knife style

[mink]

wondering what style of knife works best for your use? smooth, under serrated. or over serrated. my section has under serrated and seems to cut good . was just wondering what everybody else preferred.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Mink, I have never worked with the smooth section, but I believe they would work good with the old style guards with good ledger plates. I have knives with more than one section on them and I am hard pressed to say one is better than the other. Two are most popular with my Amish customers. The one you mentioned, the underserrated is sharpenable, and probably just over 50 % of all the I sell. These are all hardened steel and don’t get sharpened with each use, but if they are really worn or dinged up an angle grinder with a thin cutting wheel can put a new edge on it. Working quickly with the grinder to not heat the section.

The over serrated section is good, but over shadowed by a top serrated section with larger teeth called the “super seven”. These are good and make up most of the the rest of the sections sold. I think any serrated section works good with the haybine guard that is popular today. That haybine guard usually has a 218 or 218 rs on it. Watch otu for a guard marked 270 or such as it has the same problems as a old stlye “700” Not really made for these machines , or called universal. They don’t fit right and leave cutting surfaces too low or tilted.

Personally I don’t think the haybine guard works better than the old style 2041 with good ledger plates. Just need a good work setup to change ledger plates. For heavy mowing it might be every three or four years to change them.

[Jay]

I echo much of what Donn says- I mostly use the underserrated knives, though I have used smooth knives also and find them to work well – with the 2041 guards with good ledger plates that I use. I don’t have as much experience with haybine guards though many people use them and seem to be satistfied.
Haybine guards and any others that dont have a serrated ledger need a knife with serrations. Guards with a good ledger work well with smooth or serrated knives in my experience.

As Donn says, stay away from the 700 “Universal” guard. The level of the ledger plate doesn’t match the level of the bar so it will never cut right. Spend your money once on the correct part or you get to spend it again. Jay

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