Came across this old timer at a thrift store. It just cried out to me, needing a home. All I think I need is a return spring, and I'd bet this thing will still work fine. Love to articulating mechanism!

I spent a lot of hours with a similar pair in my youth, trimming edges of lawns by hand, after running the (pre-teen-powered, by me) reel mower over the lawns in two directions.

Quote from: Bill Houghton on May 17, 2014, 04:00:01 PM
I spent a lot of hours with a similar pair in my youth, trimming edges of lawns by hand, after running the (pre-teen-powered, by me) reel mower over the lawns in two directions.

I'm a big fan of human-powered, non-electronic stuff. But even I couldn't handle those old push mowers. Yikes!

I could of used those on a date I went on once.

Since finding a pair of shears for sale on ebay, I've been able to deduce the original configuration.
The shears have been disassembled, cleaned, repainted, and just waiting to dry to reassemble with a new spring and rubber grip handles. be ready to use just in time for the next mowing and trimming.
I'll post a pic when they're done.

Hmmm... every now and then you get a hint that maybe that collecting bug is getting out of hand.
Bonneymans post had me looking for a box of grass shears, and yes I do have a couple.
The bottom row has neat variations of the mechanical action, all using 2 springs .
The smallest cutter on the top row is marked Village Blacksmith.

Brian

Heh heh George gets bit! Love it!
  And Brian,............ lovely!  Those smallest bypass pruners are really cute! The mechanical trimmers are also really cool. I haven never found a single one that followed me home. I see them sometimes, but everything I see are the later made stamped steel crap-a-riffic types.
  I am always on the lookout for good ones though.

  I guess I have to take the camera out today and show some of my garden tools.
Bout time we had a little respect for garden tools!

Oh, George,  reel mowers you see and try to push today? Are invariably dull.
  And they are made for crap in the first place!
  Reel mowers made in the last 50 years wouldn't have sold in the old days, if you gave them away for free! People knew how to make them once.
A high quality reel mower, that is very sharp? Is pretty not bad.
I pushed one for years.
 
And then I got one with a fabulous --2-- smokin' horsepower Briggs and Stratton on it!  It had to be sharpened fairly frequently (reel mowers need to be sharp and they get dull fairly often).
But man it cut sweet when everything was cookin.
   
  With either kind you have to take off the drive pawl, so it can turn backwards, and then make a crank to turn the reel by hand, and then use valve grind compound.
It takes about 20 minutes hand cranking with the lower blade set for more drag than you would mow with.
  Pretty soon that reel will shine! 
Clean it all up, put it back together, set the drag lightly, oil everything nice, and stand back! hee hehe
      yours Scott

Guess I'm just lucky, Scott. In the desert I don't have much grass to cut. he-he

Here it is, all cleaned up and new rubber "handles" installed.  I redid it like that the moveable blade in green, as there was some evidence of green as found.