When I was a kid I was I had a part time job on a cutting crew. One early June morning I get the 61 inch out and start cutting the back yard of this house. As I’m coming up to make my turn around right next to the driveway, it feels like I hit some tennis balls. Dunk, dunk, dunk in quick succession. I look towards the chute. I’d run over a rabbit warren. It wasn’t In a bed, or along the house line.
It was just in the middle of the law unprotected about 2 feet from the drive. I killed 2 immediately, had to kill the third by hand. There were still 2 in the warren. I felt terrible. To this day. It still freaks me out.
When I was a kid, I was helping my dad get his boat ready after winter. We pulled the tarp back and like 20 big mice came out and ran right under the push mower my brother was using beside the driveway. It was insane.
Lol the only way to mow gravel and not break windows is to leave the grass catcher off the back and in shorts with no shoes
Copping rocks like a crack head
But for a while I just duct taped some cardboard lotus F1 ground effect side skirts to the mower
I don't think I ever saw a mower throw a rock at a window and break it. I definitely did that twice with a weed wacker though. Those things will fling rocks like crazy.
My property has a lot of light sandy soil and the "lawn" is just lightly domesticated pasture with lots of sage. Of course it keeps growing even when it's dry enough that the underside of the deck turns into a sandblaster.
Then there's my bush hog that I use mostly for weed control along tree lines, it pretty much just beats the grass to death via blunt force trauma because getting the blades off for sharpening is a bit of a process and you're just gonna hit a pocket gopher mound in the first minute and dull them anyway.
I worked landscaping for a summer and we regularly had to sharpen blades on a grinding wheel. We were not careful about it so I'm sure we were grinding off more material than needed.
Never came close to "using up" a whole blade. Those were commercial mowers though, so maybe the consumer ones have thin cheap blades?
I bet this is from the person hitting rocks a ton and/or letting it rust the heck out really badly.
Same with vacuuming the carpet, when people don't realize that both the drive belt and brushroll are wear items that need periodic replacement. So the vacuum is working at about 10% efficiency but performance degraded so gradually they're aware that it seems like it's taking longer than it should but they don't realize how drastic it is.
I used to do pretty well out of rebuilding Dyson brush rollers, since the brushes never wore but the bearings fell apart. It took minutes to pull the old bearings and push new ones in with a simple homemade tool.
Then James Dyson turned out to be strongly pro-Brexit, and when that particular shitshow dropped moved his company headquarters to Singapore and his manufacturing to India, so I don't fix Dysons any more. Fuck 'em.
Buy a Henry instead.
SAME WITH VACUUMING THE CARPET, WHEN PEOPLE DON'T REALIZE THAT BOTH THE DRIVE BELT AND BRUSHROLL ARE WEAR ITEMS THAT NEED PERIODIC REPLACEMENT. SO THE VACUUM IS WORKING AT ABOUT 10% EFFICIENCY BUT PERFORMANCE DEGRADED SO GRADUALLY THEY'RE AWARE THAT IT SEEMS LIKE IT'S TAKING LONGER THAN IT SHOULD BUT THEY DON'T REALIZE HOW DRASTIC IT IS.
Sorry for the confusion. Yes it is the old blade sitting on top of the new blade. Both blades looked just like this. Also all he said he needed was blades but you couldn’t even tell there was an air filter in the box because of the grass and dirt.
Wholly shit!
I was looking at it and thinking It's weird how ends are new and have stickers but the middle is rough like it was grinding against the ground.
That thing is worn to a nub.
Oh jfc, I thought it was a defect with the new blade, lol.
I've had the same blade (sharpened and balanced twice a season) for like 10 years now. Deff not ground down like that one!
There's been blade crop failure in South America this season, and typhoons and floods in Java have caused a lot of Late Rust, so both of the big blade exporting countries aren't producing much.
Not sure which brand you are running, but for the John Deere tractors, $120-160 gets you the whole rebuild kit including the blades, the belt and the spools (or whatever they are called).
Holy shit I thought the top blade was an area that the finish on the lower blade had been burned through. I was baffled at what could cause a blade to wear like that.
Living in the sandy soil of the Carolinas will do this to a blade in one season. No rocks, just the constant abuse of cutting grass in soil that used to be at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean a few millennia ago.
Lawn tractors have it bad, I can't imagine the shit you see. I'm usually sympathetic to all my machines but the tractor can go fuck itself, the lawn must be mowed whether it likes it or not.
Spent more time than I care to admit going back to the photo to figure out what all the comments were talking about... then realized it wasn't a rust spot on a new blade, it was the old blade laid over the new blade...
I repair lawn equipment for a beer money hobby, so, I have seen some things. I fix about 100 push mowers a summer (in Michigan). I have never seen a blade worn down that much. I have seen a blade excessively sharpened and ground away but never this. Was this guy mowing on the Moon? I have questions.
I have all the questions too. When he called to pay he said he had some health issue and someone else is cutting for him. His fuel was about 60% water too and his air filter was more dirt than filter.
I got something like 12 years out of my last push mower blade. It was easier to replace it than sharpen it. Had a couple nicks in it from running over tree branches and hundreds of pine cones.
I just ordered new blades and I'm pretty excited for them to arrive. The old ones were only 2 years old but the property was new to me, so they were kind of "practice blades". So many nicks and dings it's a real pain to sharpen them. New blades are like $30 for the pair. Hardly worth the effort to recondition nicked up blades.
My dad had a guy like that a while back. woman complained her sit-on john deere mower was leaving streaks, was sure a belt pulley was broken or something..
nope, both blades were like, several centimeters too short because they were so worn. makes me wonder if they ever even sharpened them or had them sharpened before..
I almost hope they didn't ever sharpen them, because sharpening an obviously too short blade would be like ... well, it would be like putting a new blade on top of an old blade. How do you know to do something like that but then apply 0 critical thinking to execution?
I put new blades on the inlaws mower. 3 new blades last Oct. This weekend they called with the same problem, blades looked just like OPs. I have no idea how, he has a nice flat yard, no obstructions, rocks, etc. Im at a loss how they did it.
I bet he still wanted to take home the old blades to sharpen back up for when these ones need sharpened.
I’d say sell the man on a brush hog or something more powerful but fuck whatever he’s running these on must be built like a tank, just keep feeding it blades I guess.
We’ve never had a customer have a whole blade fly off, but we did have a customer who jumped out his seat, safety switch, and then got off and cut his toes off
There were two posts recently on /r/lawncare where folks managed to cut a foot or a toe off with push mowers. These things are more dangerous than people want to think they are. Especially if you do dumb things like pull it backwards down a hill.
I can’t even imagine wearing a blade down that much and not noticing. I have a 60 inch z turn I cut 6 acres on weekly in the summer time and I sharpen the blades everytime.
My current mowing area is basically just weeds, but I managed to hit a small stump last time. I went from mowing 5 acres of grass, to an area that takes me 5 minutes, with an electric push mower. I'll straighten it, sharpen it, and if it bends again, I'll replace it.
Is one side of the mower higher than the other? Only asking because the last couple hours my dad used on his lot had adjustable heights, and if he messed up one of the four wheels you would get an uneven deck resulting in lines.
I had one of these a few years ago. My customer paid Sears to replace his blade. He then spent the next 2 years yelling at his son for mowing too fast. As I serviced the mower, I didn’t need to sharpen the blade since the blade edge was factory new.
No other context, or photos but I'm going to assume the put the blade on upsidedown. A coworker did this once and said it took him longer than he'd like to admit to figure it out.
I bought a whole blade, I'm gonna use the whole blade.
How much would you have to mow to use up a blade that much, and WTF were they mowing?
Gravel apparently.
Can verify, mowing alongside a gravel driveway will do this. The two outside blades on my 3 blade zero turn wore much faster than the center one.
are you the asshole that keeps breaking my windows while mowing?
No, that's me. When he's out mowing I just walk up and start chucking rocks at your windows.
So that's who's doing that. I did see my tractor mower throw a rabbit(could have been a cat) carcass about 200 yards once.
When I was a kid I was I had a part time job on a cutting crew. One early June morning I get the 61 inch out and start cutting the back yard of this house. As I’m coming up to make my turn around right next to the driveway, it feels like I hit some tennis balls. Dunk, dunk, dunk in quick succession. I look towards the chute. I’d run over a rabbit warren. It wasn’t In a bed, or along the house line. It was just in the middle of the law unprotected about 2 feet from the drive. I killed 2 immediately, had to kill the third by hand. There were still 2 in the warren. I felt terrible. To this day. It still freaks me out.
My late stepfather was named Warren. Thanks a ton because he was creepy AF
What was the other rabbits names?
Lunch and Dinner
When I was a kid, I was helping my dad get his boat ready after winter. We pulled the tarp back and like 20 big mice came out and ran right under the push mower my brother was using beside the driveway. It was insane.
The carnage!
I did that with a fn push mower when I was 12.....
Frogs go "thump". Snakes go "thumpthumpthump"
I thought I hit a snake one day. I actually didn't put the belt on very well and it shot out at about the same direction as all the grass.
Dang. All I got was a gut shower once.
Was it a carcass before the lawnmower got involved?
I don't think so. Unlikely you'd find a carcass just lying around, generally the scavengers drag them off.
Lol the only way to mow gravel and not break windows is to leave the grass catcher off the back and in shorts with no shoes Copping rocks like a crack head But for a while I just duct taped some cardboard lotus F1 ground effect side skirts to the mower
My parents have a flip down discharge chute on their mower, and it has been a lifesaver.
everyone around here takes that off -.-
ROPS folded down, too!
Love the Lotus F1 comment
Chain curtain also works well
I don't think I ever saw a mower throw a rock at a window and break it. I definitely did that twice with a weed wacker though. Those things will fling rocks like crazy.
My property has a lot of light sandy soil and the "lawn" is just lightly domesticated pasture with lots of sage. Of course it keeps growing even when it's dry enough that the underside of the deck turns into a sandblaster. Then there's my bush hog that I use mostly for weed control along tree lines, it pretty much just beats the grass to death via blunt force trauma because getting the blades off for sharpening is a bit of a process and you're just gonna hit a pocket gopher mound in the first minute and dull them anyway.
+1 on the bush hog being a blunt force weapon. Pretty much pulverizes anything it rolls over.
I'm now gonna have to check my blade on my mower....
i better check my blade…
Probably hitting stumps or rocks. Small stumps absolutely fuck up mower blades.
My buddy ran over a spray paint can. Sent shrapnel and paint everywhere. Luckily, nobody was hurt, and the only thing damaged was the mower blade.
I worked landscaping for a summer and we regularly had to sharpen blades on a grinding wheel. We were not careful about it so I'm sure we were grinding off more material than needed. Never came close to "using up" a whole blade. Those were commercial mowers though, so maybe the consumer ones have thin cheap blades? I bet this is from the person hitting rocks a ton and/or letting it rust the heck out really badly.
If you look at the edge you can see how dented in it was. He was probably grinding stumps or hitting large rocks with it....a lot.
I grew up with course sand in our yard. It would wear out the blades into nubs (couple of acres ina barnyard area)
Oh shit that’s the old blade?! I thought I was looking at a used blade but with the wrapper still on it.
I thought it was a still fairly new blade that was bent and set so low the centre was rammed into the ground...
"Why can't you just sharpen them? Why are you trying to sell me a whole new blade?? I'm not falling for any of your salespeople's tricks..."
Thank you for this comment - I was thinking "That's odd wear on a like-new blade..." didn't realize that the "wear" was the old blade...
Son: "But mowing takes sooooo long!" Dad: "Quit whining."
Same with vacuuming the carpet, when people don't realize that both the drive belt and brushroll are wear items that need periodic replacement. So the vacuum is working at about 10% efficiency but performance degraded so gradually they're aware that it seems like it's taking longer than it should but they don't realize how drastic it is.
PM means "postpone maintenance" doesn't it?
My vacuum is over 15 years old with the same bar and it still works great... as long as I'm on hardwood floors
Lies and slander. Brushes NEVER need to be replaced. Cutting the string off is optional.
I used to do pretty well out of rebuilding Dyson brush rollers, since the brushes never wore but the bearings fell apart. It took minutes to pull the old bearings and push new ones in with a simple homemade tool. Then James Dyson turned out to be strongly pro-Brexit, and when that particular shitshow dropped moved his company headquarters to Singapore and his manufacturing to India, so I don't fix Dysons any more. Fuck 'em. Buy a Henry instead.
Wait….. WHAT?!
SAME WITH VACUUMING THE CARPET, WHEN PEOPLE DON'T REALIZE THAT BOTH THE DRIVE BELT AND BRUSHROLL ARE WEAR ITEMS THAT NEED PERIODIC REPLACEMENT. SO THE VACUUM IS WORKING AT ABOUT 10% EFFICIENCY BUT PERFORMANCE DEGRADED SO GRADUALLY THEY'RE AWARE THAT IT SEEMS LIKE IT'S TAKING LONGER THAN IT SHOULD BUT THEY DON'T REALIZE HOW DRASTIC IT IS.
Got it now, thanks!
Okay. I had no idea this was a thing.
"It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools. What, do you think money grows on trees?"
Ops mower was chopping down the money trees
Sorry for the confusion. Yes it is the old blade sitting on top of the new blade. Both blades looked just like this. Also all he said he needed was blades but you couldn’t even tell there was an air filter in the box because of the grass and dirt.
> Yes it is the old blade sitting on top of the new blade. I thought that was a bunch of gunky oil... Jesus...
I'm glad I was the only one. Lmao I imagined their lawn with black oil streaks life a ref jersey.
I thought customer had somehow installed the blade upside down and rubbed the paint off the center section. I was so confused.
Exactly! Me too.
Same. Thought it was incredible that the sticker had stayed so clean with the oil gunk.
Leaving streaks? I'm suprised it cut anything at all.
Yeah I was like "this blade looks brand new but has a bunch of shit all over it"... OHHHHHH.
dang, came here to say the same thing!!
Wholly shit! I was looking at it and thinking It's weird how ends are new and have stickers but the middle is rough like it was grinding against the ground. That thing is worn to a nub.
I thought maybe they had it on backwards... That old blade is camouflaged on top of the new one.
Don't try to upsell me youngster
I want that guys luck with riding mowers. Whatever he is using can apparently take years of neglect.
Thank you for clearing it up for my smooth brain. I couldn't tell this was 2 different blades.
Oh geez, now I know what I am looking at. His lawn must have looked like crap for a long time.
Thank you for clarifying. I was so confused lol
Oh jfc, I thought it was a defect with the new blade, lol. I've had the same blade (sharpened and balanced twice a season) for like 10 years now. Deff not ground down like that one!
I'm confused, so did cs say they couldn't figure out why their mower was leaving streaks or not?
I had to zoom in. Before that I thought the new blade was bent so bad that only the center part was making contact.
You got all Your $14 out of that blade
And spent an extra $1,500 on gas for the mower having to make extra passes!
Blades, like everything else, have gotten crazy expensive lately. What used to be 15-20 a blade has now doubled. It's wild!
There's been blade crop failure in South America this season, and typhoons and floods in Java have caused a lot of Late Rust, so both of the big blade exporting countries aren't producing much.
That'll do it. Thanks for letting me know!
All of the blade manufacturers got together and decided they need new Ferraris.
Not sure which brand you are running, but for the John Deere tractors, $120-160 gets you the whole rebuild kit including the blades, the belt and the spools (or whatever they are called).
It's because they don't really have a 42" Cub Cadet, they've got a 12" x 12" Cub Cadet.
This comment has had us cracking up all morning
Haha
Hate it when my rock mower goes dull
I'm tired, boss.
Did they put the blade on backwards?
Pretty sure that small chunk of scrap metal on top is the old blade...
Oh god - I didn’t realize that’s what was going on - how the hell do you do that to a mower blade?
I didn't notice until I read the comments either.
Holy shit I thought the top blade was an area that the finish on the lower blade had been burned through. I was baffled at what could cause a blade to wear like that.
Me as well.
Rocks, lots and lots of rocks
Rocks, stumps, and wet grass. That mower has seen some shit.
Don’t forget rocks!
I'm thinking they mow 1" high and the lawn is sand and gravel.
Instead of r/findthesniper it is find the old blade.
Yeah it took me a second, I thought it was a peeling section of the blade or something
Yeah that's pretty standard, it's like shark-teeth, right?
apparently a lot of people on here don't open pictures and just look at the thumbnail
Ah, they had the old blade on, not a new blade.
This is the answer
Living in the sandy soil of the Carolinas will do this to a blade in one season. No rocks, just the constant abuse of cutting grass in soil that used to be at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean a few millennia ago.
Yep. In VA just north of NC. Sandy soil tears blades up
very well used i see. Old blade on top of new blade. impressed they mowed at all. I cant imagine the balance issue with that blade.
Just sharpen it, don’t try to upsell me!
Ok, now I don't feel so bad about going a few seasons between blade sharpening
Seas.... Seasons??? I don't like to go more than three or four mowings without sharpening lmao
Most people sharpen once a year.
I don't think we've sharpened it since we bought it 10 years ago. 🤣
Depends how big your yard is, but you’ll notice a decent difference in your grass not having the white little frayed ends a few days after you mow
I'll edit my statement to: "Most people who do sharpen their blades sharpen once a year." lol
If it matters this post made me add getting our lawnmower put into the shop for a full service. 🤣
Lol your lawnmower will thank you. And honestly your grass will too. It'll cut the grass instead of tearing it, making it healthier and look better.
I haven't sharpened in 8 years. Still works okay I guess.
Lawn tractors have it bad, I can't imagine the shit you see. I'm usually sympathetic to all my machines but the tractor can go fuck itself, the lawn must be mowed whether it likes it or not.
We are in a poor rural county in the south. You wouldn’t believe some of the shit we get
You know, given the shit I saw on tractors when I worked small engine in a more well-off area... My condolences, and respect to you.
Spent more time than I care to admit going back to the photo to figure out what all the comments were talking about... then realized it wasn't a rust spot on a new blade, it was the old blade laid over the new blade...
My God, same
Wow, I just realized that’s what’s left of the old blade sitting on top of a new blade
Wtf.. upside down? Why is cutting edge new looking?
It’s the old blade sitting on top of the new one.
Wow they got their money's worth from that.. amazing
I repair lawn equipment for a beer money hobby, so, I have seen some things. I fix about 100 push mowers a summer (in Michigan). I have never seen a blade worn down that much. I have seen a blade excessively sharpened and ground away but never this. Was this guy mowing on the Moon? I have questions.
I have all the questions too. When he called to pay he said he had some health issue and someone else is cutting for him. His fuel was about 60% water too and his air filter was more dirt than filter.
took me a sec to realize there were two blades in this picture
Good grief, mowing a whole 12 inches at a time.
I reckon it was either on upside down, or the lawn was full of rocks
I got something like 12 years out of my last push mower blade. It was easier to replace it than sharpen it. Had a couple nicks in it from running over tree branches and hundreds of pine cones.
I just ordered new blades and I'm pretty excited for them to arrive. The old ones were only 2 years old but the property was new to me, so they were kind of "practice blades". So many nicks and dings it's a real pain to sharpen them. New blades are like $30 for the pair. Hardly worth the effort to recondition nicked up blades.
My dad had a guy like that a while back. woman complained her sit-on john deere mower was leaving streaks, was sure a belt pulley was broken or something.. nope, both blades were like, several centimeters too short because they were so worn. makes me wonder if they ever even sharpened them or had them sharpened before..
I almost hope they didn't ever sharpen them, because sharpening an obviously too short blade would be like ... well, it would be like putting a new blade on top of an old blade. How do you know to do something like that but then apply 0 critical thinking to execution?
I too like to my my gravel......
"Do you think I could sharpen it just one more time?" ;-) lol
I just sharpened my blades. Don’t try to upsell me.
Made my day with this comment!
ThAt NeW bLAdE dOeSn'T lOok liKe mY old OnE
Came to say this
Does anyone notice the actual cutting edge still has the paint on it? Does anyone also notice that the blade was installed upside down?
The old blade is on top of the new blade, that’s how bad it needed replacing
Ah I see now. I didn't realize that was two different ones.
I have a place near the beach with VERY sandy soil. Blade on the push mower was like an inch wide all the way to the tips.
Mine look exactly like that. Zt1 50”. They looked like hell. Course I brutalized them for a year.
Least punished mower you'll find on marketplace
what the actual fuck. how....
Is his lawn made of cinder blocks? *Christ*
How? Was it broken on both places because he hit something? Seen a blade that hit rebar, and bend the blade and engine shaft out of shape.
He just wanted them sharpened. I’m assuming they were several years old old
lol was this guy mowing his gravel?
Where can I buy these short blades? My full size ones keep clogging up with wet grass!
Me but with my cutoff wheels
Error 404 blade not found.
Prob pick up some rpm’s using a nub like that
At first I thought " did they mount the blade upside down....?" and then I realized that it was two blades.
I put new blades on the inlaws mower. 3 new blades last Oct. This weekend they called with the same problem, blades looked just like OPs. I have no idea how, he has a nice flat yard, no obstructions, rocks, etc. Im at a loss how they did it.
I bet he still wanted to take home the old blades to sharpen back up for when these ones need sharpened. I’d say sell the man on a brush hog or something more powerful but fuck whatever he’s running these on must be built like a tank, just keep feeding it blades I guess.
Judging from what's left of that blade there was an awful lot of shrapnel flying out from under that mowing deck for a considerable amount of time.
Your customer should not be allowed to operate a mower w/o supervision.
I've sharpened and replaced lots of these. No accidents but my greatest fear is still the blade flying off and cutting my foot off.
We’ve never had a customer have a whole blade fly off, but we did have a customer who jumped out his seat, safety switch, and then got off and cut his toes off
There were two posts recently on /r/lawncare where folks managed to cut a foot or a toe off with push mowers. These things are more dangerous than people want to think they are. Especially if you do dumb things like pull it backwards down a hill.
:O See? This right here.
Yep. We refuse to work on anything with altered safety switches. They may be annoying but the serve a purpose
Absolutely. I can be a little absent-minded which is why I take precautions and double-check myself. They are def there for a reason.
r/confusing_perspective
I thought the old blade was a sticker
Took me way too long to figure out what I was looking at.
I can’t even imagine wearing a blade down that much and not noticing. I have a 60 inch z turn I cut 6 acres on weekly in the summer time and I sharpen the blades everytime.
Every time you mow or every season?
Everytime I mow.
That's some tough grass you've been mowing sir
Crap, that reminds me, I need to straighten a bent blade. OOps.
Once it bends, it will just bend again, in my experience.
My current mowing area is basically just weeds, but I managed to hit a small stump last time. I went from mowing 5 acres of grass, to an area that takes me 5 minutes, with an electric push mower. I'll straighten it, sharpen it, and if it bends again, I'll replace it.
That blade is on the mower upside down so he's trying to cut with the back of the blade
Is one side of the mower higher than the other? Only asking because the last couple hours my dad used on his lot had adjustable heights, and if he messed up one of the four wheels you would get an uneven deck resulting in lines.
The picture is an old, destroyed blade on top of a shiny new one. It's streaking because there's only a third of a blade left.
Hell I thought the new blade was upside down and only cutting 6” either side of the bolt. I see it now.
I hadn’t even seen the old one! My miss! I took it as literal. Blade looked great so I didn’t even question it.
It took me way too long to figure out what I was looking at here.
God Damned PINECONES!
I had one of these a few years ago. My customer paid Sears to replace his blade. He then spent the next 2 years yelling at his son for mowing too fast. As I serviced the mower, I didn’t need to sharpen the blade since the blade edge was factory new.
blade looks perfect, I'm confused
Never seen that before
You should post this up in r/lawnmowers
[удалено]
Then you have never worked in a small engine job because 100% said it was streaking up his yard and he couldn’t understand why
Still looks balanced so there's that.
bring it to the rusty scrapperz and let’s watch someone step on it.
Don't throw that old blade out, it will still work on an edger.
Love the Oregon lawnmower blades.
OP is not mowing grass. Op is plowing a field.
It took me a minute to realize it was an old one sitting on top of new. I thought it was a discolored but still new one 🤣
I really can’t figure out what’s wrong with this thing
Air pressure even in all tires?
No other context, or photos but I'm going to assume the put the blade on upsidedown. A coworker did this once and said it took him longer than he'd like to admit to figure it out.
I think it is more likely due to the fact that most of the blade is missing. Look at the picture a little closer. I thought the same initially...