#They're used to reap like wheat and other long grains harvest.

[curiousorigins]

This is using a Scythe in Slow motion and later in real time. The people who actually scythe all day in the fields can do it with hardly moving and they're very very fast even if they're old. My Grandma showed me how to do it while she was in her late 70s. She got half of the area she wanted me to work on in a single swipe.

It does take a lot of power and a good scythe is very very sharp. People who actually use them regularly are quite strong and could separate your foot from your leg or other unpleasant injuries if you got in their way and they didn't see you.

It has a very sharp very cutting noise when in use. And it's actually quite pleasant of a noise (imho) but it's also very much a cutting sound. When people are beheaded in various horror shows, it does sound very much like a scythe being used to mow or harvest. At least minus the possible gurgles and head dropping noise. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what they used for the sound effect.

In my personal opinion this is something that is probably actually scarier when you have decent knowledge of this tool. They can be quite heavy too. They're often made out of metal that was forged to be tougher than 70% of the metal on your car. And they need regular sharpening.

Anywho as a major horror fan who ended up living somewhat rurally and with experience with these kind of hand tools. I think that they are genuinely scarier when you know how they're used and how effective they can be.

Theoretically the Grim Reaper uses it differently and it is truly more of a symbol than anything, a shorthand icon that talks about being cut down in the prime of their life. Making the familiar unfamiliar. Pretty much anyone would have understood what it was at the time that the grim reaper was showing up in stories and art. And probably most of them would have heard about farming accidents involving them. Maybe a cousin or long lost relative who lost a foot and died or something. If my grandma was still kicking I'd ask her and she'd probably have a story that she thought was ordinary that was a horrific farming accident.

You got to realize that people lived and died by their harvests. And when you're on a farm or in a farming community... you get a different and more in depth understanding of the life and death cycle than people get in their suburbs far away from the places that grow and process and slaughter their food. My Dad used to help his BFF next door strangle bunnies, as it was one of his friends' chores and had to be finished before they were allowed to play.

Mortality was a lot higher too. A lot of people had like 12 children and only got 1-4 who survived to adulthood. Again I'm going to have to disagree respectfully with OP and say that I think with understanding and the context that those people had... The Grim Reaper and their Scythe was probably more terrifying.

Also if you think about it... nowadays in most places if the Grim Reaper while going after you had to reap you with his Scythe... if he dropped it... it would buy you a hell of a lot time. But if he dropped it back then... when the average homestead had probably between 8-50... he could just pick up another one and perhaps kill/reap you with the tool you were using yesterday.

the grim reaper being armed with an enormous razor sharp scythe becomes a lot less intimidating when you understand just how common a tool scythes actually were in the pre industrial era of agriculture. it's like if we invented a personification of death called "the dark handyman" who takes souls by loosening them from the body with his wrench.