sharpening a plow

I am going to try and pull a old Dearborn 2 bottom 16 inch plow to turn under an old grass pasture with a 8n Ford. I have the draft control properly adjusted and loaded tires. Soil is sandy silt loam, no clay. Is it worth my time to try and sharpen the cutting edges of the shins and shares with a grinder? Should I disc the grass first? This will be my first experience plowing, hope I have enough power to pull it.

2 16's is a lot of plow for an 8n. Our's has all it can handle with 2 12's. I've never heard of anyone sharpening the cutting edges like that. Plow parts are too expensive to just go grinding away good steel like that, and it won't make any difference. The oldtimers used to reform the old cast shares in a forge when they wore down to get them to suck into the ground again. If you want to do a neat job in heavy sod, you'll need a set of properly adjusted coulters on your plow. I love the 8N's but don't expect to be able to go too deep with 16's.

that sand will sharpen em just fine...good luck pullin both bottoms...thats good thing about Dearborns...you can remove a bottom if need be.

Don't grind on the moldboards as it won't help and they are too expensive to just end up ruining them. For a first timer at plowing, make sure your coulters are running about 1/2" -1" to the "left" of the landsides so you get a nice vertical furrow wall (stand behind the plow and look at the tractor, then you will know "left"). Plow 30-50 feet, get off and look to see how coulters are trailing. Adjust, then plow a few feet, and recheck. The furrow wall should be nice and vertical...not half torn up. Run the coulter hubs at least 3-4" above the soil so they don't drag into the soil. Since the tractor will have the right wheels in the furrow it will not be level, so be sure your plow IS running level. If the moldboards do not scour just keep going for a while. You might want to scrape them clean and then start in again. You do enough plowing the moldboards should be scouring nicely and shine real nice. After plowing a short ways, just get off and look the plow all over. Plowing is fun when things are set right. Not fun when things are not set right.
LA in WI

Sharpening a plow never heard of such a thing as in it is not done. As for the size a 2X16 is going to be all if not more then that 8N will want. Shoot I pull a 2-16 with my 841 and it is almost twice the tractor and 8N is and that plow makes my 841 sit up and take notice and some times even makes the old girl bark. I think you need to maybe find a 2-12 but if you are in real sandy soil you might be ok if you do not try to plow to china with it

Dearborn plows only a few models can a bottom be removed.

Jeff has it right. I have some old USDA brochures from the 1940"s and one of them details the steps for sharpening shares using a hammer, anvil and forge. They need to be heated and hammered into shape to get the right shape and amount of plow suck.

I'd never heard of it all the while I was growing up and actually plowing year in and year out,but we used Oliver Raydex bottoms. I guess that was the selling point of the Raydex bottoms to begin with was that they didn't need to be sharpened. Sharpening goes back to the old horsedrawn plows and the Syracuse bottoms.

Matt,
As long as the plow will enter the ground quickly (i.e., doesn"t slide along the surface)the points are probably good enough to work with.
I recommend that you get a copy of the original operator"s manual for your 8N (e.g.,#3729-49H). Section 4 explains how to set up your plow and sharpen a plow share. One of the most important issues is the amount of ground suction or "Suck" you have on the point. The trick is to have enough without having too much.
A few years ago I found a Blacksmith in Manilla, IN, that sharpened a couple of sets of shares for me and he did a great job. I don"t know if he is still in business. New shares are available but they are expensive.

I wouldn"t cut or disk the grass before you plow. It will turn under better if it"s rooted to the ground.

Good luck,

Art

If you have the throw away lays, you can sharpen them by grinding on the bottom edge only until you end up with a sharp edge. I did this on an Oliver 565 semi-mounted plow that was not set up correctly. The hitch points on the plow were too low and the plow would not go into the ground unless the shares were really sharp. I ended up raising the hitch points on the plow. From then on the plow would go into the ground even when the shares were completely worn out.

(quoted from post at 02:15:00 02/10/10) I am going to try and pull a old Dearborn 2 bottom 16 inch plow to turn under an old grass pasture with a 8n Ford. I have the draft control properly adjusted and loaded tires. Soil is sandy silt loam, no clay. Is it worth my time to try and sharpen the cutting edges of the shins and shares with a grinder? Should I disc the grass first? This will be my first experience plowing, hope I have enough power to pull it.

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You [i:7f8fd56302]can[/i:7f8fd56302] sharpen both throw-away lays and blacksmith shares with an angle grinder. I don't know what it takes to keep a cast iron share going. They were an eastern thing and I have no experience with them. Grandpa commonly ground on the shares to keep them going between trips to the blacksmith. A share could have enough suck to dig down to china, but if there is a sled runner, the plow won't even go in the ground.

First off, don't grind on the shin, just the cutting edge of the share. As the share wears, it will develop a "sled runner". It will be more obvious once you have the plow in the ground and things get shiny. You will see the edge that actually does the cutting, and the sled runner will be the shiny metal underneath the cutting edge that is riding the plow out of the ground. What I do is begin grinding a quarter to half inch away from the cutting edge on the back side of the share, and grind until the cutting edge becomes sharp. It doesn't need to be razor sharp, that will be too fragile. What you are doing is creating suction on a micro scale (within 3/4 inch from the cutting edge). "Suction" that manuals talk about is on a macro scale. You can look down from the end of the landside to the point of the share. If the is any amount of suck, you're good to go. You don't need much at all.
Now sometimes the sledrunner under the point of a blacksmith share will require way too much grinding. In that case, the point will have to be bent down.
Sharp coulters are always a good thing. And I wouldn't do any discing or tillage prior to plowing. Cleaning the rust off the moldboards will help also.

Thanks to all for your advice, much appreciated by this rookie

Good news for me is my plow is 2-14s, which should be easier to pull than 16s. I have no coulters, the grass was bailed late last fall and is short.

Youi said: "I have no coulters, the grass was bailed late last fall and is short."
Hight of the grass has nothing to do with needing colters. The colters are to cut the "sod", the roots fot he grass underground to make it turn over without tearing and looking really ragged. Good colters, properly set will also reduce your HP requirements which you need to do with an 8N. Tom

Is there a blacksmith shop near you?

Years ago I had an 8N and a Dearborn 2/12 plow. It did fine plowing really tough clay and sod with no loaded tires or weights. You should have no problem in that soil. Never worried about sharpening the shears but I sure would get the coulters as the other guy says.

Ken, is there any chance that you could scan and email me a copy of the brochure detailing the sharpening using an anvil and forge? I can remember when we did all of our plowing with a 9N every so often my dad would take the shares to a blacksmith.

It helps to have the manual when setting up a plow. Watch to see that the plow is pulling straight behind and not pulling the tractor to one side. You can compensate some for this by adjusting the leveling arm. The top link also has to be the correct length.

Hi Mattcatlin: I have pictures of using a 2-14 "Dearborn" plow in SOD and can tell you what problems you are headed for. I'll add that I think your odds are poor with that brand/model of plow. It might not be a model designed to "roll over" sod as well as other brands to start with...
I added Email so send me your email for pictures... or I guess it's about time for me to learn to include pictures in a public post? ag

Do you by chance have the USDA article scaned or photocopied, i would like to learn more about sharpening plow shears. The local smith in my area has passed away and many of us that used him would like to learn how.

I didn't know you could sharpen them, we always just bought new points for our John Deere plows.