In a sickle cutting apparatus including a row of stationary knife guards and a sickle bar with a row of knife blades for reciprocating movement mounted thereon, each of the knife blades is simply removable from the sickle bar for replacement by mounting a rear plate portion on the sickle bar where each of the rear plate portions has a pair of holes bolted to mating holes in the bar and each hole in the blade is connected to an associated slot extending rearwardly in the rear plate portion from the hole to a rear edge. In this way the knife blade can be pulled forwardly by loosening the bolt and sliding the bolt along the slot until the blade is released. A circular counter-bore in the blade receives a nut when tightened to hold the blade in place. The system can be used with pointed guards or stub guards.
