I bought my first reel lawn mower about 20 years ago. I can’t say exactly why I bought it, except that I needed a mower for my first non-college dwelling, and the memories of my family’s stinky 2-stroke Lawn-Boy mower weren’t too exciting. Perhaps I was emulating my grandfather, who had a big, heavy cast iron Great American reel mower; I can still recall his amusement when he asked me, at the age of about five, to try and push the beast - I couldn’t.

I bought a Sears reel mower. It cost $79, and was bright red. I quickly learned what it could, and could not do. It had cast iron wheels, so the weight was sufficient to drive the cutter through most types of grass. The blades were inboard of the wheels, which meant that it could not get closer than within about three inches to a fence or a tree. There was a clumsy height adjustment that required disassembly with a wrench; I set it to the highest setting, which wasn’t very high, and left it there. Tall weeds tended to get bent over and miss the blades. Even with these limitations, it was something of a joy to use when it was sharp: the snick of the blades did not drown out the neighborhood sounds, and it was easy to stop and chat with anyone who came by while you were mowing. And it did a creditable job of cutting the grass.

The trick was keeping the blades sharp. Sharp is really the wrong term; the trick was keeping the blades from being knocked out of alignment by sticks or other objects that could get caught up in the blades. Small sticks would lie hidden in the grass, and cause the blades to suddenly snap to a halt. I quickly noticed that hitting a stick correlated with less than perfect cutting - either difficulty in pushing the mower, or grass that would pass through the mower uncut. I took to performing stick patrol before each mowing session, flicking the sticks out onto the sidewalk to be swept up.

Eventually, despite my best efforts at keeping the blades in alignment, I found that the old Sears had become nearly unusable. Unable to find a reputable commercial party to perform sharpening (“We used to do those, but not anymore” was a common refrain), I consigned the reel mower to a remote corner of the garage. And there it remained until I discovered that my friend Terry had a similar passion for reel mowers. He described to me a method that he used to use, using lapping compound. He wasn’t entirely sure of the details, but he knew it could be done at home without fancy tools. Later, I went to a unique gathering called the Portland Mow-In, where I picked up a few more details. I eventually worked out the method, and wrote up how to sharpen your reel mower.

Incidentally, the Mow-In is one of those uniquely Portland events: reel mower enthusiasts gather at one of the city’s parks to exchange tips and listen to stories of how the first reel mower was invented (the first mower was an adapted piece of textile equipment originally used to cut the nap from felt). After the conclusion of the program, everyone lines up to cut the grass of the field in one pass of the line of mowers!