Best brand of mower blades

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Jul 27, 2006
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Southwest Virginia
I am replacing the blades on my three lawn tractors (Husqvarna 48", Craftsman 52", and Scag Turf Tiger 61"). I have two houses and cut 1-2 acres at each. In the past I just bought whatever Home Depot or Walmart had available, but now I would like to use better blades. I bag the grass with two of the tractors and side chute with the Scag, so I want standard high lift blades and do not need mulching or Gator blades. I know the Scag blades claim to be made of a harder steel, but have also read complaints about chipping as opposed to denting if they hit stones. Small dents I can grind out but chips are a throw away, and they cost twice as much as most other brands.

Is any particular brand known for making better blades, as in longer lasting? And are there any brands I should steer away from?
 
Originally Posted by Kira
A) I don't know.
B) This topic came up recently and a slew of people banged the drum for Oregon blades.


Thanks. Yes I saw that, but it seemed all of the praise was for their Gator blades, i.e. the style of blade rather than the quality of blade.
 
Originally Posted by Tom NJ
Originally Posted by Kira
A) I don't know.
B) This topic came up recently and a slew of people banged the drum for Oregon blades.


Thanks. Yes I saw that, but it seemed all of the praise was for their Gator blades, i.e. the style of blade rather than the quality of blade.


I know you don't want gator, but;
The oregon gator blade, the fusion series g5 and g6( g3 is not fusion) has a hard tungsten carbide coating. It holds up better. I use the oregon blades fall and spring for leaves, small sticks. During the summer i use the standard toro blades as they cut a 1/2 higher than the offset gator blades.

The toro blades are pretty hard compared to generic blades, but not as tough as the fusion.

https://www.oregonproducts.com/en/p...tor-mulching-blades/c/g6-mulchingblade-p

You might want to try the gator and not bag. Really fine clippings,
 
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Let me tell you what to look for as my clients are like IKS, Simonds, USA Mower Blades and Whirltronics and I have done a good bit of industrial knives and machine tooling over the years.

Plus I am brand and vendor neutral as a matter of policy.

You can get as worthless or as strong a blade as you can afford and spend all over the place but pay attention to the basics.

First you need to know what you are cutting ( just grass, grass and a lot of dirt, grass and shrubs or hard obstructions)

First is the steel- is it generic high or low carbon or tool steel? ( for grass either but the more punishment the stronger you need)

I didn't do much with the other exotic metals on blades so cant speak from experience.

Heat treatment- don't buy the hype. I can "heat treat" a hotdog bun and make it "hard" but more on that in a sec. That along doesn't get you much and is often used to camouflage inferior steels.

Then comes the biggie- is this stamped, machined or forged?

Any metal soft enough to be stamped and rough ground is going to be weak no matter if they harden it to a diamond and put a razor edge on it- it wont last. They can have grooves or coatings like carbide to put lipstick on the pig but the soft underbelly will still give it a short life and its weak.

Next item is tool steel and machined blades- same everything but the base metal will go a long way in preserving those attributes.

Forging ( hot or cold) that's compressing metal into billets- that's the apex blade because of its density. You could probably chew through an M-1 Abrams with that one.

Basically the process for all is the same once the base metal is formed and that sets the stage for the rest.

Look at what the blade is made from and how its made relative to your applications
 
Oregon Gator blades, best quality and cut I've seen. My grandfather uses them on a Scag zero-turn to mow his field, they are basically used for brush mowing, and still hold up well.
 
Originally Posted by ABN_CBT_ENGR
Let me tell you what to look for as my clients are like IKS, Simonds, USA Mower Blades and Whirltronics and I have done a good bit of industrial knives and machine tooling over the years.

Plus I am brand and vendor neutral as a matter of policy.

You can get as worthless or as strong a blade as you can afford and spend all over the place but pay attention to the basics.

First you need to know what you are cutting ( just grass, grass and a lot of dirt, grass and shrubs or hard obstructions)

First is the steel- is it generic high or low carbon or tool steel? ( for grass either but the more punishment the stronger you need)

I didn't do much with the other exotic metals on blades so cant speak from experience.

Heat treatment- don't buy the hype. I can "heat treat" a hotdog bun and make it "hard" but more on that in a sec. That along doesn't get you much and is often used to camouflage inferior steels.

Then comes the biggie- is this stamped, machined or forged?

Any metal soft enough to be stamped and rough ground is going to be weak no matter if they harden it to a diamond and put a razor edge on it- it wont last. They can have grooves or coatings like carbide to put lipstick on the pig but the soft underbelly will still give it a short life and its weak.

Next item is tool steel and machined blades- same everything but the base metal will go a long way in preserving those attributes.

Forging ( hot or cold) that's compressing metal into billets- that's the apex blade because of its density. You could probably chew through an M-1 Abrams with that one.

Basically the process for all is the same once the base metal is formed and that sets the stage for the rest.

Look at what the blade is made from and how its made relative to your applications



All that verbiage, and yet no blade recommendation for the OP.
 
Originally Posted by spasm3


Plus I am brand and vendor neutral as a matter of policy.



All that verbiage, and yet no blade recommendation for the OP.
 
Originally Posted by ABN_CBT_ENGR
Originally Posted by spasm3


Plus I am brand and vendor neutral as a matter of policy.



All that verbiage, and yet no blade recommendation for the OP.



Please correct your quote. The brand and vendor neutal phrase is not my statement.
 
I had a Craftsman 52 and had very good results using Rotary Copperhead blades. They cut better and lasted longer than the Oregon blades I used to use. I prefer standard lift blades. Never seemed to get a good quality cut with the "gator" style mulching blades on my mower.
 
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Sunbelt blades. Got a set of my Allis 611 on the 3rd season and still have a great edge. Haven't had to sharpen them yet.
 
Originally Posted by spasm3
You might want to try the gator and not bag. Really fine clippings,


That makes sense for my Husqvarna as I intend to stop bagging the clippings. Do the Gator blades have as much lift as the standard high-lift blades? I will not be side chuting, but rather chuting up half of the bagging chute to throw the clippings over my shoulder. Spreads the clippings over a broader area and lets me run faster without clogging.

For the Craftsman, I need the grass clippings from the first 4-5 mowings to mulch my vegetable garden, then I switch to the Scag.
 
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This is ridiculous. Just about any brand will do fine. Pick the style you need, regular vs mulching.

No, chips are not throw away. Think about how a blade works, spinning around. The only thing you need to do besides sharpening is make sure they are balanced which just means take more off the side that isn't chipped.

Blades last the life of the mower unless you are deliberately trying to hit rocks like it's a game.
 
Originally Posted by ABN_CBT_ENGR


First you need to know what you are cutting ( just grass, grass and a lot of dirt, grass and shrubs or hard obstructions)

First is the steel- is it generic high or low carbon or tool steel? ( for grass either but the more punishment the stronger you need)

Then comes the biggie- is this stamped, machined or forged?

Look at what the blade is made from and how its made relative to your applications


Good information, but unfortunately none of the blades I looked at online tell me if the blades are stamped, machined, or forged. I'll be looking for that information now.

I am mostly cutting just grass, but inevitably will always hit some sticks, small stones or gravel, and kick up a little dust if the ground is very dry.
 
MARBAIN blades. They have a patented process for hardening the steel. They came on my new Ferris ZT. I've mowed 62 hrs without sharpening and they are still making clean cuts. They cost more but are worth it IMO.
 
For aftermarket I like Oregon, I use Gator blades on my riding mower and OEM on my Honda walk behind. OEM because from what I can find that is the only type available otherwise I'd try a Gator on it. I don't know what steel they use but their blades seem good.
There are more aftermarket brands than there are blade manufacturers. The better brands are using something like 10B38 in their blades but as a consumer you don't know.
 
After years of regular blades I switched to Gator Blades. They are awesome! I have hit rocks and pipes with them and grind up sticks almost the diameter of a hot dog. At the end of the season I take them off and am always amazed at how good they still look. Still sharp and hardly a nick. And as a bonus, they super grind up the clippings and I never have to rake up the clippings nor do I have windrows that were so common with the regular blades.
 
For grass cutting performance, I haven't found the gator blades to be better than the OEM blade - in fact on my Toro super recycler, they are worse. They do seem to mulch heavy leaves a bit better, maybe. On my old Craftsman 42" lawn tractor, I've found no blade that actually mulches grass well.

I have bought the Oregon OEM style blades for the lawn tractor - no difference in performance, but they're clearly more stout than the ones I bought from Sears.
 
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