Rotary cutter blade pics, advice?

[Bullwinkle123]

I'm with Pine. Exception being, I don't think that blade was ever properly tempered. What brand cutter is this?

Landpride RCF2072

 

[Tinhack]

Wow, that edge does looks too "keen". Mine are at about a 45 degree angle with about 1/8" thick edge. I've always tried to keep them that way. I've never seen the type of damage you show. And I sure hit my share of stumps and rocks. Even concrete and rebar once.

 

[ovrszd]

Can't tell from the pic. Are your blades flat blades or lift blades? Are they simply a straight blade with no elevated rear edge? Or are they slightly dropped out at the cutting edge and have an elevated rear edge to create "air" lift?

 

[MF243RedTop]

Can't tell from the pic. Are your blades flat blades or lift blades? Are they simply a straight blade with no elevated rear edge? Or are they slightly dropped out at the cutting edge and have an elevated rear edge to create "air" lift?

That's why I asked for pics from above or the end of the blade.
To get a better perspective of what's going on here.
I've seen blades like that damaged also from high rpms and fast mowing speeds. But rarely as bad as his.

 

[Jim Nelson]

I have an old Woods finish mower that I bought cheap so one of the first things I did was buy new blades. As others have said the new blades were thicker, guessing 3/8" and the angle to the cutting edge was closer to 45 degrees. Our place is real steep with lots of gopher mounds and a few rocks so they get nicked up a little but nothing like yours. Ocasionally I will hit them with a 4 1/2" angle grinder and try to keep the original angle. They are real hard steel, nothing like what yours look to be. I do run pretty slow because of the steep grade and use the top & tilt to keep the front higher than the rear to avoid dirt build up.
I think you got some bad blades that weren't properly hardened.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

Here's some poor pics I took when the rotary cutter was almost new. Other than a big divot in one blade, they seem reasonable to me.

 

[Tinhack]

Yeah, those are lifting blades. Great for grass but I cut brush and trees with mine. As they used to say at the race track; "Run what you brung".

 

[ovrszd]

I think they simply aren't properly hardened. Not sure how to fix that. Kinda surprises me from LP.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I have a lot of different mowing machines. Some blades are quite soft and some are really hard as nails. The toughest are on my most expensive CUSHMAN mower. The guy that used to sharpen them always complained about their hardness.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

Having just spent several hours again in my field picking out rocks, I've come to the conclusion that nearly an acre of my field was used to dump schist which was dynamited out of the ground across the property to build a large building. Every single bit of rock I pulled today was schist, not another type of rock in the bunch. I always knew it was likely a dumping ground for it based on old satellite photos of the place when the building was under construction, I just didn't know it went quite so far down the hill. (Or ... it actually _is_ the hill, I think, in part).

Anyway, the thing about this schist is that if you hit it with anything it breaks into smaller pieces. Even my mattock trying to disloge them causes them to break. I'm thinking a blade that hits this stuff just turns it into successively fine abrasive material. Though there wasn't that much exposed, I'm probably making it worse trying to dig out the big surface pieces, it looks like a very large gopher has been making a home in the field.

Anyway, I hear "lifting blades" and will ask the dealer about it (i.e. the alternatives). He's saying the blades don't look abnormal and that I should get another year out of them, but I was kind of expecting more than two years out of blades for such a small field, even though I knew it was going to be a rough first cut.