Brush Cutter Blades

[imroberts]

I'm intending to buy a Stihl FS 55 R Brush Cutter.

I have an area of land which gets hugely overgrown with weeds, nettles, etc. and needs clearing a couple of times a year. I have a battery strimmer which I use for general garden maintenance however this isn't up to the job and I spend longer rethreading broken lines than I do actually clearing weeds.

The brush cutter I'm planning to buy obviously has a much larger cutting diameter, and can take 2.7mm square edge line rather than the 1.6mm stuff my ordinary strimmer uses, which I'm hoping might be sufficient.

However, it can also take metal blades which come in a 2-tooth, 4-tooth and an 8-tooth variant which essentially looks just like a very coarse circular saw blade.

If I end up buying a metal blade to try, what are the different designs best suited to?

 

[Mr Chibs]

Don't know if this helps.

The Honda is great I did 3 hours yesterday with the blade (3 tooth), it's beast for thicker items... I have no experience of the other types.
I have used a 2-stroke stihl brush cutter, with the retracting plastic blades, I would go Honda if I had the choice.

I'm using 2.7mm red line, not 2.4 as I mentioned in the previous post.... doh.

https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/which-brush-cutter.590872/#post-5216776

 

[scbk]

I use 2.7mm square line in the husqvarna battery strimmer
Nettles aren't very tough, line will cut them fine.
Strimmer line is more forgiving around stones etc (rather than blunting a metal blade), but it's not so good for the environment with the micro plastics. Probably easier to put a stone through a window with line too!


Rough guide on brush cutter blades, stolen from a honda manual:

 

[Mr Chibs]

Is the square line any better than the round line, hadn't realised you could get square

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Rough guide on brush cutter blades, stolen from a honda manual:

i use a 2-blade steel cutter on my Makita 36v (2 × 18v) cordless - it's hell on the 3 to 4 year growth of brambles I've been cutting through recently. Tried a 4-blade version and found it a bit faster, but drained the batteries faster.

I don't fancy sticking a saw blade on the end of a weed whacker, though (the manual for my Mak doesn'menyition them being available). To my mind it is too much like sticking one on an angle grinder to, and in any case may be illegal for sale here on grounds of safety, in the same way that angle grinder saw blades were banned a few years back, although not before one death and several horrific injuries

 

[lostinthelight]

As I posted in another thread, they should only be used with cowhorns.
https://www.frjonesandson.co.uk/pro...-joBzlDfiDczN4DuKZ29ozjuuu3ppoGRoCzWYQAvD_BwE

 

[Deleted member 174758]

As I posted in another thread, they should only be used with cowhorns

Yes, mea culpa - I should have mentioned that I was talking about a tool with cowhorns and a harness. Even so, Makita still don't offer a saw blade for the tool I have. Possibly something to do with the legislation dealing with saw blades on grinders?

 

[lostinthelight]

Yes, mea culpa - I should have mentioned that I was talking about a tool with cowhorns and a harness. Even so, Makita still don't offer a saw blade for the tool I have. Possibly something to do with the legislation dealing with saw blades on grinders?

Maybe the battery ones are not up to running them cos they do sell them.
https://www.partshopdirect.co.uk/makita-brushcutter-saw-blade-255mm-x-254mm-80-teeth-pB-14168/

 

[scbk]

It's fine to run a saw blade on brushcutter, I wouldn't say it's dangerous at all. The blades for cutting trees have chisel teeth, and are sharpened with a round file like a chainsaw.
The proper machines are sold as "clearing saws", they usually have a different angle on the head, and shorter handles as they're used off the ground more than a strimmer would be



https://www.husqvarna.com/uk/brushcutters/535ifr/

 

[scbk]

Best blade for brambles though is a mulching blade with the upturned ends, it cuts the brambles up in to shorter pieces

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Best blade for brambles though is a mulching blade with the upturned ends, it cuts the brambles up in to shorter pieces

I shred them, anyway