Originally Posted by
Utopian
If you want to call that scything because it's a pivoting motion, OK, but that is not remotely close to how a scythe actually cuts. That stroke completely misses the point of the huge efficiently improvement that resulted from the scythe.
If you doubt me, watch the video again. The blade approaches the grass in what the Wiki describes as a guillotine stroke, at an extremely low angle. The angle of approach is the reason for the efficiency of the cut. The edge of the blade does not cut straight through the stem, the blade moves along its length as it passes through the stem. (Clearly I'm going to have to make a diagram.)
That diagram more accurately depicts a machete motion, with the blade simply pivoting from the wrist. To use the earlier analogy from the Wiki, that is simply an arcing axe stroke. There is barely any cutting improvement in that stroke relative to a straight stroke.