sharpen tiller blades ?

Troy Pony garden tiller, that is...
My blades (tines) are really dull. Common sense says the tiller would work better if they were sharper.

Any reason NOT to sharpen them?

How sharp is "just right" for something running in the dirt ?

I used to own a Troybilt Horse. Thought the blades were really dull, so I sharpened them. Didn't make much, if any difference.

Or are they REALLY worn down and actually need replaced ?

I have wondered about that for years. Part of the purpose is to pulverize clods, not just make slices.
I didn't sharpen them for that reason.

I've got 3 ft. tiller on the back of a wheel Horse garden tractor, both are 1968, the outer tines must have almost and inch worn off, still hammers dirt into powder, doubt if new tines could do it any better.

jCarroll ,A question about your pony,does it have a spike on the depth adjustment slide on the bottom.My ponny tiller never had one when new so I made one and welded it to the slide.I touched my blades a little with a hand grinder several years ago and they seemed to do a better job.They are still kinda sharp.

If it's established ground, just dirt and clods, it probably wouldn't make much difference.

But if there are roots I would think sharpening would be an advantage.

If the ends of the tines are rounded off like a butter knife they need to be replaced. Otherwise I doubt sharpening will make any difference.

jCarroll- You are kidding? You seem to be posting this question just to see who will 'bite'?

LOL LOL

I've used a right angle grinder and put an edge on tines, no big deal. I also used a right angle grinder and sharpened post hole digger that wouldn't dig a hole. An edge works better than a rounded edge. geo.

Wont make a practical difference plus in our soil they wear out fast enough as is without grinding on them. Price a set of blades, that might change your mind about grinding on them and set your mind to thinking about welding on them, LOL.

Seems to me that even if you sharpen them, they will not stay sharp for long. Going through dirt, hitting stones and the occasional rock will dull them in no time.
Then too, we have a Toy-Bilt Pony on the farm where I work part time, and it is a piece of junk. Tines turn the wrong way, and it just continually fights and tries to run away. Not much of a useful machine for anything.

I have a pony also, it is worthless unless soil is already tilled.

You mentioned all the bouncing and not cutting. Your tines are
most likely installed on the machine in the wrong position.
align them so that they are turning with the correct edge hitting dirt.
Not the back side. Blades that turn facing each other are for
cultivating, while those facing away from its mate are for breaking
ground, tilling. Hope this helps.

If the ground is that soft that a tiller with forward rotating tines is "useful," then there is no need for a tiller to begin with. There is something in between breaking ground and cultivating. Forward rotating tines are simply useless. As soon as they encounter the least resistance, the machine digs in, tries to run away, and because the operator is holding onto the handles, that pushes the tines farther into the ground, and aggravates the problem.

In a simple two words: BAD DESIGN!!!

On the other hand, I have a Yard Man tiller that has reversible tines, and it does a GREAT job on anything I want to do with it. It will break up sod, break ground, cultivate between rows, and is now on its 10th season with no signs of wearing out anytime soon. Just in case, I do have a spare engine for it. But so far, I have not even needed a belt replacement.

Sorry for the delay in my response.

Mine has a "finger" about 2" long which clamps to the depth control bar. It can be moved front to back to change the amount it sticks down below the bar.

Don't know it's purpose.......

I disagree, though the model mentioned is smaller and lighter, the older Horse model has the same rotation and although they are better suited in previously worked or soft soils, you can break new ground in tough soils like we have here, same soils these were proven in. There are a few things to know about using these tillers, between this place and the other, there are 3 of them and they certainly have performed quite well. They are different than a BCS or similar, but they are sourced reasonably priced, parts are readily available, they are a well built, durable design. Check the production numbers, hundreds of thousands of the Horse model were built.

The patch in the photo was sod bound/new ground, well it was a garden 10 years before. In small increments, it worked down to full depth in multiple passes.

Well, at the farm I work on, we had a couple of tillers left behind by former tenants. One was a Pony. I got it running, and it soon showed the need for a replacement of the engine. I had an extra in my shed, so I put that on and got the thing going again. I took it for a test run in the field. This was soil that had been cultivated, amended and farmed for several previous years. It was also recently tilled with a larger tractor mounted tiller.

The object was to flatten out some of the ridges left between the rows to make it easier to walk in between for planting, weeding, and finally harvesting. No sooner than I started down the first row, the tiller dug in, started to run away, and as it tried to pull away from me, it caused me to pull down on the handles to stay with it. This made it dig in and try to run away even more.

Now, on the other hand, when I brought my own tiller from home that has counter-rotating tines, it handled the chore with ease. It could easily be controlled with one hand if necessary, and never tried to run away.

To me, this speaks loudly of BAD DESIGN. Plain and simple. With the proper design, the machine handles easily with no special concessions or compromise. The Pony proved it to me that it was simply a bad design, and as such was useless for any REAL work.

Maybe once, you need to try out a machine with counter-rotating tines. I am pretty sure you would never go back.