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Sharpening a Sickle Blade

D

Danny Prosser

Member
Morning friends. I'm going out to my property tomorrow and was wondering about how to sharpen my Ford sickle bar blades. All I use it for is to cut around my pond and along the road ditch. I want to take what I need with me so I can do it and cut tomorrow. Can I use a 4" grinder and sharpen them without taking the bar off? I just don't want to screw them up so if someone that has done it can give me a little lesson on how it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Just buy 'over serrated' sections. They are 'self sharpening'. They are not made to be sharpened. Smooth,or under serrated can be sharpened. But it is best to remove the cutter bar. Pretty hard to get a grinder in between the gards.
 
It's best to remove the sickle from the bar and then use an angle grinder. As Deltared said, smooth or under serated can be resharpened, and double or top serated you really can't very easily.

Another point of advice, the sickle is only half of it. It works like scissors and the gaurds are the other half. If the gaurds have rounded edges on thier cutting edges, they need to be replaced or repaired. If you have the right kind of gaurd, you can hit the sides of them with the angle grinder, and put a nice sharp 90 degree edge on them. This can be done more easily with the sickle removed as well. You can usually touch up guards a time or two with the grinder before you have to replace them.

One more point of advice, you need to have good hold downs. If they wore out or not right, it don't matter how sharp things are, your going to have trouble mowing.
 

2X good hold-downs. Without good properly adjusted hold-downs the sharpest sections and guards can't cut properly.
 
(quoted from post at 17:42:55 04/26/19)
2X good hold-downs. Without good properly adjusted hold-downs the sharpest sections and guards can't cut properly.
Click to expand...

I agree.

Something else that contributes to good cutting are the "wear" plates. Some mowers have the wear plates only under the hold-downs and some run the whole length of the bar.
They assure that the knife bar and knives fit and run properly against the ledger plates on the guards.
BTW, most guards have replaceable "ledger plates" ....the other half of the scissors so to speak. They are held on to the guard by a single rivet and are not too hard to change. Cheaper to change them than the complete guard.
Taking the time to set up the mower properly will save a whole bunch of aggravation down the road.
Its fun to operate a sickle bar mower when its working flawlessly.
 
I'd like to add to others advice. The holdown can be tightened easily. When the bar is down with blade in place, put a block under the bar at the hold down.then give the holdown a nice rap with a hammer at the domed up area. Ed Will Oliver BC
 
(quoted from post at 02:57:27 04/27/19) I'd like to add to others advice. The holdown can be tightened easily. When the bar is down with blade in place, put a block under the bar at the hold down.then give the holdown a nice rap with a hammer at the domed up area. Ed Will Oliver BC
Click to expand...

Exactly!
Also....if considering changing from rivets to bolts you might have to change some of the hold downs (clips) to the higher type to give clearance for the nuts.

I can't remember what manual I copied this from but it has some good info on sharpening knives and setting up a mower.
Probably goes back to the 40s or 50s.....note the reference to "Govt. Post Card" for use as a thickness gauge.
mvphoto35222.jpg
 

You can even get two part hold downs. There is an upper and a lower part, and a screw threads down through the upper onto the top of the lower, so that you can just tighten the screw to press the lower part down to where it holds the knife down.
 
It has all been pretty well discussed. Though once you have the bolted sections you will never go back to rivets for ease of changing.
 
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