Reel Mower Basics

In an effort to get in shape and have fun with old American Steel (I really do have a trouble not purchasing it when I see it) I picked up a reel mower from Deseret Industries. I didn't want to ride home, get the truck, head all the way back to DI and pick up the reel mower. Nor did I want Jenny to have to make a trip with the kids all the way down there just to turn around and head home. So I did what any half crazy person on a motorcycle does, strapped the reel mower to the back. I took it apart first of course, and bought a bag to protect my newly upholstered seats :-).


When I first got it home I couldn't wait to try it out. Pushing on the driveway was easy and got the reel spinning really fast. I thought it looked great and would be perfect to cut the grass with. Ugh. It was a pain in the butt. Blisters all over my hands and I was exhausted, huge pain to push around the yard, and I had only done the small front patch of grass. The next day Elizabeth mowed the rear lawn for me because I couldn't do it with the reel mower.

I had a lot to learn, as usual. The reason the mower was so easy to push on the driveway was that the reel wasn't making contact with the cutter bar.

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Skip this section if you don't want to be bored to tears about how I sharpened my mower
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The cutter bar is in the back and requires light pressure on the reel to get the shearing action like scissors that it's supposed to. Because of the gap between the reel and the cutter bar the grass would bunch up in there as the reel spun until there was so much it would rip the grass off. After watching and reading way too much stuff online I figured I'd better go make some adjustments and sharpen the reel and cutter bar while I was at it.


Don't bother with the silly reel mower sharpening kits from the store, they look like even more work than what I did. First pop the wheel covers off. On my old model there are holes on the inside, then had to spin the wheels for the magic spot on them to pop the covers off. Then remove the C clips. Then the wheels pop off. I swapped the gears from one side to the other and turned around the gear catches. Put the wheels back on and C clips back on. Then I got some valve lapping compound for $4 from Auto Zone. I would put a dab of it on my finger then pinch it onto each reel blade and run it down in order to leave a nice thick bead on the cutting portion of the reel blade. Repeat for each blade (mine has 7). Now, adjust the screws on the cutter bar to make light contact with the reel blades. Maybe a little more than light, I always overdo things. Now just go have a 10 minute push with the mower backwards, spinning the reel backwards against the cutter bar. If it gets too loose or the blade spins too freely just tighten up the cutter bar a little bit. If it won't budge you're too tight and loosen it up. Now that it is sharpened put it on its side and turn it real slow, make sure the reel contacts the cutter bar down the whole length (mine was still loose in the middle). Keep sharpening until it has full contact.

Now that the sharpening is complete you'll need to clean off the valve lapping compound. I used some WD40 on a rag to clean it off, but pick your poison. You could probably get away with hosing it off if you can dry it off afterward.

All cleaned up and ready to cut. Tighten up the cutter bar until it makes light contact with the reel again (you loosened it to get the lapping compound off right? I did....maybe you were smarter). Take the wheels off again and swap the gears back to the way it was. You should be able to cut newspaper between the reel and the cutter bar all the way down. If it doesn't don't get too upset, mine took a couple sharpenings before it would. Go make a mess of it all over again and see if that does the trick.

Now, spray the crap out of it with WD40 and you're all set for mowing. You'll notice the shearing sound and the blade won't keep spinning for too long on when not on the grass now. Whew, now we're ready to mow. Apparently you only have to do the sharpening once a year, not sure if I'll have to adjust the bar more often.

Also, if you bought a new one from the store, they usually back off the cutter bar in order to prevent damage during shipping. Tighten it up until you have light contact and you should be set. If your cutter bar isn't tight enough then you'll hate your mower, trust me.

Push push push. It shouldn't be too tough at this point. If the grass is too wet it won't stand back up quick enough after you run over it with the wheels and end up with lines of uncut areas, like a rotary mower but perhaps a little more pronounced.

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You can resume reading here. Somewhere in the skipped section I figured out how to adjust the mower so it wasn't so hard to push and would cut properly.
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It *is* more work than a rotary mower. At least with mine it is, not tons more, but more. I have no idea how old my mower is, 15, 20 years maybe? Maybe more, the wheels and gears look like cast iron. Newer units are likely lighter and easier to push. It is much less frustrating than my rotary mower, at least in this wet rye grass. The grass would clump up and stick to the underside of my rotary mower until it was too heavy, then fall back onto the spinning blade and shake the whole mower, leaving a pile of wet grass where it happens. So after mowing with the rotary mower I had to go clean up the 7 or 8 spots it made a mess, what a joke.

With the reel mower I just let the grass fly. Nice light pieces of grass fly through the air as the mower slices through it, it's really kinda fun. Come on over and give it a try sometime ;-). I'll probably keep it up until it gets unbearably hot, but even then I've got the pool nearby so might use it all summer. It doesn't get quite as close to obstacles as the rotary mower so I have to use the weed eater a little more, but the rotary mower didn't get all the way up to them either.


Notice the shiny blades in this photo. If yours aren't shiny you probably need to adjust your cutter bar, maybe sharpen and adjust your cutter bar.