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As many of you are aware the BESS enjoys a growing roll in industry. While many of the industrial applications we are engaged in are easily recognized some would surprise you. Many have certainly surprised us. We've recently finished talks and will begin joint testing for edges used commonly in agriculture. The potential design and purpose of these edges is lengthy but, in cooperation with our international manufacturing customer, we'll begin with a single and very common tillage tool used by farmers across the US and Canada.
We'll be testing for optimum initial sharpness as well as measuring edge degradation in field use. We anticipate that our new SET unit will be utilized as part of the optimization effort as well.
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"Cryptic too... You're making us guess?"
We just try to keep our members abreast of the breadth and extent of the BESS Mark while keeping the hopes and aspirations of our industrial customers under our hat Mark. Air seeding? Sounds like something birds would do during mating season.
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Thanks Mark. Yes, we just wish that we could get more industrial participation here on the Exchange. There is lot of information represented here that would be of great benefit to them. Steel cutting edges are all subject to the same set of physical laws without regard for their shape, size and intended use. There is a ton of information that can be gleaned from the BESS Exchange and it's members.
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I know that the first time I saw an industrial grade lawn mower blade I was surprised to see it wasn't sharpened to an edge. The edge was flat, about 1mm thick, maybe a little less.
Wow, it made a huge difference in longevity of the edge, and the blades cut very cleanly.
I've played around with these blades for a couple years, and I am convinced this is the right way to sharpen mower blades.
Once again, industrial sharpness is not necessarily in line with common reasoning.
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For shaping and sharpening lawn mower blades I usually use the bench grinder, but sometimes I am not fully satisfied with free hand grinded edge angle consistency.
![[Image: sad.gif]](https://www.tormek.com/forum/Smileys/default/sad.gif)
Some two years ago it occurred to me to lay a rubber-faced vise jaw pad on the bench grinder tool rest. The vise jaw protector can slide along the bench grinder tool rest while keeping the edge angle of the blade the same. The mower blade rests in a groove of the rubber-faced pad. Using the same groove it is easy to get the same edge angle for both ends of the lawn mower blade.
Jan
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Thanks Jan, Grepper and Mark. Now we're getting close to home for me. Mark's comments really struck a chord with me and I think that is because Mark and I hail from similar backgrounds. There is a lot to mow out on the ranch/farm and getting off your mower to pick up objects that are composed of materials softer than your mower blade seems ridiculous to us. Getting off and then back on the mower takes time...and effort. Mowing should be a relaxing activity, a time for reflection and a time to make certain that your body is fully hydrated with things you're not supposed to drink, especially when you're mowing. The occasional small tree branch et al is at odds with the goals here. That's why Mark and I appreciate "engineered edges" on our mowers. Something +/- 30,000 BESS. We don't worry whether or not the object we just struck might have dulled our mower blade because the blade was dull to begin with.
Jan and Grepper see a closely cropped and finely clipped grass pool table top when they're finished. Mark and I see the aftermath of a great battle, strewn with the broken vestiges of war. I feel you brother Mark.
