UnderSerrated or Over

However my sickle seems to have some of all.....

I have a Ford 501 - it looks like the bar has been added to since it is a 9' one - don't know if that would be a factory job or not.....

the stock sections appear mostly to be underserrated - it appears that about half the guards have serrated ledger plates and half of them are smooth.....

ANYWAY, i cut mainly ditch grass for now - someday hope to do some alfalfa or something, but now it is just grass or weed spots.... which type should I be using? does it depend on what I want to cut? most high capacity and new machines seem to use overserrated and I put a couple of those on - but I am ready to replace quite a few now that my hay season is over ..... ..... .isn't that always the way it goes.....

it cuts good now - but only if i go quite slow - so mowing is slow going to say the least....

if the grass is perfectly straight and no short or fine ones or not tangled and down is does go a little better - but definitely time for some new sections.....

is there an easier way to get a good looking rivet job other than just pounding them down?

Oh, by the way, if you use to learn the rivet set you will NEVER want them damn bolts that many guys use.

I would prefer serated ledger plates and under- or smooth sickle sections. Works best in my Minnesota climate on troublesome small dampish grasses. Also you can sharpen eith of those sickles.

With top-serated sickle, I'd look to smooth ledger plates.

Alfalfa will cut easy compared to the ditch hay. Thin fine grass & floppy damp (never would dry out) clover is the worst stuff I ever cut; Alfalfa has always been a breeze.

The hammer works fine on the rivots, they make a $50 tool that makes them look neat. But I'd sooner get the special bolts and forget the rivots.

--->Paul