sharpening sickle blades

NHbalerman · Jun 24, 2017

How do you big combine operators sharpen the sickle on a combine or do yall just put a new one in and change guards it seems that wheat or soybeans would be hard on a sickle,Im used to cutting grass hay and was just curious.

oliverkid · Jun 24, 2017

Blades on combine bars are generally deep serrated self sharpening so you never touch them. Only time they get touched is if they bend or get broken but heck, I run Carry bolt on sickle sections on my machine and those tings are so tough I think ive only ever actually managed to break one sickle. Ive bent a couple but most of the time the guard snaps before the sickle goes. They make some rock solid aftermarket sickles these days.

notjustair · Jun 24, 2017

I use the serrated ones. At the first sign of the serrations getting rounded (especially in wheat) I replace the sickle section. This year I only have 170 acres of wheat so I checked each section before I started and then will run until I am done. With beans I check before and every few days, but it's a lot more acres. I don't replace guards unless they get bent or the slot gets so worn that it allows lots of movement. I recycle sections and guards that lots of you would probably run for years to come, but I HATE skips in the field and have NO time for breakdowns.

RBoots · Jun 30, 2017

We just replace the sections every year on both combines. They aren't terribly expensive, and we don't want shatter loss from dull sections. Our problem is small rocks. We have really good soil and our soys have pods right down to the ground. With the floating cutter bar on both our Gleaners, the guards tend to scratch up the 1-2" rocks all over the surface. Real hard on the sections, so we just replace em.

sharpening sickle blades

NHbalerman

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oliverkid

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notjustair

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RBoots

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