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Back-lapping (sharpening) an old-fashioned reel mower

Kevin Olson

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posted 2 weeks ago

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I have an old Craftsman Ball Bearing model reel mower. I'd guess this one is pushing 80 years old, at this point. I got it when a friend passed away; it had been her father's, and it (and some other of his hand tools) came to me. He knew good hand tools, and had plenty, of which this was one that came my way.

Some of the newer reel mowers have special sharpening kits, but for older mowers, you're kind of on your own.

Here's how I back-lap the reel and bed knife on my mower - usually once or twice a season is all that's needed. Eventually, I'll need to have the bed knife and reel ground properly to true them up, but so far, the back-lapping has been enough. Golf courses still use (power) reel mowers as finish mowers, so I may try pestering my local course about this when the time comes. I've seen a couple of reel grinding rigs on FB Marketplace, but too far away from me for an easy drive. I'd imagine a grinder could be cobbled up, as well, but haven't put too much thought into it.

Anyway, to the back-lapping...

Here's the mower:

IMG_0202.jpg

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?"
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Kevin Olson

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posted 2 weeks ago

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To back-lap the mower, the drive direction needs to be reversed, which necessitates removing the wheels.

If you look closely, you may be able to see that the wheels are held on with a carriage bolt (through a carriage washer), with a square nut on the inside. Loosening the square nut will permit the carriage bolt to be slid out, after which the wheel can be removed. Both will need to be off the machine at the same time to reverse the drive direction.

IMG_0203.jpg

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
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Kevin Olson

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You can see that I also slipped off the pinion gear, which engages the reel shaft with a small ratchet pawl. The ratchets can be reverse by flipping them over about their long axes, but the drive pinions will need to be swapped between sides, since they are "handed" or mirror images of each other.

IMG_0204.jpg

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
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Kevin Olson

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Here's what the pawls on my machine look like (grimy fingers and all!).

IMG_0210.jpg

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
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Kevin Olson

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So, put the whole mess back together, and snug up the square nuts on the carriage bolts.

You'll also need to adjust the bed knife so that it contacts the reel firmly, but not too firmly, since you want the reel to be able to still rotate. You'll get the hang of it once you overshoot too much one way or the other a couple of times. My bed knife adjustment has a pair of opposed set screws on either end, which rock the bed knife on a pivot. Slack one off a fraction of a turn and snug the other to adjust the clearance of the knife relative to the reel.

IMG_0205.jpg

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
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Kevin Olson

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Now apply the lapping grit to the edges of the reel and to the bed knife. I bought two small tubs - 120 grit and 220 grit - from Pin High, a golf course supply company. I don't think I've ever needed to use the 120 grit stuff, though. Basically, this is silicon carbide valve grinding grit in a water-based gel carrier. I apply it with a cheap chip brush.

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"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
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Kevin Olson

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Now, flip the mower over, so that the wheels are still on the ground, but the gauge roller is up the air. Push the mower around "a bunch". I push it on the street, up and down my short town block - probably 500-600 feet, or a couple of hundred meters. It should be difficult to push at first, but not impossible, but become progressively easier. The sound will change, too. I don't have a good photo of the pushing part of the operation.

Then, you can wash or wipe off the grit, and return the reel drive to the correct direction by removing the wheels, flipping the ratchet pawls back over, and putting the pinions back on the proper sides. A dab of grease on the gear teeth - I like the black moly stuff, but use what you have, some being better than none - before you bolt the wheels back on is a good idea.

Unfortunately, I managed to snap the "ears" off not one but two of the bed knife adjuster screws in the process, so I'll need to either cut new straight blade drive slots with a Dremel cutoff wheel or hacksaw blade, or replace them with (extra fine pitch) new screws (still TBD).

IMG_0211.jpg

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
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Kevin Olson

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I mowed until about 10:20PM, after which it was getting too dusky to see what I was doing (we're getting on toward the solstice, so the evening light lasts fairly long, though not like truly high latitudes). After I hung out a load of wash this morning I took a photo of the results. Not too bad, though I missed a few blades here and there. This is a "mixed pasture" lawn - various grasses, clover, yarrow and the ubiquitous dandelions.

IMG_0212.jpg

IMG_0213.jpg

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
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Kevin Olson

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Anyway, that's how I keep an old reel mower cutting sweetly.

I haven't messed with any "modern" mowers, so I don't know how applicable this might be to something that's a mere 50 years old! However, I am happy to try to answer any questions you may have.

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
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R Scott

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The old order Amish near my old house used reel mowers, they had a guy that specialized in sharpening and repair. He had jig/machine that would keep the angle right and grinder even to get it true.

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Jeremy VanGelder

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Kevin Olson wrote:Now apply the lapping grit to the edges of the reel and to the bed knife. I bought two small tubs - 120 grit and 220 grit - from Pin High, a golf course supply company. I don't think I've ever needed to use the 120 grit stuff, though. Basically, this is silicon carbide valve grinding grit in a water-based gel carrier. I apply it with a cheap chip brush.

Valve grinding grit, you say? I've never sharpened my reel mower because I didn't want to buy compounds just for that purpose. But I think we have some valve-grinding grit around. Thanks for the tip!

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Kevin Olson

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Location: The Old Northwest, South of Superior

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Jeremy VanGelder wrote:Valve grinding grit, you say? I've never sharpened my reel mower because I didn't want to buy compounds just for that purpose. But I think we have some valve-grinding grit around. Thanks for the tip!

Yeah, it's basically the same thing - silicon carbide grit, per the Pin High Safety Data Sheet. Clover compound (a brand name, for those unacquainted) is in some sort of grease carrier. That might work, too, but seems messier. I don't know what the carrier gel in this Pin High stuff is; the safety sheet wasn't very specific, but I'd guess some sort of vegetable gum or starch, maybe psilium or guar or xanthan gum.

That being said, I haven't actually tried loose grit, just the Pin High stuff.

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?"
Andrea del Sarto by Robert Browning

Kevin Olson

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Location: The Old Northwest, South of Superior

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R Scott wrote:The old order Amish near my old house used reel mowers, they had a guy that specialized in sharpening and repair. He had jig/machine that would keep the angle right and grinder even to get it true.

No Amish are close to me (more's the pity - I might be able to learn a thing or two about timber framing by helping on a project). We do have a community of Mennonites not too far from here, but they are of a fairly modernized sort, and fully mechanized - probably less likely to be using reel mowers (but I am, so who knows). Maybe not as quite modernized as is my Mennonite sister (who has an M Div., worked for Duke's Theology department and was a Mennonite pastor), but fairly much technologically modern, smart phones and all; I think I still have one of the guy's cell numbers in my phone, from when they helped clean up after a flood, a few years ago. I guess I could check with them. If nothing else they may know who does have the gear to grind a reel true.

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?"
Andrea del Sarto by Robert Browning

Kevin Olson

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Location: The Old Northwest, South of Superior

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posted 2 weeks ago

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Here's where I bought the Pin High back-lapping grit I've been using:
https://shop.jescoproducts.com/pinhigh-lapping-for-homeowners/1-lb-220-grit-pinhigh/

Jesco manufactures lapidary compounds, also, but Pin High is their gel-carrier back-lapping compound brand, in several grain sizes.

As I'm writing this, they do not show a price for the 1 lb tubs ("call for price"), but the 5 lb tubs are $28.50 (USD). I seem to recall it was 7 or 8 USD each for the 120 and 220 grit tubs I bought from the a few years ago, plus some nominal shipping charge.

California Trimmer, a manufacturer of powered walk-behind self-propelled reel mowers - including an electric model - also sells 1 lb tubs of 80 grit:
https://caltrimmer.com/products/h0906f-backlapping-compound-jar-80g-all-models

That is a steep price - about the same as the 5 lb tub from Pin High (Jesco). But, a little goes a long way, in my experience, so it might be another viable source.

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?"
Andrea del Sarto by Robert Browning

Kevin Olson

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posted 5 days ago

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Here's a photo of a halfway done mowing job, after having been out of town, with grass grown far too tall for efficient cutting:

IMG_0224.jpg

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?"
Andrea del Sarto by Robert Browning

Kevin Olson

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posted 5 days ago

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And a slightly different angle of the same:

IMG_0225.jpg

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?"
Andrea del Sarto by Robert Browning

Kevin Olson

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posted 5 days ago

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And stopped "in the cut" as a reference for just how out of hand this had gotten, while we were away. The rule is a vintage (or maybe just old!) 24" folding carpenter's rule, each section of which is 6" or about 150mm long. The wheels on the mower are about 10" (250mm) in diameter. Most of this grass was at least 6" tall, but you can see that there were dandelion heads (gone to seed and in the wind) which were as tall as the tops of the wheels.

This mower has 5 blades on the reel. Some reel mowers (especially powered ones) have more - 7 up even 11, but generally an odd number. Higher blade counts on the reel would not work very well such tall grass, though; the blades would be more closely spaced, which tends to just push taller vegetation, rather than catching it between a reel blade and the bed knife. Even with a 5-blade reel, this was a challenge, and an exercise in patience and persistence. I only set the mower over a few inches - maybe 4 or 5, say 100 to 125mm - each pass, so that any particular bit had the mower pass over it at least 4 times (since it has a 20" wide reel). There were still some stragglers and holidays, which I had to go back to tidy up. I might have made quicker progress with a scythe in this long grass, but I haven't gotten the grass blade sharpened up yet this season. I've spent quite a bit of time these past couple of weeks, helping my sister convert and old yard shed into a chicken coop, and adding a covered run to that shed, so I've foregone a few things, here. Projects, projects...

IMG_0226.jpg

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?"
Andrea del Sarto by Robert Browning

Kevin Olson

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Location: The Old Northwest, South of Superior

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posted 5 days ago

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A ground drive sickle bar mower might be nice for longer grass like this (and for other things, like a reaper binder), but I haven't ever seen one "in the flesh", even though I know they existed, hstorically. I have a nagging suspicion that a more modern reel mower might be rejiggered to drive the bar from a hedge trimmer or some such. It would be a nice little fab and machining project, I'm sure - keep me out of trouble for a little while, anyway! Ideally, one might track down a 2" section sickle bar mower and use that for the conversion, since parts might still be available. Haban, and maybe some others, made such rigs for smaller garden tractors - Simpliciy, Cub Cadet, maybe Gravely, too - and if I recall correctly, those used the smaller 2" sections, rather than the more standard 3" sections, which would require less stroke to actuate. The sickle mower attachments for David Bradley and Simplicity walk behind tractors were also pretty small, and might be a good start.

However, any such project is pretty far down "the list", even though I'll keep my eyes open for a nice donor sickle mower attachment or larger hedge trimmer to add to the "projects not yet started" heap.

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?"
Andrea del Sarto by Robert Browning

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