Combines Quick cut sickle narrow spaced

I hear many are going away from the Quick cut, but I prefer to stay with it. If it is setup and maintained well, I think it will do the best cutting job, especially at higher ground speeds(say, up to 6mph or more). If it is in poor repair and wore bad - it will do the worst job of any kind. What your priorities are will determine how well you may like it. The first foot on the left side by the wobble box has little or no overlap over the guards on mine as well - but have no problems with that. I can't imagine moving the wobble box is provided for by the original design. Using the coarse serrated chromed sections will last almost twice as long as the fine ones, but may not work as well if you have alot of grass. Good luck with harvest.

I had one on a 318 head and finally got so tired of it I took it off and put the regular guards and sections on. I didn't like having to adjust it all the time. I could never see that it cut any better than the regular sickle and if you tried to cut some weedy beans it was somtimes worse. Didn't like it in wheat at all. If you decide to keep it make sure you keep the hold downs shimmed properly so it holds the sections down on the guards. I have seen people put hold downs over every guard to make it cut better.

My last 5 combines have all had quick cut knives on them and I wouldn"t run any other knife. the first year white introduced the knife I had one. Back in the early days not much was said about shimming the knife for proper performance. This is the most important aspect about this knife. Shimming can be a real pain if your system is to add or remove shims of the cast iron hold down. In my opion the spring steel holdowns that New Holland use are the best style. I have developed a way to add or remove pressure to change the tollerance under these holddowns with a nut. A job that would normally take a good day to shim a 30ft. head now takes me 15 to 20 minutes to completely shim the knife to 1 thousands of an inch accuracy. If your guards are wore you can sharpen the edge with a hand grinder to bring back the edge. Be carefull not to grind too much. In beans they are super. I have personnally cut soybeans at 8.2 mph with no problem. Shatter is no problem with this knife, better than most knife styles. The closer the holddowns are to each other the better. 6 inches apart is minimum the holddowns should be from each other. Stay away from the FOUR finger holddowns, especially the short stubbey ones. A full two finger steel holdown close together will be superior to any others. I have heard about knives that have holddowns full across the knife and the knife sections are flipped rightside up then rightside down next to each other. These knives will cut top and bottom and when the section gets worn you flop it over and wear the other side of it. I have never tried one of these knives but I would say it would work real good. The quick cut knife is a high maintenance knife but it will cut with the best of them. I run my knives at exactly 13 thou of an inch. The speck calls for 5 to 20 thou of an inch. If a knife is run too sloppy it won't cut worth a darn, something like a pair of scissors with a loose pivot pin and the guards and sickle sections will wear like crazy. Keep the knife closely shimmed and it will last longer.

Thanks for the input. I didn't check the sickle very close when I bought the head. I can see now that the gaurds are worn. I have removed shims to make it tighter and repaced some sections. I thought about grinding the edge on the gaurds. Do you grind from the side and narrow the gaurd till it is a square edge or grind from the top sideIJ I want to make it work as good as possible to finish the season, but will rebuild it for next year. I'm trying to get input from all kinds before then. I'll probably cut only beans with it as I also have a ridged head. It has the 2 point cast holdowns with shims. What about spring loaded holdownsIJ My swather is set up that way.

herschel makes the best hold down assy now. 4 point hold down adjusted by a locnut on top of the knives no shims !!! also if the wear plate behind the knife sections are wore down along with the section at the back it is almost impossible to hold the section flat on the gaurd