I think the PQ stands for Pensilvania Quality. It was patented in 1918. As you can see, there is a spot of color on it (green) kind of a lime green color. Once this is sand blasted and the rust taken off, it will be heat treated and then painted the same lime green color it originally had.
This is the rusted six-blade of the push mower. Most of them had either 4-5 blades, this one has six, which makes it a bit better at cutting grass. It's also not as *heavy* as the steel ones. Also interesting is that it had '3' wooden rollers. Normally this was either one large roller or a rubber based one.
Note the 'Meteor" logo on the aluminum wheels. Most of the Masport Meteor push mowers had the name "Masport Meteor" on the wheels, but this one just has 'Meteor' on it.
Why this is uncommon is that Aluminum wheels were not the norm, rather they were rare because steel was much more readily available, and aluminum was used in aircraft construction at the time and was more expensive that steel.
Well, the other day I was walking around, saw a sign in front of a house for items on the sidewalk that said "Free". So... being the inquisitive one that I am, I took a gander at the items that were being offered for "Free"...
I like free. Most stuff that people throw out can easily be reconditioned to be put back into service for a nominal fee and it's perfectly good again.
One particular item immediatelly caught my attention. It was an old antique push mower. On the handle, it had "PQ" and "PAT1918" and on the the wheels it had "Meteor". In the center of the wheels the washer had "Pensilvania" on it.
Normally I see these old push mowers, they are made out of steel, not aluminum. The kind of aluminum on this was considered Aircraft grade aluminum, and worthy of a good project to take on. So I took my new "free" item and wheeled it away.
Cleaning it up, I was able to uncover some additional information on this particular hand mower. It's a "Masport Meteor hand mower" made around 1920.
They made several models, most of them out of steel, but this one in particular was made out of Aluminum. It was one of the 'better' ones for sure, but like every *antique* this one had fallen into disrepair due to neglect. So the six-blade cutters were rusted, and safe to say, it just wasn't looking too good.
The cutting blades are all rusted, along with what is called 'The scraper' which is what the blades pass by as they are cutting the grass with. That's rusted too. Not *too* badly, but as with everything, it has some wear and tear on it.
So - took it all apart, a lot of the old bolts were just plain rusted solid, so had to cut them off with my dremel tool. Then - did some additional work on pulling off the handles and the rest of of the connectors and parts.
Soon they will all be sent down to get sand blasted to get the rust off and then I will of course get them heated up and apply some black paint to the metal parts. The Aluminum will get shined up with some aluminum polish - which will make it look nicer.
When all is said and done, parts have been de-rusted, and aluminum has been shined up, paint applied and new bolts in place, along with new bearings for the wheels, its going to be a nice push mower for sure. There is a place down the block from my house that sharpens the blades on these old mowers.
However - the price isn't cheap. It's $50 to sharpen the blades and the scraper. My new *free* antique push mower just jumped up in price... but oh well...
I can probably do it myself, and this might actually be the way to go since allt hey do is run a grinder along the face of the blades. I can do this and save myself the time and money on that item, all you really need is a square face for the blades against the scraper blade and you are set.
The rest of the restoration is really just a lot of polishing and rust removal. One item might need to be custom fabricated, and that's one of the bearings for the wheels which made it kind of wobbly. One wheel has a working one which I can have my brother replicate it at his metal shop.
Once he does that, I can replace both of them with replicated versions and keep the original as a spare part.
My friend G.P. asked me why spend all the time restoring an antique mower that if I had to buy it would only fetch $99 to $150 if someone was selling it.
Well - its not so much that its only worth $99 - $150, but that it's a piece of history and I really wanted an old push mower anyways. I've been looking for one for about a year now, and I like the way those old things worked. I have an electric edger and weed wacker which I love, but I like pushing the old lawn mowers. Plus - nowadays going *green* is a good thing. No electricity or gas to make it go, just good old fashioned "muscle" and "elbow grease" to get the job done.
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