Hi MF,
Please don't take this the wrong way, but there is a bit of misconception that cylinder mowers are purely for manicured lawns only and that these mowers turn weeds into golf courses, well that's so far from the truth it's not funny. One must remember that the cylinder mower was around long before the rotary and was the norm (sorry Norm) in mowing grass.
My father in law bought a Model 45 back in 1973 purely to mow his large Buffalo lawn in the back yard in Cheltenham SA, now anyone who knows this suburb will know how large the blocks are there and will realise that a self propelled mower was the best option and there weren't many rotaries back then that were SP.
The trick to Buffalo is, not to let it get too thick and spongy, which is what many Sir Walter owners seem to do thinking they might ruin it by cutting it down every few years. It's just another self rejuvenation species that you can't kill, same as Kikuyu.
Now the reasoning behind using cylinder cut machines opposed to rotaries is that the cutting action is far more finely controlled as you are cutting like a pair of scissors opposed to slashing with a fast moving scythe.
I hope that this clarifies the generalised misconceived views on cylinder mowers.
Cheers,
BB.
