofen, Freistadt and 
Kirchdorf/Micheldorf, the most important guild. In 1875, 
2.2 million, in 1927 over 7.5 million scythes were 
manufactured by almost 2,000 employees in 16 plants; the majority of 
scythes were exported. However, production has sharply declined since 
then and in 1990 there were only two scythe-manufacturing plants left 
in Upper Austria.

!Literature
F. Schroeckenfux, Geschichte der oesterreichischen 
Sensen-Werke und deren Besitzer, 1975.


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