Despite being called a Scythe, it actually resembles a Lochaber axe. A metal shaft held the head with nails stamped throughout it, and, connected via an assembly of metal spikes, a brown haft with a simple wooden stake in its other extremity.
A called Slayer will be drawn to the Scythe when near it, and will feel a profound sense of ownership when holding the weapon.
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Its stake seemed stronger than common wood, as it could be jammed against a stone wall without any visible damage to it afterward.Buffy could easily use it to stake several Turok-Hans despite their harder sternums.
Could use both the blade and the stake to block attacks, such as the energy blasts from D'Hoffryn and rebound the rays of a ray gun.
Some demon carapaces exhibited resistance to the Scythe's blade, such as the Morituri and Vermis mysteriis (demon's whose skin were thicker, or shelled)
The Scythe was was capable of breaking the Seed of Wonder (the source of all the magic on Earth), although being destroyed in return.
Willow displayed the capacity of the Scythe to be used in magic.
Overall, the Scythe was capable of empowering spells far beyond that caster's ability, even if they weren't a Slayer.
She used its power/essence to activate thousands of Potential Slayers, retrieve (when she put the collective power back in Buffy),and eventually give the power back to the Slayers.
The weapon itself also contained magic even after the end of magic, which allowed her to use the Scythe's power to tear open a rift in reality to gain access to Quor'toth (a dimension known as "the darkest of the dark worlds," which home to an Old One of the same name).
The Scythe could also be used to tear open dimensional portals.
Willow would also use it to cast powerful spells, such as streams of magic power that was capable of matching the strength of an Old One.
