Chipper How often do you sharpen your chipper blades?

[pennwalk]

I saw a post where a guy said he sharpened his chipper knives every 40 hours. That made me wonder because my Bearcat chipper/shredder pretty much stops working after 10 or 15 hours. In facts it works best for the first hour of sharp blades. Of course it is manual feed which may make a difference. What is your experience?

Chris

 

[SimS]

Pennwalk;

It depends on what I'm chipping. I have a Vermeer 6" chipper and I just look at the chips every hour or so to see that they are still a clean shaving and not "dusty". Just like you would do on a chainsaw. It really depends on the wood too. Hardwood or softwood, green or dry.

SimS

 

[Gittyup]

and how much dirt you run through it.

 

[jeffinsgf]

Pennwalk,

I have a manual feed Goossen, and just like you, after 10 hours or so, it starts to become a lot of work to get the stuff pushed through. Don't know about the Bearcat, but the Goossen is a pain to change blades. I'm guessing there are 24 bolts that have to be undone to get to the blades, and then you still can't "really" get to them (tight access).

I'll have to stick with this one a couple more years, but I'm looking forward to the day when I can upgrade to something with power feed.

 

[81husky]

40 hours would be awesome, but my Bearcat after about 10 is getting pretty dull. Maybe a hydraulic feed would keep shoving it in there, but my hand feed chipper is all over at 10-15 hours.