National Mower Co. Walk-Behind Sickle Bar - Restoration

[tmajor]

For awhile, I've been thinking about something to mow around the pond. A sickle bar mower for the Ford would be OK, .. if I felt like putting it on the tractor. I saw this Vintage National Mower on eBay in the spring, but decided against it. Once again, this fall, saw it again. I had just finished restoring the Ford Jubilee and felt "I needed a new project". It wasn't too far from me and the price wouldn't break the bank, even , if the project went sideways.

I brought it home and the next morning, started with, getting it running. It didn't have any spark, so got into the points and condenser .... I believe a speck of dirt fell from between the points, but elected to salvage a "all-in-one" magneto" from a push mower, I had, and get rid of the points and condenser .. got spark! Put a little gas in the spark plug hole and it fired right up. :thumbsup: At that point, I felt confident getting into it a bit further.

It seems like cleaning things up, is always the worse part. I sand blasted some, wire brushed some, and sanded some. I couldn't get one wheel off, so had to have it pressed off and then fix some incurred damage. It looks pretty nasty in the "before pix", but it wasn't super bad, but did have some pitting. I replaced the sections on the sickle bar and two ledger plates on one pair of guards. I also, changed the starter clutch to a more modern one, as the original only had one pawl, so a lot of the rope was out, before it grabbed. Also, a new throttle cable was in order.

I want to do a video, but haven't had time ... I'll get a video link up, ASAP. I'll try it around the pond ... hopefully the bar will be long enough, but I will have to mow around in the wrong direction, to take advantage of the bar off-set.

 

[NibbanaFarm]

Beautiful job tmajor. I'd be interested in knowing how you got those old blades sharp enough to cut grass. I have a BCS sickle bar. It doesn't really like to cut soft stuff like grass. Seems to push a lot of it over. It will however, chew down 2 inch maple saplings with almost no effort. I use it in areas I wouldn't dare take the bush hog. So I like it. I think different sickle bars must be made to cut different things. They seem to be popular for cutting hay and do a great job for that. At least some of them.

 

[tmajor]

Beautiful job tmajor. I'd be interested in knowing how you got those old blades sharp enough to cut grass.

Thanks! It was kind of a "fun project" on a vintage implement.

The knives , or "sections", as they now seem to be called, are all new. I haven't used it to any extent, as it got colder, just as I finished the project. I did trim a little, where I had brush hogged in the summer ... it seemed to work OK. The blades need to be sharp and the grass would need a little body to it and as you said, hay should be no problem.

 

[tmajor]

Here is a picture of the sickle bar, with guards and sections (knives). In this picture, the sections are aligned with the guards (a little harder to see). To sharpen, the sickle bar would be disconnected and pulled from one end. Then each edge of each section would be sharpened.

 

[tmajor]

OK, here's the video. I think, the mower will serve the intended purpose.