Also, while maybe the first time through I slowed a little bit at these spots I am not sure but after I went over several times I adjusted speeds to jogging while mowing and walking very very slow.

No, your turf will need to re-grow and fill in those gouged areas. The turf will do this on its own. Just be sure to mow over this area and your entire lawn with a consistent, normal walking pattern which will create a consistent reel spin necessary for proper cutting by a manual push reel mower.

You do not want to walk very, very slow while using a manual push reel mower. Your forward movement should always be a consistent, normal pace of walking. And again, if you need to stop or slow down, raise up the reel off the turf by pushing down on the handle to prevent washboarding.

Also, here is a tip in case you are not already doing this. Alternate the direction of your mowing pattern each time you mow. Imagine a clock in the center of your lawn. One time, you mow in the "12 to 6" direction. The next time, you mow in the "3 to 9" direction. The next time you mow in the "4 to 10" direction. And then mow the next time in the "2 to 8" direction. Then repeat the process throughout the entire growing season.

Good luck and continue to come back here with questions anytime. Thanks for posting the picture. That was very helpful for a better understanding of your issue.

Reel mowers will do this when you let the grass get too tall. I know, I know...... You didn't LET anything happen. You've been mowing every other day. But it happened.

You might consider raising the height of cut. That will help. Although the grass will continue to grow fast, and this problem might crop up again and force you to raise the height again.

The only other fix for a ground driven reel is to mow more often. As you have noticed over the past few weeks, this problem will not go away.

This is a common problem with push reels. There is no way to adjust the clip rate. Your speed does not matter. A ground driven reel can only spin so many times in relation to distance traveled.

Here is what I have done. I went back and re-adjusted my blades in relation to the bedknife. Paper cuts smoothly now running through it. The reel seems to have a good smooth flow.

I went back re mowed an area from yesterday that was not previously affected and now it is AFFECTED!! (The blade height was lower ever so slightly from yesterday, if that matters).

I was walking at a normal pace. (29 year old male, and athletic. This thing is easy to push). When I go back in the opposite direction of the affected area it feels like I am gliding over it. The reel is spinning but I am just gliding right over that spot. I did not notice it on the initial pass but I have notice many other times in affected areas.

I am trying to mow my grass a little less than an 1 inch tall. My mowing schedule every Friday and then either Monday or Tuesday. This is all I can do because of work. (I could mow on Saturday or Sunday but don't see a need).

Sorry to be so bothersome but this is about to drive me crazy. I am new yard addict. :)

To give you an idea, my yard is flush and full but his has dried out spots in it.

I did nothing different from mine to his other than having the blade raised.

I do not scalp my yard when I mow but am I trying to cut it to low for the amount of times I can cut it a week? Or is there another problem? (this is driving me crazy!).

nearandwest7, I have studied what you said. I will have to wait until I can cut my yard again and study my pace to see if this is my problem. I am going to try to get out and cut my yard tomorrow. I do know this, if pace is the problem then you can't break a friggin stride with this thing, cause I don't really speed up or down when I mow.

Just one more question, because I'm still trying to eliminate possible reasons for the washboarding. The areas that are getting gouged (affected), are these areas where you are turning the mower and perhaps the spin rate of the blades is slowing down?

To answer your question, no it is not where I am turning. That was my first thought. My line of thinking is that I cannot mow at the height I am current at with the frequency. So for now I am going to raise the blade and see where that gets me.

However, I did hit a rock that chipped one of my blades. Now it rubs the bedknife. I tried to sharpen (with a sharpening kit) it to work the chipped area out but with no luck. Anyone have suggestions? Could I get some sandpaper and rub it down?

This is why I think it's so important to start out as low as mowerly possible at the beginning of the season. So there is room to go up.

Bermuda grass grows pretty aggressively and reaches for the sun this time of year. Yours is a common problem. But a good problem if you want to put a positive twist on it. Your grass is too thick. LOL!

On to that nicked blade. Backlapping isn't for fixing nicks. It is only for minor corrections and freshening up the blades and knife. Nicks really require a spin grind followed by a relief grind if that is how your mower was set up from the factory. You can skip the relief if your mower didn't come with one.

You could touch up the nick with a file, but you run a real risk of making that spot in the blade impossible to adjust to cut. Your call. I would find a golf course equipment mechanic and have them grind the reel so you don't take it out of round.

Do you think getting a heavier mower would help? My American Reel mower is only about 20lbs. I was looking at the Mascot Silent Cut and it is almost 50lbs.

I'm not worried about it being harder to push.

A heavier reel won't help with this type of problem.

rager, when you say "I have since leveled" I guess that means leveled the yard? My yard is not flat by any means but I do not have any steep hill either. Less than .25 of an acre as well. And when I googled pwered trimmer 25" a weedeater came up. I am not sure what you are talking about here.

rager, when you say "I have since leveled" I guess that means leveled the yard? My yard is not flat by any means but I do not have any steep hill either. Less than .25 of an acre as well. And when I googled pwered trimmer 25" a weedeater came up. I am not sure what you are talking about here.

I mowed again today (at a 3rd different angle and at the higher height) and still had some more washboarding. Not as bad as before but I feel like it is only a matter of time before it comes in worse. I paid very very close attention to my speed and kept a good walking pace up. I did notice though that my problem occurs 80% on the downhill. I was not going faster downhill, I paid close attention to this. I am so down and out about this right now. Thinking about just buying a rotary mower.

One of the things I see my new employees do from time to time even with powered walking greens mowers is that they will have areas where they miss cutting the grass due to pushing down on the handle of the mower. The way I get them to correct this is for them to slightly lift up on the handle as they are making each pass across the green. This keeps the cutting unit down on the grass surface. Is it possible that you are doing the same thing with your reel mower? As light as it is, it would be easy for you to be inadvertantly pressing down on the handle slightly which would lift up the reel off the ground and when it goes back down it would create the washboard or gouging effect as you move across an area. This would be even easier to do on a downhill slope. Next time you mow, try lifting up slightly on the handle with both hands to keep the cutting unit on the grass surface.

The other issue I'll comment on is leveling. You could do your own leveling, just as some others on this forum have done. The link below is a thread from this forum from earlier this year. There are also other threads on leveling from people who did the work themselves and they saw great results. Check it out and see if this is something you think you could do.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lawns/msg061042369630.html?45

Next time I will pay close attention to this and try to lift slightly up in the handle and push level. I am very intrigued by the leveling and am interesting in doing it. Is early spring the best time to do this? I am a similar size yard to your link and since I have a reel mower I can scalp it pretty low.