Reel Mower

When we moved to Marion, North Carolina we bought a twenty acre farm. In the old barn we discovered a reel mower that was left by the previous owners of the property along with a few other miscellaneous tools. My son at first had no idea of what it was, let alone how to use it.

So a year latter when gas prices got to be outrageously high we decided to try it out. We checked to see if the blades were sharp first and that there were other obvious problems with it. It looked brand new pretty much, so we figure that it must not have been used more than a couple of times before it found a permanent home in the barn. The reel mowers are supposed to be more environmentally friendly than gas mowers. They do provide you with a definite work out.

My son thought we were kidding when my husband demonstrated how to use the reel mower. He did use it for a time, but it did not work like the ones we had when I was a kid and remembered using. Maybe it was not built with the same quality as the ones in the past were?

To start with, it did mow evenly like a traditional gas powered mower. Sometimes  you had to go over the same spot multiple times to mow it at all. For that reason to do a small yard it took hours compared to the minutes we were used to with the gas mower. That is partially because we are lazy and spoiled by modern technology where pioneers of the past were used to hard work.

Then there was the fact that things kept getting hung up in it constantly, That meant he had to stop and clean it out which becomes a major nuisance, not to mention takes a lot of time.  The blades dulled quickly. I think it is because they are made out of a cheaper grade of metal than the more expensive brands.

The reel mower we found was a American Lawn Mower Company 1815 - 18 18  “Reel Mow.” It does not take gasoline which makes it very affordable for anyone. The maintenance on it is simple because it does not have many parts. Cleaning is as simple as spraying down with a garden hose, be sure to oil it to keep it from rusting.  It is light weight compared to a push mower and takes up much less space. They cost about a hundred dollars which is about half of a gas mower and are sold at many hardware stores that sell regular mowers.

I guess if we did not have gasoline this mower would  become more popular rather than letting the grass get knee high. Other wise people would go back to having no grass other than pastures for their animals and instead have a woodland yard that does not need mowed.