Threshing with hand flails – two pairs

About the sound

A hand flail is a simple tool for threshing cereal grain. Sheaves of grain are laid on a wooden floor in two parallel lines so that the ears of both lines face into the centre. The threshers work in pairs (one or two pairs) and in equal intervals alternately beat the ears with the flails. They have to be skilled in order to keep the pace and rhythm and use the fail without hurting themselves or each other.
Hand threshing was laborious and time-consuming and was eventually mechanised. The advantage of flail threshing however is that it produced high quality straw which was once used to thatch roofs.
Today hand flail threshing is performed very rarely, and mainly as a tourist attraction.
The video shows threshers – two pairs from the village of Naklo in the Gorenjska region.

Sound level: 80,7 dB

Sound recordist: Dušan Oblak
Photographer: Neža Renko
Video recordist: Barbara Grilc