Find a Johnson sickle servicer. I can completely rebuild a bar in under 30 mins. It shears the section off, punches out the rivits, and perfectly forms a head on the new rivet all without a hammer or anvil. I used to use bolts but have gone back to rivits because of this tool.
If you take a piece of synthetic braided rope about 8 or 9' long with a piece of 1 1/2" dowel rod for a handle you can pull a knife in under a min making it much easier to work on instead of clunky tools with the knife installed. I have two knives, switch out at lunch and rework/sharpen them in about 1/2 hour after done so they are ready for the next mowing session
Hello,i would like to ask about the Johnson sickle servicer,,I bought one off Ebay a couple yrs ago,i finally thought i'd use it, my New Holland 451 mower had a Broken blade,the serated edge type,i watched a u-tube video of the servicer being used,it looked very easy,, but the blade i needed to change was the 3rd from the inside edge of mower,so it was between two bars,the top bar just runs for about 3 1/2 blades,, they hadn't dealt with that in video,so i ground the heads off rivets,and had very much trouble removing them, broke a new chinese (i guess punch) wound up having to drill one out,then, i went to tractor supply and bought an assortment of rivets, labeled for sickles etc,the only one that looked to be for that area of sickle, just bent when i tryed to i install it with the servicer, so i ground it out and used hammer, the old way,so i seen another one down the bar that i thought i'd change,i wanted to try this sickle servicer,,ok, i put the bar into the servicer and tried to shear the rivets as i watched them do in video,even got a cheater pipe, but didn't get terribly rough with it,nothing,these are steel rivets,the video showed them shearing as if they were aluminum,everything i've read about these sickle tools has been positive,so do you use softer rivets or what,i have a couple neighbors i talked to who are hay men, they knew nothing about the tool,do it the old way,with hammer,,i'd appreciate your input,,i just cut about 3 acres for myself,and just started that 4 yrs ago,started with newly installed blades,and this is the first time i've had to deal with them, thank you, Dave.
