What’s your view?

Reel Thoughts on Relief

Brad Erikson, golf course superintendent at the Richland Country Club in Tennessee, and Bob Quaif, equipment technician at the Country Club of Troy in New York, share their thoughts and practices in regards to relief... 

Bob Quaif

“We had been relief grinding for years until I got my Express Dual. After excellent tutoring and tips from both Stephen Bernhard and Tom Hurst, spinning is all I do these days. The quality and consistency of the cut is beyond anything we ever experienced in the past.

In some instances, when my reels are cutting O.K., but I want them better, I can spin 5 fairway reels and face the bedknives in about 2 hours. You can’t do that relief grinding and backlapping!!! I don't have that many years left at this, but during the time I do, I won’t do it any other way. I still have the ol’ backlapper, but it collects a lot of dust these days.”

Brad Erikson

“I echo Bob’s sentiments about Express Dual. One of the questions you have to ask yourself is: What is relief and why is it needed? Relief was exactly that; relief for the horses pulling around cutting units. The reduction of contact on the reel to bedknife point gave the horse’s longer life and allowed them to cut longer with less stress.

Now let’s think of our current situation. Manufacturers are sending us brand new cutting units with some “relief” ground in the reel. They recommend a certain relief every time the units are sharpened, to again, take some pressure off the unit and machine.

This may be well and good: if you run contact on your reels. If you run contact, you need relief. We are firm believers that you send a unit out the door every day perfectly sharp with absolutely no contact. We do not backlap whatsoever. We spin grind our reels and bedknives whenever they are not cutting a piece of paper (.03"). Our count of units sharpened last year was at 678.

Quite a lot of sharpening, but remember, we are not putting aggressive grinds on these units, just touching them up to a perfect sharpness. It assures we are doing the best we can for our grass, and the best we can for our machines by NOT running contact. In the words of Stephen Bernhard, we are running “100% relief - no contact”. By the way, we are bentgrass greens and Zoysia fairways and tees. (Zoysia is very hard on units).”

Feedback - Everyone has an opinion on relief... What’s your view?

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