Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 06/25/18> There must be a government regulation…
I had been putting off putting new mowing blades on the John Deere riding mower that we have to keep the lawn mowed around the place but it just got to the point that I couldn’t put it off any longer on Sunday. It isn’t a tough job to change the blades by any standard of measuring difficulty; each blade just has one nut and flat washer on the end of the threaded spindle that turns the blade.
One thing that really irks me is when you buy something brand new and you have to fix it before you ever even use it. Am I alone here on that sentiment? Normally I would use terms like being pissed off or feeling like I had been guzbucked but on Sunday it was just something that I have come to expect.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with mowers and the blades on the mowers that actually do the cutting of the blades of grass let me just say there really isn’t much to them. Basically it is a flat piece of steel that spins around and around whacking off the grass at whatever height you have the mower deck set at. There are a few bends in the blades that create a vortex of air that “lifts “ the grass up as it is being cut and then discharges it out an opening to the right hand side of the mower.
The key to mowing the grass is to have blades that are sharp, sharp like a knife; otherwise the blades of grass just end up being torn off and have a ragged edge which from my understanding isn’t real good for the grass. When you mow with dull blades you can see the results of it in a few days because the tips of the blades of grass will end up turning a little yellow or even brown from the tearing and shredding that happens with dull mower blades.
I only use the blades from the local John Deere dealer, I believe in using parts that are engineered for the machine rather than aftermarket parts that “will fit” as they say. Two blades for the mower are right at $37 and I can tell you that this local dealer is making some good margins on the parts they sell to folks. They take the manufactures suggested list price and mark the prices up 15% above suggested price, that isn’t me speculating on this, I have known some people that worked there as sales people and they have told me how they price their parts. Even at the price I wouldn’t have an issue if the damn blades came sharp, but they don’t.
Every time I have to change blades on the mower I have to sharpen the new blades before I even put them on the mower. I am not a happy camper when I have to fix stuff that is brand new out of the box, even if it is just mower blades. It makes me wonder if I am not ordering the blades correctly, maybe I need to specify that I want sharp blades for the mower, not just blades. Of course, I would not think I would have to specify that, but it might just be my own fault for not being up on things if that is the case.
For some reason though I don’t really believe they have both sharp blades and dull blades for sale. I don’t think they would ever have someone come in and ask for a set of dull blades so there must be some other factor in play here that I just haven’t been aware of. The only reason that comes to mind would be the government, I guessing that the good old government probably has some regulation on just how sharp mower blades can be when sold.
Yes, I know that might sound crazy but it beats any other reason I can come up with on why the blades wouldn’t be sharp like they should be to deliver a quality cut. John Deere is a huge company with a good worldwide reputation for quality products, I doubt that they would be selling these blades the way they are if they weren’t being forced to do it.
What took me thirty minutes to do by hand with a file and wet stone could have been done at the factory in a matter of seconds using the same grinder that put the dull edge on the blades just with using a different grinding wheel. If it is in fact some government regulation that keeps them from selling sharp blades it would just go to show that the government really does overstep there bounds and that they don’t have clue when it comes to things like cutting.
If the government thinks that by selling dull mower blades is going to safe some person their fingers or toes if they happen to get in the way of the spinning blades they are sadly mistaken in my opinion. If anything, that regulation would more than likely be doing more harm than good. Those fingers or toes would end up just like the grass blades, torn off and shredded on the ends. Shredded flesh and bone isn’t a pretty sight and sure as hell has to be harder for a surgeon to repair than those that could be taken off in a crisp clean cut.
My oldest boy had an accident with his little brother’s ax last July and it required a trip to the emergency room for some stitches. The attending doctor told him that he was very lucky that the ax he was using was as sharp as it was. The doctor said that his cut on his lower leg looked like it had been made with a surgeon’s scalpel since the skin was so cleanly separated and smoothly cut. He told my boy that most of the cases where an ax is involved the cuts are a jagged mess of torn skin, more like it was torn apart rather then cut. So it isn’t me just saying sharper is better, you have a doctor that is backing me up on this. I even imagine another doctor or two will weigh in on this by the time things are said and done with this daily dose so I look forward to hearing what they might have to say.
In the mean time I am going to call it a night. When I have some free time I think I may just have to look into whether or not my hunch on it being a government regulation is correct. If any of you folks happen to know that a regulation does exist please share it with us if you would. I would surely appreciate it because it would save me some time just having to research it. My gut instincts tells me I’m correct, what do you have to say?
Until next time,
@sultnpapper
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It is much like having a dull kitchen knife, scissors or machete. Yes, I use all three including a mower. I hate it when I have to stop and replace blades or anything that requires me to sharpen first. That is not my forte but should be. I also don't like when you buy something that says some assembly required! Then the box either doesn't send the instructions or it is in a multi-lingual booklet causing you to flip through looking for a language that you can actually read!
I don't mind sharpening things at all but it is aggravating that the blades come so dull, if I put them on without sharpening them I would sure see the tearing of the blades rather than the clipping, because that it how I discovered it years ago. Put brand new blades on it and the cut didn't look any better than with the blades I took off of it, the other blades had been worn pretty good but the finished cut was pretty much the same, not good.
Some assembly required, should also have the disclaimer that a mechanical engineering degree might also be needed to figure the shit out.
Unfortunately, we don't have a mower and we don't need to use it.
Thanks for enlightening me on having sharper blades than using dull ones. This perfectly makes sense based on your eldest's accident.
Well if you ever do get where you need a mower and new blades for it you will know. Just like having sharp knifes for use in the kitchen mower blades should be sharp as well.
Yes, i can apply that to our kitchen knives too. They are quite blunt because they are quite old.. I better change them.
When we owned our home I had the old reel type lawn mower. Those blades were interesting to sharpen! The sharpening kit included a hand crank and a sort of large-grit rubbing compound that you brushed onto the cutting edge as you cranked the blades backwards. It took some practice but once you got the process down in really worked. Afterwards, the mower would probably slice a sheet of paper.
Yes, I am very familiar with back lapping reels and sharpening the bed knifes on reel mowers. I spend some time working at a golf course when I was younger and the course had several reel mowers for cutting the greens that were walk behind models. There really isn't a finer cut that can be done than with a reel mower, and you sure are right about slicing paper, that was one way we check them as we were sharpening the mowers.
The lapping compound you had to be real generous with it and you could hear the "clicks" get fainter and fainter as the blades got sharper. Was this mower you had a push mower with no engine or did it have an engine? I remember as a kid using the push one with no engine for a small little area my mom planted with a special type of grass that needed moved with a reel mower.
This one was a manual model reel mower from a company called Sunlawn. We had a fairly good sized city lot, so it was exercise, but I was okay with that too. As long as the blades were sharp and the cutting height wasn't set too low it wasn't bad at all. I used it for the entire eight years we owned the house.
I just learned a new word.
"guzbucked"
Never heard that one, but I am looking forward to learning more about it. Saving money on not sharpening these blades seems like a remarkably odd move. And I don't think that too many fingers will be saved because of it either.
Yes, guzbucked is not a word you will hear or read very often unless you can time travel to the year 2029, where it is actually a pretty popular cuss word. It pretty much is in lined with the F word, but the people in the detention camps get beaten by the guards if they swear at them, so they created their own cuss words to confuse the authorities.
If you google the word guzbucked I think you can find the story where it first came into existence, i know you can on the US version of google not sure about the versions over in your neck of the woods.
First three results are actually posts made by you.
Seems like you made that word your own.
You are correct, I wrote a story for a contest one time that part of the requirement was to come up with a new cuss word in your story, that is how guzbucked and guzbuck came about. The story setting takes place in the year 2029, if I keep using the word on here more often maybe by 2029 it will in fact be popular by then.
There is a really good chance for that to happen. It has the right amount of "edge" to it's pronunciation to bring across the cussing intentions.
Very interesting. I’m not in charge of the mowing at our house (although I do enjoy mowing lawn) so I decided to search out your question and see what I can find. Here were just some examples I found people gave: “New blades are covered with paint, and that as the paint comes off - the blades will be sharp.”
“Ideally the blade for a rotary mower is sharpened to a 30 degree bevel and then blunted by about 1/64" because a razor edge is not durable. In manufacturing if the blades are milled or stamped or milled stamped and hardened the edge burns away to about what you saw on the new blade.”
“Mulching blades have several different regions. Some are designed for cutting and some are meant to circulate the air for mulching.”
And my favorite, because this would probably happen to me “Homeowners are cutting their hands by installing razor sharp blades.”
Well thank you for doing the searching, so nothing about a government regulation in the USA?
The John Deere blades weren't painted so we can toss that one out.
These blades also aren't the mulching type they are just regular blades but they are designed in such a way that they do create some air to push the debris out the side discharge.
The last one might make the most sense but you would only need to get cut once in order to learn to respect them.
I may just give it a google myself and see what I come up with, but not right now, I've got a pillow that is calling my name and some eyes that want to call an end to the day.
Thanks.
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