I've been working on a cross between your average harvesting scythe and a war scythe. Basically it has the same handle (called a snath) as a normal scythe, but the blade is more in line with the snath than perpendicular to it.

Here's the snath:



and here's the blade still in the jig:





As you can see, my jigs are nothing more than 2X4's with long screws in them. The blade jig is c-clamped to my work table and then I've used a piece of clothesline wire (any wire or string will do) to hold the bend in a second direction.

The grips were first predrilled and then screwed to the snath with a layer of wood glue between them:



Then they were slathered in wood glue and wrapped with thin hemp rope for reinforcement. I'm not exactly sure what the name is for the end "knot" that I used, but here's how you do it:

First make a loop and lay it down thhe entire length of your wrap, leaving extra loop on one end and extra loose string (to pull on later) at the other end. If you've ever made a noose, it's something akin to that.

Begin wrapping at the loose-string end and ending at the loop end:



When you get to the end of your wrap, slide the end of the string you've been wrapping through the loop you left sticking out:



Pull the string at the beginning of the wrap to tighten loop:



Then pull the loop string another half the length of your grip to put the "knot" in the middle of the wrap (between the wrap and the material you're wrapping):



Then trim your two loose ends even with the wrap (no, mine aren't trimmed enough :P ):



Once my blade has dried out sufficiently, I'll attach it to the snath in exactly the same manner as I have the grips and then pad the weapon appropriately.

Eric,

I have had rattan fail on me 2 or 3 times. In every instance, the failure was located at the point where I had drilled into the rattan. (I had used small wooden pegs instead of screws.) The weapons didn't fail immediatley, but maybe around a year. I only had drilled partway into the rattan too!

Anyway, just something to consider.

Hey, you'll have to show me that knot tying thing in person. That looks very clean!

Yeah I'm slightly concerned about how well the joints will hold up. But I can't really think of any other way to join the pieces that I think would be any stronger.

I guess we'll see how well it works on Sunday :)

Got the scythe all put together. Just need to pad it now: