A sickle cutting apparatus includes a plurality of triple finger knife guards which are arranged side by side along the cutter bar to cooperate with a reciprocating sickle bar carrying a row of double blade knife sections and a set of hold-down members carrying hold-down fingers. The hold-down members are arranged alternately as a single finger and double finger with each hold-down member being connected to the cutter bar in association with a respective triple guard. In this way the hold-down fingers are arranged at alternate guard fingers leaving the intervening guard fingers open. The system includes both pointed guards with no tang and stub guard so that the user can select either to be used with the hold-downs. The hold down fingers are all individually adjustable so that the double hold-down have two adjustment screws which can be individually operated causing flexing of the bridge between the double fingers.