I do like a good can of worms
I've spoken to a few green keepers on this issue and they were of the opinion that the manufacturers guidelines should be followed. In this case that would mean light contact.
I live close to the former PGA golf course at Coolum and also a very nice course at Twin Waters. I had the opportunity to watch the reel adjustment on an extremely expensive Toro greens mower and it's amazing how finely tuned they are. I know that Toro specify contact but I believe John Deere do not.
The Scott Bonanr instructions state "The blades maintain a better edge so long as they are lightly touching the bottom blade. They become blunted and dull when they are no longer making contact, caused by the grass being "dragged" through and not cut cleanly."
This is taken from the Toro technical training manual - "If there is no contact (a gap between bedknife and reel blade) it can result in faster wear of the cutting edges and more frequent grinding. No contact results in the leaves of the grass plant being pinched or torn rather than cleanly cut. This causes poor quality of cut and can actually accelerate the wear process of the cutting edges. The result? Deteriorating aftercut appearance and leaf tissue damage which is detrimental to the long term health of the turf."
Here is a summary of the the findings from an Iowa State University study on the topic. They found that a sharpened reel with light contact consistently gave the best visual quality with the least injury to the turf. A dull reel and bedknife with light contact also outperformed a sharpened reel and bedknife with no contact in the same test.
And here is some other balanced info
[color:#3333FF]"Is it a scythe or a scissor cut"[/color]It's something that's interested me so I've experimented a bit with it on a few different mowers now. I think the most important thing is that you take the time to get the adjustment as close as possible, no matter which method you go with. I'm not sure I believe that heat generated from contact will tinge the leaf blade - and I think the university study confirms that. I agree that having contact does put greater stress on the mower and its components, but with SB advising this method, I'm not concerned by it.
Oh and don't worry about a hydraulic hose failure on your 45
