Actual cutting time per the blade of grass by a sickle knife may not be very different than that by drum mower blade.
Even if they are very different, this doesn't mean you can get the smoother cut by higher speed mower blade.
Lets learn.
Linear speed of finish mower, that is, the edge speed has an "order/level of magnitude" of 10,000 ft/min (at tip, it is about 15-20,000 ft/min.)
Linear speed of drum mower, that is, the tip/edge speed has an "order/level of magnitude" of 1000 ft/min.
Linear speed of sickle blade/knife has an "order/level of magnitude" of 100 ftp/min (if we don't use "order/level of magnitude" term, we can say it is about 250 ft/min.)
So, yes, it's true that finish mower blade is 100 times faster than sickle bar mower blade/knife .. and drum mower blade is 10 times faster than sickle bar mower blade/knife. BUT these don't still mean that you will get much sharper/smoother cut from finish/drum mower BECAUSE there is still another important factor; edge/tip thicknesses of mower blades. For example, a beard razor blade with a speed level of 1 ftp/min can cut the grass much much more smoother than even a finish mower blade. Remembering that sickle knife is much sharper/thinner in the edge than drum / finish mower blades, its grass cutting will probably be smoother than done by the other mowers. But it is not so in reality? .. It may be so because the cutter bar of your low quality sickle mower you are selling maybe not moving in the same horizontal axis. Probably, your sickle cutter bar has also a deflection/movement in the vertical axis that causes a chewing action. So, if you as a "very experienced" mower man see less and less chewing action in higher quality sickle mowers like newer models of G&S sickle bars, then you will understand that chewing action can't be generalized to all sickle bar mowers.
But all these (smoother cut or rough cut or chewing cut) aren't very important for a living beings like the grass which can re-grow even if you cut. Even though the grass will feel some more pain when being cut under chewing action it will grow again. I in my post mentioned about "killing" the grass (not hurting) by very high speed blades applying much friction on the cut crass surface which will have high temperature/heat spots under much frictions due to high speed of drum mowers/finish mowers/etc. So, you a "very experienced" mower man maybe can tell us if such local temperature/heat spots are occuring there or not and if that temperature level is "killing" the grass cells or not. Drum mower farmers who I asked yesterday and answered drum mowers were killing their grass field weren't chewing anything in their mouths. So, lets not chew here and focus on temperature/heating/burning effect of high speed mowers like drum, disc, finish mowers, etc.
Even if they are very different, this doesn't mean you can get the smoother cut by higher speed mower blade.
Lets learn.
Linear speed of finish mower, that is, the edge speed has an "order/level of magnitude" of 10,000 ft/min (at tip, it is about 15-20,000 ft/min.)
Linear speed of drum mower, that is, the tip/edge speed has an "order/level of magnitude" of 1000 ft/min.
Linear speed of sickle blade/knife has an "order/level of magnitude" of 100 ftp/min (if we don't use "order/level of magnitude" term, we can say it is about 250 ft/min.)
So, yes, it's true that finish mower blade is 100 times faster than sickle bar mower blade/knife .. and drum mower blade is 10 times faster than sickle bar mower blade/knife. BUT these don't still mean that you will get much sharper/smoother cut from finish/drum mower BECAUSE there is still another important factor; edge/tip thicknesses of mower blades. For example, a beard razor blade with a speed level of 1 ftp/min can cut the grass much much more smoother than even a finish mower blade. Remembering that sickle knife is much sharper/thinner in the edge than drum / finish mower blades, its grass cutting will probably be smoother than done by the other mowers. But it is not so in reality? .. It may be so because the cutter bar of your low quality sickle mower you are selling maybe not moving in the same horizontal axis. Probably, your sickle cutter bar has also a deflection/movement in the vertical axis that causes a chewing action. So, if you as a "very experienced" mower man see less and less chewing action in higher quality sickle mowers like newer models of G&S sickle bars, then you will understand that chewing action can't be generalized to all sickle bar mowers.
But all these (smoother cut or rough cut or chewing cut) aren't very important for a living beings like the grass which can re-grow even if you cut. Even though the grass will feel some more pain when being cut under chewing action it will grow again. I in my post mentioned about "killing" the grass (not hurting) by very high speed blades applying much friction on the cut crass surface which will have high temperature/heat spots under much frictions due to high speed of drum mowers/finish mowers/etc. So, you a "very experienced" mower man maybe can tell us if such local temperature/heat spots are occuring there or not and if that temperature level is "killing" the grass cells or not. Drum mower farmers who I asked yesterday and answered drum mowers were killing their grass field weren't chewing anything in their mouths. So, lets not chew here and focus on temperature/heating/burning effect of high speed mowers like drum, disc, finish mowers, etc.
