Yeah, it has been, because that's how I was always taught to have them set, to have the blades lightly "kiss" the bedknife in order to produce the scissor cut action. I have read lately (on here and elsewhere) about the idea of them not touching but being very very close and cutting with a scythe type action where the blades pull the grass against the bedknife edge and it cuts the grass, I could be wrong but it seems to be a relatively new idea. I've noticed on mine it doesn't cut at all when set that way, and I'd say that's because the blades aren't as sharp as they should be, however from what I can see the bedknife cutting edge would have to be ground on an angle similar to that of the cylinder blades to get the edge sharp enough to work that way, rather than a right angle edge like they usually are.
