Adjustable guard assembly for a sickle knife

A crop cutting apparatus comprising:

• a forwardly facing support bar extending across a width of the apparatus carried for movement across the ground in a forward movement for cutting a standing crop, the support bar having an upper surface and a lower surface;
• a knife arrangement for reciprocating movement along the support bar including a plurality of blades thereon;
• a plurality of upper knife guards and a corresponding plurality of lower knife guards arranged in cooperating pairs and mounted above and below the support bar respectively;
• each pair of upper and lower knife guards including at least two fingers extending forwardly from the support bar so that each finger of the upper knife guard overlies a corresponding finger of the lower knife guard to define a channel therebetween across the front of the support bar in which the knife arrangement reciprocates, a width of the channel between the fingers of the upper knife guard and the lower knife guard being adjustable;
• each of the plurality of upper knife guards comprising a transverse bar holding said at least two fingers thereof as a rigid integral structure for common adjustment movement;
• each of said plurality of lower knife guards being clamped to said lower surface of the support bar by a respective pair of hold down screw fasteners spaced longitudinally of the support bar and lying on a transverse line along the support bar;
• a compressible resilient pad located between an under surface of the respective one of the plurality of upper knife guards and the upper surface of the support bar;
• said respective pair of hold down screw fasteners passing through the respective one of said plurality of lower knife guards, through the support bar and through the respective one of said plurality of upper knife guards to clamp the respective one of the plurality of lower knife guards to the lower surface of the support bar and to apply forces pulling the respective one of the plurality of upper knife guards toward the upper surface of the support bar and apply forces in a direction to apply compression to the compressible resilient pad located between the under surface of the respective one of the plurality of upper knife guards and the upper surface of the support bar;
• and at least one adjustment screw engaged between said respective one of the plurality of upper knife guards and the support bar on a rearward side of the transverse line opposite to said forwardly extending fingers;
• said at least one adjustment screw being adjustable to change the spacing between the under surface of the respective one of the plurality of upper knife guards and the support bar at said at least one adjustment screw so as to adjust the width of the channel on a side of the transverse line opposite to the adjustment screw by increasing or decreasing an amount of compression of the compressible resilient pad;
• wherein the compressible resilient pad includes a bar extending along the support bar on the side of the transverse line opposite to the adjustment screw;
• and wherein the bar of the compressible resilient pad terminates at the transverse line.