Sounds to me you are right on track with your assumption, sounds like the Craftsman blade is more of a mulching blade than the ordinary Toro mower blade. Although, are the blades equally sharp? How much material is left on each one?

Does the Toro also have a mulching "fan" which they call an accelerator?

Yes, I sharpened both blades. Without quantifying the amount of grass left behind, the Toro leaves more grass on each side of the mower creating two "lines" of cut grass. Now the amount is not enough for me to want to go over these grass piles to recut them, but certainly the amount is more noticeable than when I use the Craftsman. Well, perhaps this observation supports the idea that a blade designed for mulching does a better job than one that is not, regardless of the maker of the mower, engine, etc. I'm just happy that I don't need to use a push mower all the time!

Blaise, the Toro blade is flat with the two upturned wing tips at the trailing edges on each side. The underside of the deck has the two black wedges which supposed to help in "kicking" the grass back down into the blades. Is there a better mulching blade available?

reed, the Toro deck should have 3 wedges plus there is supposed to be a separate accelerator that "nests" on the blade.

The accelerator is number 18 in the diagram in this link:
https://lookup2.toro.com/partdex/index.cfm?xCaller=Toro

Sorry, let's try that link again:

Here is a link that might be useful: Toro accelerator

Oops! That didn't work either. Oh well, if you enter model no. 20442 and look up "accelerator" you'll see what I'm talking about. I assume you didn't buy the Toro new because somewhere along the line it's been removed.

Ahh yes, so that's what you call it! I did buy it new and yup, I have the accelerator. And there are two "kicker plates" on the underside that are opposite one another. Pretty sure there's not supposed to be a third one. The Toro model is 20010, 1999 year.

Hey how about that, only 2 kickers on a 20010. Well I learned something new today since I assumed all Toros with kickers had 3. Anyway, back to the accelerator. If you were mowing with it installed, then I can offer no explanation for the Toro being "out-mulched" by a Crapsman!lol

There are sooooo many types of Craftsman mowers I find it hard to believe they are all crap. Of course finding the right one could be difficult I guess....

andrelaplume2 says "Of course finding the right one could be difficult I guess...."

Yeah, like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack!:)

Hey, then I found the "needle"....ouch!

My 20017 has the Atomic blade.....is that what you all are talking about? Will order a Gator blade for this fall to mulch tons of leaves.

Eagleman, my Toro has the standard blade. How different is the Atomic blade compared to the Gator blade?

The 20010 was a Recycler which does not have as good a mulching system as the Toro Super Recyclers. I have a 20054 1 yr old Super and it's does an excellent job of mulching. I never see anything left behind.

Craftsman does offer high(er) quality mowers, but they aren't found in the $249 range.

Up until a coupla years ago, both Recyclers and SR's had virtually the same mulching system. You might think that the aluminum deck SR's would mulch better than steel deck Recyclers but my 20442 Recycler actually performed better than the 20042 SR that my dad used to have. The SR deck was more difficult to clean, too, 'cause it had more nooks and crannies.