Fengzhuang Yang Lian

Fengzhuang Yang Lian

　　Fengzhuang Yang Lian, fully known as “Fengzhuang Yang Family Blue Steel Sickle,” was created by Yang Shunxing from Fengzhuang Village, Shahezhan Town. Yang Shunxing lived during the Daoguang era of the Qing Dynasty and was originally from Lishui County, Jiangsu Province. According to the inscription on the Yang family tombstone: “During the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, due to unrest in the south,” he “fled to Fengzhuang Village in Dongyuan to escape the chaos.” Yang was skilled in forging techniques. After arriving in Fengzhuang Village, he continued his blacksmithing trade. Since the north mainly grows wheat and sorghum, which require sickles for harvesting, his forging work focused primarily on making sickles.

　　The Yang Family Blue Steel Sickle is generally made from recycled railway track steel and iron rims (commonly called “cart tiles”) from old wooden-wheeled carts. This type of iron has fewer impurities and higher quality, ensuring that the sickles are durable and of high quality. During the forging process, the raw material is first heated and shaped into long bars, then cut into required lengths and further processed into sickle blanks. The blanks then go through four major processes—cold rolling, quenching, filing, and polishing—and over twenty smaller steps before becoming finished sickles. According to a local blacksmith in his sixties, the key to crafting Yang Family Blue Steel Sickles lies in two skills: knowing how to judge the “heat” and mastering the “quenching” process. Judging the “heat” means keeping the sickle blank in the “glowing fire” without losing its shape while ensuring it is thoroughly heated until it glows bright red like water—this is called “bringing out the oil.” Only when this stage is reached can impurities be removed and the metal become uniformly strong inside and out. When quenching during forging, water from the live-flowing Zhao Wang River near the village is used. A well-quenched sickle should have a bluish-purple hue (also called “crow feather color”). Finally, when sharpening, the blade edge should retain a longer unsharpened section, which results in an exceptionally sharp sickle.

　　The Yang Family Blue Steel Sickle typically has a blade about 30 centimeters long and 4 centimeters wide, with a single sickle weighing around 100 grams. Though lightweight, the steel is hard and wear-resistant, suitable for harvesting wheat, cutting sorghum, and reaping beans. It holds its edge well even with prolonged use, making it highly appropriate for rural areas in northern China.

　　In the early years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Fengzhuang Village had five blast furnaces, producing tens of thousands of sickles annually. The products were not only popular locally but also sold in surrounding counties and even as far away as Heilongjiang Province, marking the heyday of the Yang Family Blue Steel Sickle. With the increase in agricultural mechanization, the production of Fengzhuang Yang Lian gradually declined, and today only sporadic production remains.