Cub 22 sickle here we go again....

[Jkay]

So I am still working on restoring this 22 mower and ran into a snag. I have blasted and painted everything and was putting it back together tonight when I noticed something. The outer shoe has of course a ledger plate riveted on it, well, mine looks backwards! It has serrated edge on one side and it is mounted with the serrated edge to the outside of the shoe. Now am I missing something? Shouldn't the cutting edge face inward toward the end section of the blade? I am too young to have fooled with sickle mowers, but something doesn't seem right. Any help?

[LeeC]

You are correct, the serrated edge should face inward.

[Matt Kirsch]

That ledger plate is probably supposed to be installed on the head end of the bar. IIRC they are tapered front to back, wider in front. If you installed that ledger with the serrated edge to the inside it would not fit.

Most likely the ledger plate was on hand and used "in a pinch." Replacing ledger plates, and they didn't have the correct one, but they had this one. They couldn't take time for another trip to the dealer, and/or the dealer did not have the part, and the hay needed to be cut... Classic git-r-done.