Hi Glenn_C, What a great looking machine and congrats on your catcher..The Model 17 Supercut (petrol engine) has some features not available on the Model 45 (mine pictured in my avatar) and that is it has 2 clutches....a main drive clutch and a cutter clutch. The advantage of this is that you can traverse across a large area of lawn using the main drive (as they are very heavy) without the cutter engaged or you can mow with the cutter engaged in very tight areas pushing it by hand
without the main drive engaged.
Another good feature is that the cutter can be reversed...(you will find that the front edge of the blade on the cutting cylinder will blunten with use but the back edge will be sharp) you just remove the cylinder,undo the drive dog on the left hand end, swing it 180 degrees, replace the drive dog in the other end and replace....re-adjust the cutting cylinder to bottom knife blade clearance and Voila!! you have a sharp reel once again!!
You can't do that with a Model 45 either (pity....
)
Some parts are rare, but most are still available.
The Model 17 dates from the early 50's.
