Tks Grumpy for your "instant reply" and good news on the reel as I have about 8>10mm of blade exposed above support disks / lateral separators.
Will try to post some photos later today / tomorrow - when I get home
My "beast" is a 1968 17" SB 45 (originally purchased by my Dad from Artarmon Mowers). The little (& somewhat gutless for my steep lawns) Kirby Tecumseh was replaced with a 5hp Honda in about 1980 - so those SS screws went straight through the blades.
I hammered the minor bends out of the reel and banged the bedknife back to as straight as I could. Then gave the mower a serious backlap so have managed to remove all but one gouge in the reel and all of them from the bed knife. But as a result of prior wear and the vigorous back lap - the leading edge of my bed knife is down to about 1.5>2 mm thickness
Chains and sprockets are all good - have just had the driveline disassembled to replaced the drive drum bearings
