Guards for No. 9 Mower

We have 4 #9’s in the field, lucky enough to use the old style guards with replaceable ledgers, smooth sections made in Germany work really well that way. We also use spring loaded hold downs with poly shims and normal wear plates. We like that combination, easy to sharpen the knives, you can find the old hand grinders on ebay every now and then. If you have the mower close to home you can sharpen the ledgers with a 4.5 angle grinder and a cutting blade, be careful, be quick inside of there you can cut too deep. We spend about $100 for parts to get a mower cutting bar for ledgers, hold downs, sections and wear plates at the beginning of the year.

Stub guards are very usefully on the inner end of the bar. Never seen them on the outer end and have my doubts about using them there. Stub guards on the inner end main purpose is not to cut a lot of grass, which they might do slightly less well than other good guards. Their main purpose is the ability to chop through grass that was laid down the round before with out plugging. They can do this because there is no point on the guard that spears the hay before it gets to the knife.

I prefer the new haybine guards that are double teeth. They are cheaper and heat treated, they last a long time. Their edge can be touched up a little with an angle grinder, but just one or two strokes so as not to heat them up. I can’t really see how you would use the angle grinder on a ledger plate, but perhaps I miss read the earlier post. Changing ledger plates can be a lot of work, but a good old style guard with new ledger plate does make a good machine.

new knife sections are heat treated also and stay sharp a long time. No daily or hourly sharpening needed. I prefer a serrated section with the non serrated haybine guard. No strong preference for top or bottom serrated. Bottom serrated are still sharpenable (same note on grinder, one or two strokes so you don’t heat them, and the cutting wheel does work a little better in the back corner). Top serrated are sort of self sharpening. I have used these for a couple of years on some mowers.

These year I have a 7′ knife with three different knife sections on it. I am experimenting with a super seven knife that is the larger serrations on it. New cutting parts on an old mower will pay for themselves quickly if you make sure the whole thing is set up to run smoothly.

I’m not Donn, but if you don’t mind I’ll lend my 2 cents.
I agree one part needs to be rough and the other smooth, I don’t think it really matters which one. I believe that the rough edge of one or the other allows for the material to be held for a split second in place as the knife does the slicing action, if both are smooth I think it may have a tendency to slide over more than cut.
I do sharpen the ledger plates with a cutting wheel, an old timer showed me, I called his bluff and he set me straight. He was the State Vet and did all his field work and haying with horses, but you do need the ledger plates that have a slight taper to the sides, mine are stamped Germany and will sharpen nicely. I agree that only a pass or two, don’t heat them, lose the temper and might as well throw them away.
Mike

Our local Amish order them through Mullen’s, I believe got to double check, I just received this years new parts last week.
The spring loaded hold downs I found at our local Farm and Fleet store in Wadena, MN. They really work nice, I’ll get the manufacture info tonight.
Mike

I am interested in the spring loaded hold down. What do they cost? Do they still allow the knife to slide freely? Goeff I will look for a number on the Double guard, but I think you can get them cheaper from Dan at Joe’s equipment repair. See dealer list.

Hey Donn,
I think I paid around $10, it will add some friction but I think it’s minimal for the better cutting action. There is a small poly bushing that runs against the knife. If there’s too much drag or it feels too tight we’ve added a washer to give some extra room, but we’ve done that only once when we used the thicker haybine sections on the knife.

I think there are 3. Not right by one right now. How much are they? It depends on the footage of bar, 3=5ft