He Cuts Slots In Sides Of Worn Sickle Sections

He Cuts Slots In Sides Of Worn Sickle Sections SWATHERS Swathers 21-4-32 Randy Henson, Rt. 1, Box 195, Wheeler, Texas 79096 (ph 806 826-5665): "You don't throw away a pocket knife just because the blade gets dull, so why throw away sickle sections when they get dull?" says Randy, a custom harvester who's come up with a unique method of sharpening sickles. "In our area, we cut a lot of short dryland wheat and a sharp sickle bar is a must or you in. in dia. You can buy them for about $3 apiece at a machine shop. To fit the disks to the grinder's shaft, you'll have to get a ma-chine shop to custom-fabricate an adapter mandrel, which shouldn't cost more than $10 or $15. "To use, you simply make 1/8-in. deep cuts into the sides of the dull blade, skipping two or three of the original serrations between cuts. It takes only a minute or two per blade and two cutting disks should take care of a 24-ft. sickle bar. The easiest way to sharpen the blades is to remove the sickle bar from the header. However, you can leave the sickle bar in place to do the job. You can cut into two blades at a time. No need to unbolt the blades. "The tool costs only about $70, including the adapter mandrel, which is a drop in have to slow your ground speed way down. I use a small hand-held Dremmel grinder that you can buy at most hardware stores to sharpen blades on my Deere 24-ft. sickle. I fit it with a wafer thin cutting disk about 3 the bucket compared to what you'd spend routinely replacing dull sickle blades. Incidentally, I've never completely worn out a sickle blade in the many years I've been using this method."

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