<snick, snick, snick, snick, snick> : Reel mowers

I used to mow a big lawn with an ordinary mower but I was probably nine and older then. On the other hand, I was a skinny wimpy girl..

It might be a nice two person job. And work off some excess energy.

Some things to consider are that the blades are very sharp and exposed. They turn freely and can be a real danger for a little person (big person too for that matter). I think you can get models that have something of a guard on them.

You will find (at least in Canada) that they are about ½ the price of a power model. Rather expensive for what they are.

With proper training Mo should do just fine. They can be hard to push if the grass is long.

They are not hard to sharpen and you can do it yourself with a file if you research the proper technic. Otherwise, any lawnmower shop can sharpen them.

I have one that I keep for a backup and, like you, won't let little ones near the gas mower and this lets them help and feel important.

You'd have to find someplace that sells them locally and have Mo try pushing one. Some of them aren't as easy to push around as one might think. Since the wheels drive the blades on those things there is usually a LOT of "rolling resistance" with them.

Otherwise, it's pretty much impossible to run over your own foot with them and they have to be moving for the cutting edge to spin so they are fairly safe. The cutting edge can be sharp so he could wipe his fingers across it and get a cut but then he could so that with any knife in your kitchen too.

Getting the blade sharpened is fairly expensive compared to a standard power mower but you probably only need to have that done every other year. You'd make up for with by not buying gas in the mean time. Maintenance is pretty easy/straightfoward. A shot or two of lubricating oil every few weeks is all it takes. Hose it off after you are done using it each week.

As far as brands... I know Scott's and Sears (Craftsman) sell them. I don't know of any others off hand.

Re: <snick, snick, snick, snick, snick> : Reel mowers


Yeah, you'd have to try very, very hard to be injured by such a mower. I used one for years on our lawn because my grandmother didn't want me using a power mower.



Perhaps. I couldn't tell you how common mower repair services are. But the people who sharpen power mower blades can sharpen the blades of your push mower. You can do it yourself, you know, with a common rasp and a carborundum block. But you don't need to do it too often. If you buy a new push mower, you can literally wait a year or more before it needs to be sharpened.



Don't leave out in the rain. Keep the reels oiled. None of this is rocket science.



Beats me.



Yeah--tell the kid he puts his feet under your table at meal times, why the hell does he expect to get paid for doing chores around the house.



I suspect your gratitude may be tempered by my last remark.

Im in the universal center of reel mowers, mostly because all the AMish stores sell em to their Amish customers. For really big lawn areas and small pastures, the AMish use horse drawn sickle bars , but for small lawns they use the newer reel type. The new reel mowers are muich different than your granny's. They have the drive wheel and chain drive set overhead to the reel. This allows llighter materials to be used in the wheel and fram. The blades are still a stainless . Any mower shop can sharpen em and they are wonderful to push. I bought one about 10 years ago and I use it to do some small areas around my veggie garden and in areas between rows and around trees (We have a lawn service who use these zero turn mowers at mach 2 and theres another guy who weed whacks and is constantly chewing bark off expensive trees. Ive threatened to fire em several times and they always apologize and we go back and forth until I decided that to keep them from girdling trees, Id do the trimming.

Do you need any suggestions as to brands? Ill check the AMish hardware stores and see if there are any even newer kinds.

That's what we had when I was a kid and I HATED it. I don't think my dad ever oiled it or cleaned it or sharpened it, and at the time I was totally non-mechanical and had no idea you were supposed to do any of those things. As a consequence the damned thing was near impossible to push, and I was pretty skinny, which made it even harder. The handle made about a 30 degree angle with the ground. I remember myself, on the end of the handle, also at about a 30 degree angle to the ground, trying to push it and it just sitting there. If it had moved, I would have fallen flat, I was at such an angle to the ground. It didn't move, I didn't fall.

Yes, they are dangerous. There was no reel guard, the blades were absolutely uncovered. They kept turning after the thing stopped. Get near them and you could get minced. Maybe they have guards now. They sure didn't then. They kicked pebbles, rocks, sticks back toward you. Don't get me started about reel mowers and dog ****. OUrs also didn't have whatever you call those bins behind the mower that held leaves, so I'd come in with clippings stuck to the sweat all over me, sneezing from the dust and crap and pollen kicked up (which maybe was why I developed hay fever).

Do Mo a favor. Get him something else, maybe a pair of grass clippers to edge the lawn.

Don't they now make some sort of small electric thing with something like whirling nylon fishing line rather than steel blades that's like a lawn mower or lawn trimmer?
They didn't exist when I was a kid, so I don't have much direct experience with them, but I think some years ago I used one a bit, not sure where, and it seemed easier and safer.

By the way, i'll bet your boy has stars in his eyes over this, because he's thinking about money, and not the work involved. FM claims they are easier to push than they once were, and that may be true, but he's still going to have to actually work. It might help if you impress upon him that if he takes on the responsibility, he can't bail out just because work is no fun.

We had a quarter acre of yard to mow. I did this from the time i was six (i did it, then my brother did it, then my sister did it, then it was my turn again), and it took all day. I realize that your yard is much smaller (it sounds as though it is), but Mo will still have to actually work to earn his money. Make sure he fully understands the implications of work and a continuing responsibility, because otherwise the exercise is likely to quickly pall on him.

By the way, these mowers don't go "snick, snick, snick." They make a high-pitched whirring sound, which is cyclical as the mower is pushed foward and then drawn back. They're an ugly business all 'round.

Setanta's last post just reminded me of the proper way to mow with a push mower. You do not simply push across the lawn like you do with a power mower. You actually push back and forth as you go.

The snick, snick, snick sound is from the chipped blades after running over stones too many times.

Newer Light-weight reel mowers

These are apparently USA made and look like they might be light enough for Mo to handle.

(Setanta, I too mowed a quarter acre but with a motorized reel mower. That thing was huge and heavy and a bugger to turn around. I'll never forget the day I ran over a frog...eeeewwwww...)

I think what I was thinking of is called something like a string trimmer or lawn trimmer or trimmer/edger. They seem to start even cheaper than reel mowers. Maybe someone who's had more experience with them than I have can tell you how well they work (or don't).

http://www.consumersearch.com/www/lawn_and_garden/string-trimmer-reviews/

If you've got Burmuda grass, or some other type that spreads by sending out runners, don't get a reel mower. You'll spend all your time unraveling it from the monkey works.

Cool, we've been looking into this too (not very thoroughly yet though).

Our front and back lawns are both small, and the back one is accessed by going down a somewhat steep set of stairs -- extremely awkward to take a power mower down there. Plus reel motors are much greener than power motors (in the pollution-belching sense). E.G. has wanted a reel motor (nice to have the name, we've been calling them variations of "wheely pushy non-evil mowers" and similar flights of eloquence) but I've been resisting because what I remember from using them when I was a kid was the dead grass clippings everywhere. There must be some sort of attachment for that though? Any thoughts on efficiency etc?

They make catchers that attach behind the reels to catch your clippings. In my experience, they actually catch about 30% or so. IMO, you are better off mowing more often which would leave you with shorter clippings which will drop down between the blades of grass in the lawn (which is actually good for your lawn!) Also, never ever mow while the grass is wet.

I've been considering one for the environmental aspects. When my current power mower dies I'll probably go that route.

A-ha!

OK, I'm sold.

We're waiting for our current power mower to die, too, but shouldn't be long. (It's a hand-me down from a neighbor who had already bought a new one and was about to throw out this one four years ago -- barely started this year, and always suspenseful.)

mine is a Lee VAlley (I think that they are just a sales house like Cabellas). There is no way you can hurt yourself if you follow the instructions
1 keep hands firmly on the handles so that you can read the sign that says to keep your hands on the handle

2 then you push and pull. little clip runs and pulls. You dont just push in a single run, thats a waste of energy


When Mo gets bigger, he will learn to push it real hard and then lift it up in the air on the return pull. Cant get hurt doing taht either.

If he wants to get started in karate you can use this in the Mr Miagee training program

1SAND DA FAROAH!!

2 WAX ON , WAX OFF

3 MOWA DA RAWN

this is my 14th summer (out of 14) using a 'push' mower like this:

.......................
........... Scotts 20 In. Green Classic Reel Mower Model 2000-20

i don't bother getting the blades sharpened -- i just buy a new one every 5 years or so.

it is quite the workout on a sunny day...

Mo doesn't get an allowance and he does have chores but he LIKES to work.

I started really thinking about this yesterday when I was mowing the lawn and he wanted to help so we mowed together and I gave him a lesson in lawn mower safety. He wanted to help with the edging too but I wouldn't let him near the edger; those things scare me. I did "allow" him to be my edging navigator though.

He misses that in our old neighborhood he had several "clients". He would stack wood or pick berries or pull weeds or dig holes or whatever for many of our neighbors and they would pay him a few bucks depending on what he did.

I was surprised to see that they are so expensive online but I know right now that I could get a reel mower for pretty cheap as the garden centers are doing major discounts to clear things out.

Not being easy is a real positive, actually.

Craigslist! Go to the nearest area in there for you and click on the "For Sale" section header. Then do a search on "Reel Mower". Just for grins a did a search in the Portland area and there are several fairly new ones listed in the $30-$50 range.