Excaliber blades

[wildbilly1113]

I run a new lc 27 Lazer and a JD z-trak.I run mulch kits on both.I run excaliber mulching blades on lazer and standard mulching blades on z-trak.At the end of the day the JD blades are still sharp and lazer blades are dull and nicked up.JD blades are made tuff! Does JD know something that exmark does'nt? Love my exmarks! Thanks!

[eXmark]

WildBill,

I'm not familiar with their mulch kit at all. I did see a small picture of one in a catalog but that was about it. I've not run their mulch kit but I would ask myself a couple of questions.

First, are they turning the blades as fast as we are? With out system each blade is more or less sealed in it's own chamber as are the clippings that blade generates. Consequently compared to some mulching systems we re-circulate the clippings more times and deposit them deep into the turf. Some mulching systems only cut the clippings to a fine consistency and then leave it lay on the surface of the lawn.

I'll be the first one to admit that we do hold the clippings in the mulching chamber longer, we do generally chop them to a finer consistency and we do generally deposit them deeper in the turf and all of this does dull the blade faster.

There is a third possible cause. The blades could be soft. It's been known to happen that a heat treating process doesn't always go as plan and a hardened piece of steel doesn't get as hard as it's supposed to. On the other hand it can go to the other extreme and get too hard as well.

Thanks

Terry

[TLS]

The older John Deere blades were quite tough! On my F-935's, the blades were .310" thick! They were pretty hard, and resisted dulling better than any blade that I can remember, but.....Come time to sharpen them, you better have a couple hours set aside to accomplish this!

I'm quite happy with Exmarks OEM blades. Theres so many "mail order" companies out there selling second rate blades. From being "close" to the right length, to being "close" to the proper lift angle, to being "close" to the amount each blade is sharpened.

When I find a good product, I like to stick with it.