Mascot 21 inch 6 bladed reel mower

I am VERY impressed with the quality and durability of this machine! I tried it out side-by-side with my brother’s American reel mower. The American does an adequate job, but not near the neat cut like the Mascot. With the American, I have to do a few rows twice to get a good cut. Never have to recut a section with the Mascot. The extra weight really makes a difference to keep it firmly on the ground. The cut on bermuda grass is immaculate! The cut on St. Augustine isn’t quite as clean but still does a good job. Am so impressed with the Mascot 18 that I’m ordering another one to keep at a duplex I own and one for my home. I use a mulching gas powered mower once every fifth cut to get rid of thatch and leaves, and a string trimmer to get the edges and corners the reel mower can’t get to. Frequent mowing is a must. It’s healthier for the bermuda and keeps the St. Augustine from getting so high that it becomes a real workout with a reel mower!

This is the Cadillac of push mowers. It’s heavy for good ground contact and even turf, but very easy to push for such a big machine.

The 21" Mascot has a roller behind the main cutter blade which will keep your reel from getting into the dirt if you put the inside wheels over your bed edges. Makes mowing around beds quite easy once you get the hang of it.

Blades on this thing are flame hardened and precision ground, arranged in a non-contact configuration for low friction and high performance. Before I mow, I go out under the old oak tree and pick up any stray twigs because they will stop this mower or pretty much any other reel mower.

I have a pretty big lawn--I’m on a half acre lot and I’d say a good half of that is grass. So I’m mowing a quarter acre, and doing it often to make it easier. You need to do that with a reel mower, because unlike a rotary gas mower they don’t tolerate deep grass well. So when you get your reel mower, make the commitment to use it in your workout routine because you’re gonna get some exercise.

That is not to say running one of these is unduly harsh. Just that if you’re used to following a self-propelled mower around, this is going to be more work than that.

Here’s the plus side though: I have a Petzl headlamp with rechargeable batteries that I use for camping as well as biking in the evenings. Now, the hottest, humidest part of the summer--mid-July to mid-September--is upon us right now. I can’t tell you how much I hate going out in the heat and humidity to mow that big lawn. But because this thing is as close to silent as a lawnmower can be, all I have to do is wait until 1 o’clock in the morning when conditions are much more pleasant, strap on the ol’ headlamp, and mow my lawn without waking the neighbors. One neighbor’s dog got upset with me the first few times I did this, but now that it happens one or two times a week he’s pretty much used to it now.

This is not a toy such as you get at the hardware store, it is a serious tool that not so long ago was used by every homeowner to cut their grass before gas power took over. When the market disappeared for these mowers, many of the best designs disappeared as the companies that made them went under. This mower is an almost direct copy of an industry-leading Agrifab design from many years ago. The quality is very good, and it seems the company who resurrected the design timed it right, with increased awareness of fuel savings and pollution, exercise value and so forth.

If you are ready for this mower, it is pretty much the class of the field right now. Much better than the Fiskars everybody’s talking about.

Great mower. 6 blade does a much better job than the 5 blade. Extra weight has been much better than my Scott’s mower.