Brill reel mower best?

[me]

I wanting to buy a reel mower....human powered

Is Brill the best there is?

I understand that when it comes to human power you want well designed and quality machines

[Eggs Zachtly]

You have a bent grass lawn?

[me]

What is bent grass lawn?

[Eggs Zachtly]

Bent grass is a kind of grass. It's usually the only grass [1] that's cut with a reel mower. Using a reel mower on any of the more coarse grasses will usually result in a cut you may not be happy with, as well as be much harder on the knives, requiring sharpening more often. I suppose I should have posed the question, "Why do you want a reel mower?".

[1]. It's not *the* only grass that can be cut with a reel mower, but reels are more suited to bents than other types of grass.

[me]

I see....didn't know that. Thanks!

My current gas powered mower is on its last legs. and I "think" my lawn is actually small enough it could be done with human power anyway

Plus I want something easy enough to haul in a car to cemetery to mow around some graves

[Eggs Zachtly]

I'm not saying that you couldn't use a reel mower, you certainly could. I'm not sure you'd like it, tho. New mowers are much more lightweight than the older ones were. You may be able to find a manageable power mower for what you wish to use it for. g/l

[Kyle Boatright]

I have a reel mower, which was great when I was cutting a relatively small hybrid Bermuda lawn (about 4,000 sf). Reel mowers are also very good for bentgrass and zoysia lawns which are other species that are happy at low heights. My experience is that reel mowers have a tough time with Fescue and other grasses which are typically mowed at 2" tall or higher. In addition, it is misery using a reel mower to cut a lawn if you let the grass get too tall. The mower bogs down and gouges the lawn, giving a washboard effect. This means you need to mow fairly often.

The bottom line for me is that a reel mower is great for a smaller lawn IF the grass is a species that tolerates relatively low mowing and IF you have the time to cut the lawn more frequently than you'd cut it with a power mower.

Now that I've got 12,000 sf of zoysia and another 3-4,000 sf of a bermuda/fescue/weed mix, and about 1,000 sf of fescue, the reel mower is in storage and I use a powered rotary push mower.

KB

[Steveo]

Didja oil it good before you hung it up on the wall?