The bed knife (Straight edge blade) may be warped. Lapping compound comes in different grits and can keep a reel mower cutting properly but not indefinately. Sometimes sharpening on a special grinder is required to true the reel but on a push mower lapping should work for a long time. A reversible electric drill is sometimes used to spin the reel backwards. A variable speed drill is ideal. You don't want to spin it too fast and you need to use a paint brush to apply the lapping compound. The lapping compound needs to be applied evenly for the best results. With the reel spinning put the brush with lapping compound on at one side of the reel and apply across the reel at a slow even speed all the way across the reel. Let it spin a bit and then you can apply some more starting at the other side. You may need to loosen the bedknife a bit if it is too tight for the reel to spin with the lapping compound. The bed knife still needs to be loosened evenly so it will lap true to the reel. After lapping you may need to take a fine file and just very lightly remove any burr that may be on the edge of the reel. When sharpened properly the mower should slice newspaper like a really good pair of scissors without pinching the paper or having to be really tight. Each individual reel blade should slice the paper cleanly across the complete blade length with very little effort. A commercial mower dealer like Toro, Jacobsen, or John Deere would be able to assist you and have the lapping compound. Clover is a popular brand. If you need a new bed knife it shouldn't be too hard to order one. If yours is warped too bad it will be impossible to set up your mower to work the best. The bed knife might be reversible as well. My dad sold commercial turf equipment for over 40 years and sharpened thousands of reels. He even taught students how at the turf grass management course at college. There is an art to it. The new automatic spin sharpeners make it a lot easier than the old manual machines like a Foley but cost about $50,000 for the reel sharpener and and about $15,000 just for the bed knife grinder. Hope this helps. Dave
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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