Oregon Mulch Blade 3 or 4mm

[Stubby]

22 minutes ago, Gimlet said:

I mulched literally thousands of self-seeded saplings with a 4 mm Oregon tri-point blade on 9 hectares of chalk downland that was under a restoration stewardship programme. They were mostly hawthorn and hazel with some oak. I used a 45cc Kawasaki badged Stiga brushcutter (crap, but that's another story) and I can tell beyond doubt that 1" is too thick.  If the drive train survives it you risk smashing the blade guard (as I did) with heavy lumps of debris. I stuck to about half inch stems and then you need to sweep them away in a series of passes from the top down. Trying to go straight in at the base could kill your drive shaft. Hazel I could get away taking a bit thicker because it splits and shatters readily but hawthorn was too dense. I would think blackthorn will be too.

 

Also it won't mulch the thick woody base of the stems that well and you end up with an awful lot of splintery shrapnel showered all over the place. But a saw blade will sing through a 2" stem with no effort at all. You have to go round and pick up the brash afterwards but it's easy enough to do with a muck fork and there's no mess left behind. I use a saw blade when I'm hedgelaying to clear blackthorn and bullace suckers that have advanced out into the field. I tried using the mulching blade but kept having to stop when I encountered something too big, plus it's not so easy to cut them tight to the ground so I was ending up with little stumps everywhere that I kept tripping over. the saw blade was far less stressful on the machine, much faster and neater. 

 

My 45cc engine could handle the blade weight no problem (I used it on a 25 cc Echo previously and it killed the bottom end). There's considerable inertia to overcome to get a 4 mm blade spinning so the engine won't rev up as quickly as usual, but provided you're not having to hold the throttle flat out, it will handle it and the secret is to get it up to speed and keep it at that speed constantly. The three pointer makes very rapid work of shredding bramble. The way to do it is to pat the blade down on the top of the thicket rather than sweeping it side to side. the patting down technique is much easier to do on a machine with a D handle rather than cow horn bars, if you've got one that's powerful enough. The three pointer will reduce the heaviest bramble to a fine mulch which is great if you plan to spray off the new growth with Grazon or something similar.  

Be careful when sharpening to take the same amount off each tip so the blade stays balanced. If it's badly out of balance and sets up a lot of vibration that can damage your drive train as well. 

I use the thickest one with the twin turned down blades on Husqvarna 45 and 50 cc strimmers . Never had a problem other than hitting a hidden tin of Dulux white gloss paint ...

[ChrisNewport]

On 09/06/2022 at 18:31, openspaceman said:

 

 

I have a 4mm 2 bladed mulcher on my 50cc brushcutter and wouldn't risk anything thinner, it will easily cope with any brambles. What benefit does a 3 bladed mulcher give?

 

 

out of curiosity as to how different the stihl 2 blade is against the oregon 3 blade i picked up a stihl 2 blade cheap on ebay and ive tested it on the FS400 this afternoon, i can safely say i will not be using the oregon 3 blade again.

Edited July 4, 2022 by ChrisNewport

[Guest Gimlet]

What was the difference in performance?