[RideoutKSC]

Does anyone make a lawn mower blade that has 4 blades on it like an X?

Has anyone every tried to put two perpendicular blades on a mower? Seems to me like this would be more efficient. Just a thought since my dad's 30" rear engine Craftsman needs a new blade.

 

[Bolens 1000]

I have a 92' craftsman 10hp sitting in the back, with four blades they are in X's on two pulley's, when I had it running last it shure gives a smooth cut

 

[slipshod]

The "Dixie Chopper" comes that way.

 

[RideoutKSC]

Hmm I'll take a look at the dixie chopper and craftsman blades.

 

[HydroHarold]

"Just Wonderin' Dept." Just wonderin' if there would be any advantage to an "X" blade for a 3 blade deck that was welded at the cross and had all the cutting edges on the same plane...? Would the "lift wings" have to be reduced/increased? Would it really cut smoother? Would the deck parts complain? How much more HP would it take...?

I had the X blades on one of my Gravely Ls, it was 2 specially staggered blades and a center "adapter plate" which attempted to keep the blades at 90º. It cut regular grass a decent bit better than the regular sharpe heavy hog blade. (Just don't forget what blade is on there and try and do a few saplings, the center adapter doesn't like that! "Get out the torch with the rosebud and a hammer!"

This could become a neat "brain picker" thread!

 

[Tractor-Holic]

I had a few old riding mowers that had a large disc with 2 or 4 blades bolted to the outer edges of it..one may have been a Dynamark I think,or maybe a Murray,it was not one of the "high end" riders ,I remember that much!..they seemed to cut good..

 

[Don B.]

Old Jacobsen push mowers had a large "disc" with 4 triangle shaped blades on it; mostly on the 2 cycle versions; that extra "flywheel" disc sure helped those mowers get thru some of the heaviest of grass!!!!

 

[tractorkid94]

I had an older Craftsman II that was like that. I never did get to cut grass with it though...

 

[LLigetfa]

Ninja blades are X albeit not perpendicular.

 

[Caseguytoo]

I wouldn't be welding blades together. Blades are heat-treated and any weld would create a weak spot that could lead to fracturing.

 

[HydroHarold]

I wouldn't be welding blades together. Blades are heat-treated and any weld would create a weak spot that could lead to fracturing.

To put a finer point on it, I meant OEM X blades. Any other configuration must surely be a mechanical compression fit joint adapter plate between the blades or something machined from Krell metal with enough strength to keep the blades indexing and properely crossed.

The punched out Gravely "spacer" thing was up to "mostly" all of regular mowing. It was the "sudden stop" business that would modify the spacer "setting"... This discussion is probably a mechanically sinful idea anyway that we'll all be proscuted for for even thinking about in this totally silly era...

"I'm sorry Officer, I was talking about an 'eggs' blade... you know for shelling eggs...?"
"Tell it to the Supreme Safety Court Judge, punk!"

 

[Boyd]

There is a site for lawn services called www.lawnsite.com over there they call them "doubles". Some have done it. There is a guy that has advertised on that site,,, I think his blades are called Meg-mow. You can google it. I've never tried them though as they are expensive. In the 90s MTD sold a mulch blade kit for their rear engine rider that I think was a 30" single blade deck. The mulch blade had about 8 or 10 blade edges on it. I would love to find one of these mowers with this mulch blade just to see how well it mowed. I think I checked about 5 years ago and you could get that mulch blade in parts seperately but not off the shelf complete.

 

[Toolin]

Part of getting a nice, uniform cut is having sufficient updraft of air to keep the grass blades standing vertically while being cut by the blade(s).

I would think that more blade surface area (filling more of the circular area with metal vs air) would make for less vertical airflow and generally a crappier cut.

To visualize this take it to the extreme. Imagine mounting a full circular disk that extends nearly to the edges of the deck, but then cut a couple (or 4) narrow wedges out of it and sharpen one edge of each wedge. Not much chance for the blades of grass to sneak up into that wedge when the disk spins.

Granted, 4 blades in an X pattern is not as bad on vertical airflow as my ridiculous "full disk with slots" example. But it is somewhere in-between, so by definition should be worse than a single blade.

 

[JohnW]

I would think that more blade surface area (filling more of the circular area with metal vs air) would make for less vertical airflow and generally a crappier cut.

I did the cross (X) blade thing on a 5hp push mower and I had to be careful if I pushed it under the maple tree. It is almost all moss under the tree and if I were to have the engine at WOT it would lift the moss mat up off the ground into the mower. I would have a FULL deck of moss and dirt, but it sure cut grass GREAT.

 

[LLigetfa]

I would think that more blade surface area ... would make for less vertical airflow...

There is anecdotal evidence to the contrary, that one gets more airflow and more lift.

I have a problem that pre-dated my gators in that I don't get enough lift. The grass that is flattened by the front tires doesn't get cut as short and a day or two later, stands proud. I've given some thought to sistering up some high-lift blades.