Hi SBM45, I went through the new reel saga a while back and found it hard to source a decent original 6 blade reel for the 17", at least one with minimal damage. I found the easiest thing to do was buy a new one but getting a new 6 blade is almost impossible. You can get 8 blade reels on eBay but i found a brilliant reel mower bloke in brisneyland and bought a 10 blade off him. I paid $320 for mine.
