Falç i falçó

What is

• Falç: sickle for reaping cereal. Curved iron blade with short wooden handle.
• Falçó: smaller sickle with a more robust blade, for mowing grass (DCVB, includes Mall. and Men.). In some regions it has teeth; in others, smooth edge.

How is

• Curved blade, inner edge (smooth or serrated), wooden handle.
• Measurements: (to verify in museum pieces).
• With the falç, didals (protective fingers) were used on the hand that grips the ears. A Mallorcan verse cited in the DCVB brings together "les varques y'ls didals" (Maura) (didals material: to be verified).

How is fa

• Ferrer's forge; the teeth were made with a chisel. See ferro forjat (the file cites falçs among the "eines del camp").
• Current manufacturer in Mallorca: (to be verified).

Com s'usa

• Harvesting of cereal at the beginning of summer: one hand grabs a bunch, the falç cuts flush; garbes are formed tied with vencís.
• In Petra, Manacor and Sant Llorenç, the two untwisted ends of the vencís are called mocadors (DCVB).
• The falçó: grass for animals, margins, orchard.
• The falç also served to turn the palm on the stand (palm work).

Vocabulary

• falç — sickle.
• falçó — small grass sickle (Mall.).
• sega / segar — the reaping / reaping.
• reaper - laborer of the harvest.
• garba — make of harvest.
• you conquer - tie of the garba.
• mocadores (from the vencís) — untwisted ends for the knot (Petra, Manacor).
• didal — protection fingertip.

History

• Antiquity s. XX: basic tool for hand mowing.
• 20th century: mechanical mowers (in the DCVB, the fork and the bracet are already parts of the "mowing machine", Mall.) corner the falç.
• Today: falçó still useful in orchards and margins; The cereal falç remains in a museum and demonstrations.

On veure'n

• Museum of Mallorca, ethnological section (Wall) .
• Sega and batre demonstrations at rural fairs (please check calendar).

Why is it design

• The curve works alone: ​​it pulls the stems towards the edge and brings them together.
• Tool + accessory (didals) = security system.
• Light and cheap; hand sharpenable.

For the project

• Recover the sega trill/carretó garbell cycle as a story of Mallorcan bread.
• Piece: contemporary falçó for garden, forged in Sineu.

Sources

• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=fal%E7%F3
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=avarca
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=mocador

Working text from the Disseny Indígena knowledge base, machine-translated from Spanish.

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