Off subject but includes sharpening a blade!

SkagSig40

SkagSig40

Joined
Feb 1, 2001
Messages
2,671
I had to sharpen my 1st lawnmower blade today! It was a little harder then my khuks because of those little bends in the blade. I worked out the many chips and dents and got most of the blade to shave roughly. I don't remember how sharp the blade was when new. Does anyone know how how sharp it should be? I kept edge grind as close to original as I could!!:D

Does anyone know what type of steel lawnmower blades are? I think I'll try to forge a knife out of it when it is retired!
 
I dunno, but I hope you balanced that sucker before you re-installed it! :)

Balance is even more critical for mower blades than it is for khuks.

(Don't ask me how I found out about this...I don't wanna talk about it)

--Mike L.
 
Originally posted by SkagSig40
How do you balance it? I just sharpened it and put it back on.
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Balance it on the blade's center point. If one side drops much lower than the other it will vibrate so badly it will shake your lawnmower apart or even bend the crankshaft. Well, I don't really know if it would bend the crankshaft, but you get the idea Chris.:eek: ;)
It doesn't have to be perfect, but the closer it is the better it is.
And lawnmower blades aren't really all that sharp when new. As long as you kept the angle fairly close to the original you will be alright.
If you get to much of an angle your blade just dulls up quicker.

And whatever you do...Don't Ever Pull a Lawnmower Backwards!!!!
The new ones aren't quite as bad with all the sheilding they have, but pulling one backwards increases the odds that something can be thrown back at you with enough force to penetrate your flesh like a bullet.
And on This I Speak From Experince!!!!
Took me from Sept of one year to July the next before the scar completely healed because of an infection the dirty baleing wire caused.
Lawnmowers are familiar and we don't always think about their danger.
Frankly they scare the hell outta me!!!!:eek: :(
 
Bro, some of the stories I've heard about what mowers have done to people (and not just kids) makes me shiver. I have great respect for them.

When I was a kid you couldn't buy a mower off the shelf and had to make your own and these were even more dangerous.

Anybody besides me remember when any pack of cigarettes one bought of the shelf was called "tailor mades?" And the pack cost 15 cents. And you had about a half dozen brand choices.
 
Originally posted by Bill Martino
Bro, some of the stories I've heard about what mowers have done to people (and not just kids) makes me shiver. I have great respect for them.

When I was a kid you couldn't buy a mower off the shelf and had to make your own and these were even more dangerous.

Anybody besides me remember when any pack of cigarettes one bought of the shelf was called "tailor mades?" And the pack cost 15 cents. And you had about a half dozen brand choices.
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I worked for the Tulsa Public School System for a little over a year and we had the old Yahoo Mowers with the big wheenls on the back and a belt driven blade. There was no shielding on them whatsoever and we were always getting rocks and other debris thrown back at us.
The lawnmower that got me was when I was mowing my mom's yard and it threw the wire into the calf of my right leg.
That incident made a true believer outta me. I was on crutches for about 3 months as the incision got a pnemonia infection in it and had to heal from the inside out.
I gotta one helluva scar from it.

You bet I remember and the brands weren't the same either. There were, Wings, Fatimas and Rum & Maple as well as the Lucky Strikes in the old green and red package instead of the white and red.
Camels were real popular as well as Chesterfield, and some I can't recall.
And Pall Malls weren't made then. I remember when they came out.:eek:
Actually I remember a lot of cigarettes that weren't made back then.:eek: :eek:
Then there were also the Herbert Tariyton(sic)and Raliegh's, that came with coupons much like Marlboro did for a while.
Back then you could still get Bull Durham in a sack pouch and papers came free. And you always got a pack of gopher matches when you bought any cigarette makin's, tailor mades or roll your
owns.
Took me a long time to learn to roll that stuff as the tobacco was dried out and if you sneezed or the wind was blowing very hard it was almost impossible.

My Aunt Myrtle used to roll me Prince Albert roll your owns and was the one who finally taught me how to roll my own.
I got some stories about Aunt Myrtle, but can't tell them here.
I will only say here that Aunt Myrtle was just an everyday Big Ol' Cherokee Gal that wore flour sack dresses, bras didn't come in her size, and no underpants.:eek: :rolleyes: :)
I would give anything to be able to ask Aunt Myrtle a lot of questions today that I never thought about back when I was a kid.
She told it like it was without pullin any punches or making any judgements.

Originally posted by Chris
Does anyone know what type of steel lawnmower blades are? I think I'll try to forge a knife out of it when it is retired!
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Chris I missed this one your 1st post.
They are made out of good high carbon steel. A lot of 1095 and the like. I wouldn't be surprised if some weren't made from 5160, but don't know.
Some pretty dayumed good and good lookin' knives have been made from lawnmower blades.:cool: :D
 
can't remember that far back, but I can remember my dad sending me to the store with a single dollar bill to get him a pack of cigs and me a candy bar and a coke, and still have change left over.
 
Yvsa, your Aunt Myrtle sounds like my grandma that lived in Ft. Gibson OK, she was full blooded Cherokee kinda hard to look at when she dipped snuff and was good a ndn through and through. She tought me a lot I wish I had listened better.
 
Thanks for the help guys!! I also remember when things were like that back in the day!!:D :p
 
Looks like we got another Bro over in Risco.

Bro, we had Phillip Morris in the old brown pack and a brand called Marvels that were generally cheaper than the "top" brands like Lucky Strike and Camels. Wings were cheaper, too, as I recall.

I can remember Bull Durham very well. My Dad smoked it when he was working on the WPA. My maternal Grandpa, Bill, used to chew and his favorite tobaccos were "Miners and Puddlers" and "Five Brothers". The tobacco came in red cans about 12 ounces, I'd guess, and the cans worked great for storing little stuff like nails, bolts, nuts and so forth and they had handles so you could hang them on nails on the crossbeams of the "doghouse". He probably had 50 cans hanging.

When I started smoking for real I could buy a carton of Camels for $1.35. And a dollar's worth of gas would keep my Model A running all week.
 
...Dromedarys...The Mexican Camels? As strong as Camel were, Dromedarys would burn most of the soft tissue out of a Camel smoker's nasal passages. Pack was identical to Camel's, but their's had two humps :D
 
Smoke the straight variety for 40 years, and switched to filters the last ten. Only difference it seemed to make was that I went from 2-3 packs a day to 4-5. Prince Albert was the only pipe tobacco I found with the same "flavor", and I breath a lot easier now. Of course, I burned out my tongue and the roof of my mouth getting used to a pipe, and everything but chili and barbecue tastes the same, but a good smoke is a good smoke :D
 
Balancing at the center point.

Find a bolt put one into wall or bench. Hang the the blade on the nail and hold it parrellel to the ground. It should balance. If it does not file the appropriate side so that it does.

I heard of one jumping two feet off the ground. This was after it hit a rock.

Will
 
Will has a couple of mower stories himself but don't know if he's up to posting them here.

Wal, years back when cigarettes went up to 4 bucks a carton I got mad and started rolling my own which I did for about 15 years -- Bugler and Top. Then I got lazy and started buying tailor mades again and now I'm paying about 28 bucks per carton.

I think I'll ask Gelbu to start sending me a carton of cigarettes from Nepal with every khukuri shipment. I can get the top brands for about 4 bucks per carton.
 
Originally posted by mgnew
Yvsa, your Aunt Myrtle sounds like my grandma that lived in Ft. Gibson OK, she was full blooded Cherokee kinda hard to look at when she dipped snuff and was good a ndn through and through. She tought me a lot I wish I had listened better.
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Kieth did the snuff dribble outta one side of her mouth or both?;)
I can rememner when I was quite young that grandma liked a dip now and then.
She used the old Garret Sweet Snuff that was a really fine powder, chewed up the end of a matchstick and used the resulting 'brush' to dip the snuff outta the can.
You seldom saw grandma dippin' though, the only reason I kjnow she used the matchstick is because I saw it laying beside the can of snuff a time or two.:D
And if she did have a dip in her mouth and you went into her room she would make you get out 'till she got rid of it.:)

Grandma was almost a complete invalid the latter years of her
life.
She had rheumatoid arthritis and it crippled her up big time.
I can still see her in her special kitchen chair grandpa had put wheels on so she could rolled in to the kitchn table to
eat.
Her fingers was so bent and mishapen she could hardly use a fork or spoon and she seldom wore her teeth.
Said the dayumed things hurt and she had enough of that already.
But she could gum the hell outta most anything.
I'm still sorta suprised she couldn't eat corn on the cob with those gums!!!!:D
I bought a small can of it (the snuff) one time and got a big dip just below my gum on one side and then the dust got into my nose and I started sneezeing. The next thing I knew a gob of it went down my throat and then I started pukeing. Last Dayumed Time I Ever Tried That Brand!!!!!

I was the only grandkid that grandma would talk about ndn stuff and that wasn't too often.
I wish I could have learned the old Cherokee song that she sang for me once, but like so may other expeiences with grandma it was a one time thing, but I will never forget her singing the song or the tune that runs through my head when I think about it.:)

As far as Aunt Myrtle goes.... I believe she could have thrown one titty over her back, put a kid on her hip to nurse and then caused the flintrock to spark from her barefeet when she would walk down a row of strawberries bent over to pick them.
I still love Aunt Myrtle to death!!!!
She was a genuine (and Formidable) person and these days there aren't many like her except perhaps with the exception of some of my Cherokee Kinfolk down in Arkansas that still have to swing by grapevine down the holler to get home , or out.:D:D
 
Yvsa, it ran down both sides:barf:, but she would spit between her fingers to keep it from dribbling down her chin she said "It's not lady like to spit like a man" :eek:. She like Garrett and Roster snuff.I still have a few of the glasses that it came in to remind me of her. She could take a hatchet and hull out a turtle faster than anyone I've ever seen and cook on a camp fire like a french chef ;). I guess that came from raising 9 kids. The old gal was very superstitous and scared of a thunderstorm :eek:, everytime she saw a cloud we all had to get in the root celler :rolleyes: but that wasn't to bad because that's where she kept her canning an us kids would always eat peaches and appples she had canned:D. I need to go to Telaqua some time and look up some of her kin, I've heard that's where they keep all the ndn records. :)
 
I had to chuckle at these posts. My Cherokee Grand Mother confessed to me that she loved to dip snuff when she was young (used a fresh twig off a tree with one end mashed into frazzles so it would pick up the snuff nicely) but had to give it up when she started teaching Sunday school at the Methodist church. She said the church goers just didn't understand.
 
Originally posted by mgnew
I need to go to Telaqua some time and look up some of her kin, I've heard that's where they keep all the ndn records. :)
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Kieth they're your kin as well. Especially when it comes to family. We put a lot of emphasis on family and that was what originally broke the ndn.
When the kids were taken from their families and put in boarding school it was our downfall for many years.
Believe me you go down there and tell them who you are and your families lineage you will be hugged almost to death.:eek: :D

And while you're there if you don't have your ndn card be sure to get an application and then take the steps needed to get it on file. Even if you don't use any of the few benefits it will give the tribe one more on the headcount which gives them a few more dollars.
The Edlers and kids need it if no one else does. It's very important.

Originally posted by Uncle Bill.
"I had to chuckle at these posts. My Cherokee Grand Mother confessed to me that she loved to dip snuff when she was young (used a fresh twig off a tree with one end mashed into frazzles so it would pick up the snuff nicely) but had to give it up when she started teaching Sunday school at the Methodist church. She said the church goers just didn't understand."
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And some of them still don't Bro, but there's a lot of ndn churches now where all sorts of things go on that you don't see anywhere else.:D
 
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