Bush hog blade angle

Charles in Aus. · Jul 2, 2014

My bush hog's blade is fairly blunt , abused by years of neglect by a previous owner . It is a great big heavy one piece blade with plenty of meat left , almost impossible to buy a new one ; the hog is over forty years old .
Question is what angle is best to grind the cutting edge in terms of durability and performance ? The ' grass ' we have here is more like brush , tough woody and prickly .

Anonymous-0 · Jul 2, 2014

The steeper the better, in my book. I first grind the blade square,
to remove dings and nicks, then grind about a 15 degree angle,
leaving a 1/16 flat edge on the bottom...

Charles in Aus. · Jul 2, 2014

Thanks Dave , I will give it a go .

Geo-TH,In · Jul 2, 2014

I use a 10 inch grinder to get a factory angle on
2 ft finish mower blade. One pass gets the prefect
factory angle. Not sure about a bush hog.

A man told he couldn't get blades for his old bush
hog so he welded up his blade and ground it down.

I recently discovered my RM660 woods mower has two
different blade lengths one is 3/8 inch longer
than the ones I had on my mower. The ends of my
old blades were rounded and very dull.

So I ordered new blades, but while waiting, I
welded up old blades with mig, made them 3/16
longer on each end, ground them down, balanced,
and they work prefectly. Not sure how long they
will last, but welding may be your only choice is
you can't buy new. Don't use a stick welder, use a
mig. My mig doesn't get things that hot. I did a
little at a time so I didn't get blade too hot.
George

John A. · Jul 2, 2014

Charles, Many yrs ago I had gotten an old JD shredder I was cleaning on my home place what had never been shredded on that I knew of when I was a Kid. Lost of Brush, small trees, + grass and lots & lots of Broom Weeds and Lots of rock! too, very tough! I put a set of New blades on it, Ground them back just a little them Hard Faced them, Dressed the Hard facing a little and they wore very little, even when hitting rocks and eating sm trees, and brush.
So consider Hard-facing your blades after you redress them!
Hope this helps.
Later,
John A.

Jim Wiggin · Jul 2, 2014

Well, almost any angle will do. It all comes down to horse power and how good (smooth) a cut you want. A blunt blade will work but will use more HP than one with an angle and will leave somewhat of a rough cut. Just went out and checked a pair of new blades for my woods cutter and the angle was about 60 degrees. I usually grind them even more the first time I sharpen them. But I do so because I"m cutting thick hay with a 5 foot bush hog powered by an Allis B so I"m underpowered. I sharpen frequently which decreases my blade life but it works best for me. As for smoothness a sharp blade cuts a dull blade beats. sometimes when I"m cutting brush and I want it to die I blunt the edge of the blade. The cutter then shreds the bush rather than a clean cut. The brush usually then dies. I do not believe that holds true for grass. I have welded up a few blades but unless I used hard surfacing wire I found them too soft for my needs. I have a fair number of rocks so I"m hard on blades. Good luck.

MF294-4 · Jul 2, 2014

My Dad used to take them to a blacksmith and he would heat them up and beat them out. Didn't grind away any metal. Check around the narrow part at the pins. We had one break at the pin once and went through the back tire of course.

Charles in Aus. · Jul 2, 2014

Thank you all gentlemen , good advice all round . A bush hog is called a ' slasher ' down here , new ones are almost all from China and made from some type of heavy tin foil !
The possibility of fixing this one to work again is really heartening . I use it behind my restored Ferguson TEA20 and Ferguson FE35 Grey and Gold tractors .
I will try the hard face , sounds like the right stuff . MF 294-4 , thanks for the warning , I wouldn't want a pound or two of tempered steel flying about at those speeds .

Anonymous-0 · Jul 4, 2014

I would not hardface a mower blade. The steel is
hardened to begin with and welding will cause it to
be extremely brittle. You don't want shards of metal
flying out at 8000 ft/minute.

Geo-TH,In · Jul 5, 2014

Stick welding,
Couldn't you get the weld hot, let it cool slowly and remove the brittleness?

I saw a demo where a guy did this with a spring. He heated it, allowed it to cool slowly and could bend it. On the other hand he heated a spring and dipped it water, cooling it real fast, it was extremely brittle?

I've never heat treated a mower blade, but have welded one up before with a mig. Welded it a little at a time, let it cool.

So far, weld is holding. Done this on a woods rear and woods belly mower where I think the tip velocity of blades is well over 90 mph, 8000 ft/min. I would not recommend doing what I've done with any other mower, but the woods deck is extremely heavy duty and far away from me.

So how does heat treating work?
George

wilson ind · Jul 6, 2014

Are you guys talking about any type of BRUSH cutter
or a real BUSH HOG. There is a real difference. On
interent search for blades and you can find blades
of most any configration, size by length and
thickness. Also offset and holr size. Rather well
priced I might add. Not to be pickey but Bush Hog is
a brand name. Like calling all tractors John Deeres.

Bush hog blade angle

Charles in Aus.

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Anonymous-0

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Charles in Aus.

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Geo-TH,In

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John A.

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Jim Wiggin

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MF294-4

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Charles in Aus.

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