# Bent bendknife and reel



## SantiCazorla (Sep 2, 2018)

Well.. i knew this day would come just didn't think it would be on my very first mow :x.

First of all, let me just say the difference between mowing with a reel and rotary is night and day. The cut quality is amazing, like a damn carpet smooth amazing, no torn blades, no wheel marks, and no scalping... best of all stripes! If anyone out there is on the fence about reel mowing, DO IT! You wont regret it.



I knew i needed to watch out for any debris like rocks, loose mulch, and sticks that might damage the blades but what i didn't take into account were tree roots. My normal HOC with the rotary is 1 3/4", whenever i come to this section of the lawn with exposed roots it gets a bit bumpy but never scalped so i didn't think twice about going over it with the reel. I guess 3/4" was too low because first i felt a dip, than a wobble, than a hard impact that immediately stopped the reel from turning. Went to examine the blade and saw this.





Thankfully this happened at the end of my mow while doing a cleanup boarder pass so i was able to mow the entire yard before this happened. Brand new reel and bedknife already ruined on my first mow. Is there any way to salvage this or am i SOL?


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Hard to see the detail but I'd say get the bedknife and see how it cuts &#129335;‍♂


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

That happened to me last year and I was able to put a new bedknife on it and grind down the bent part of the reel so it wouldn't hit the new bedknife. I ended up cutting with it for the rest of the season. You won't notice a difference in cut with one part of one blade not cutting.


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## SantiCazorla (Sep 2, 2018)

New bedknife ordered.

@Mightyquinn how would I go about grinding that part of the reel? Angle grinder maybe?


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

SantiCazorla said:


> New bedknife ordered.
> 
> @Mightyquinn how would I go about grinding that part of the reel? Angle grinder maybe?


That would get the job done but it might be difficult to get it in there since it's a tight spot. I just used a Dremel tool with a grinding stone. It wasn't pretty but it got the job done :thumbup:


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I don't see a bent reel in there. Which bedknife are you getting? The thicker the better and avoid the roots.


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## SantiCazorla (Sep 2, 2018)

@Mightyquinn I'll give it a try. At this point I just need it functioning. Ty.

@g-man if you look closely at the pic there's some bubbling of the black paint on the reel. That's where the bend is. It's not much but enough to stop the reel from turning.

New bedknife is the high fairway rmt6946, $40.75 from r&r.


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## J_nick (Jan 28, 2017)

I used a pneumatic 3" angle grinder with a sanding disk when I did this last year.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Mightyquinn said:


> That happened to me last year and I was able to put a new bedknife on it and grind down the bent part of the reel so it wouldn't hit the new bedknife. I ended up cutting with it for the rest of the season. You won't notice a difference in cut with one part of one blade not cutting.


Seconded - i have a couple of good nicks in my reel and bedknife and have no issues.


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