Blades Flat Gator blade to replace curved Toro blade?

I've got a Toro Recycler Personal Pace 22" on which I'd like to replace the blade.

I bought a "universal fit" Oregon Gator blade at Wal-Mart but then discovered that the OEM blade has a curved profile which mates up with the adaptor plate on the crankshaft. The Gator blade is flat where it mounts onto the adaptor, so it doesn't mate up as well.

I can still mount it and clamp it to the crankshaft, but will this be a robust enough attachment that it can be trusted? Or do I really need to find a curved replacement blade?

Thank you!

I've got the exact same problem with a Lawn-Boy 10606 mower. The curved factory blade is a model 89963.

Since the factory mulching blade doesn't perform well when bagging grass, I recently bought an Arnold 20" universal super high lift blade to try while bagging. The universal blade is flat unlike the curved factory blade. The universal blade's packaging specifically states it fits Lawn-Boy mowers.

The mower uses this blade adapter (the curved profile can clearly been seen in Amazon's picture). The blade is then sandwiched between the blade adapter and this blade support plate as seen in this video. The blade support plate, factory blade, and blade adapter are all curved to match each other.

Also, the universal blade's installation instructions (see attached image below) say to remove the blade adapter and bolt the blade to the crankshaft using what they call the included adapter, which is really just an insert to make the star-shaped hole in the blade round. The problem with that is the self-propelled drive belt pulley and shear key are integrated into the factory blade adapter.



Is it advisable to use this flat universal blade with this mower at all? If so, what would be the best way? Obviously, the factory blade adapter will have to be used, but it could probably be mounted without or without the blade support.

Alternatively, is it possible that a flat blade adapter (with integrated pulley) exists that would fit this mower and better accommodate a flat blade?

Thanks for your help!

I think I just answered my own question.

The universal blade's instructions say it's not for use on mowers equipped with Atomic blades. Lo and behold, stamped on my factory blade is "ATOMIC BLADE." I wish Sears could have included this on their site so I would have maybe checked this before ordering the blade. :thumbdown:

Maybe this revelation will help the OP or anyone else who ends up here via a Google search like I did.

So, am I stuck with the factory blade, or is there a compatible true high-lift blade available? I see that Lawn-Boy has a 21" (I need a 20") blade they claim is high lift, but it looks like the same design as my factory blade, and this Amazon review says it's not really a high-lift blade.

Edit: This blade looks like it might work...

The toro atomic blade is the equivalent to the gator blades. My personal experience with them is out standing. With my old personal pace 21" was good at mulching a little bad at bagging but dealable. My old toro 20" Honda clone was a masterpiece for mulching bagging was very good. And on my new commercial 21" with kawi. Is very good at mulching but useless when it comes to bagging.

I personally don't like "universal blades" with speciality blade mounts the mower wasn't designed to use a blade with an adapter. I say keep oem