How to adjust a reel mower to cut well

I was hoping to quickly find a good link to give you, but apparently the internet is getting stupider. So I'll have to write one myself.

Reel mowers need to be sharpened sometimes, but not frequently.  Usually if they are not cutting well, it just needs a minor adjustment with a screwdriver.

On the mower, there is the reel of blades that spins.  There is also a steel bar that the blades come very close to, which creates a scissors-style cutting action.  The bar has four adjustment screws, two on each side.

To start with, cut yourself some long strips of paper, these are for testing how well the mower is cutting.

The thing to remember--besides keeping your fingers out of the way as you're spinning the blades--is that however much you loosen/tighten the front screw on one side, you have to tighten/loosen the corresponding back screw by the same amount.  The bar is on a pivot; the front screw lifts or lowers the front edge of the bar, and the back screw pushes down against the back edge.

You should only be turning each screw slightly; these are fine adjustments.

And hopefully your bar is even enough that you will be adjusting the screws on each side by about the same amount.

So, insert a strip of paper between the blades and bar, and turn the reel by hand.  You want it to cut the paper cleanly, all along the length of the bar, but without scraping the blades against the bar too hard, which would make them go dull much more quickly.

If the bar is too far away from the blade, loosen the front screw and tighten the back screw. If the bar is too close to the blade, tighten the front screw and loosen the back screw.

When it's doing well on paper, get up and try it on grass.  It may need to be loosened back up a bit so you can push it easily. That's okay--grass cuts more easily than paper does. The mower should be making a whirring noise, not a grating noise.

Apparently some reel mowers come with a special gauge to use to adjust the bar. And some only have two adjustment screws. But the general principle should be the same.