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Ninja Blade on Snapper

#1

J

joseroman1014

Guys

This site is amazing... so informative..

First please excuse my first long post..

I do have a problem. Everyone everywhere is glorifying this ninja blade attachment for this Snapper lawn mower I bought from P.E.D but I have to say I am highly disappointed with the cut and performance of this blade on my first trial cut with it this Tuesday. I damaged the High lift Blade that comes with My snapper HI-VAC with a rock that I hit while mowing last week, so I bought the Ninja Mulching Blade to cut and mulch my grass clipping but it does a horrible job at cutting. It seems to leave streaks of uncut grass and I have to pass it twice over the same area so get a semi descent cut. Has anyone experienced this? Also I did notice that when I received the blade the edges of it were not sharp at all at they were blunt and painted. Should I sharpen this blade before use? Its angles are different and some of the edges look like they will be hard to try to sharpen? Any one has ever sharpened one of these.. Should I go back to the original blade?

Thanks in advance..


#2

S

shiftsuper175607

joseroman1014 said:
Guys

This site is amazing... so informative..

First please excuse my first long post..

I do have a problem. Everyone everywhere is glorifying this ninja blade attachment for this Snapper lawn mower I bought from P.E.D but I have to say I am highly disappointed with the cut and performance of this blade on my first trial cut with it this Tuesday. I damaged the High lift Blade that comes with My snapper HI-VAC with a rock that I hit while mowing last week, so I bought the Ninja Mulching Blade to cut and mulch my grass clipping but it does a horrible job at cutting. It seems to leave streaks of uncut grass and I have to pass it twice over the same area so get a semi descent cut. Has anyone experienced this? Also I did notice that when I received the blade the edges of it were not sharp at all at they were blunt and painted. Should I sharpen this blade before use? Its angles are different and some of the edges look like they will be hard to try to sharpen? Any one has ever sharpened one of these.. Should I go back to the original blade?

Thanks in advance..
Click to expand...

If the new blade is not upside down....I would take it off and try a regular blade.
It does not make sense that a new, single blade does not cut even...unless you bent your crank shaft.


#3

J

joseroman1014

shiftsuper175607

I checked the install of the blade there is no way to put it upside down and I checked with the old blade and it cuts fine. the old blade has a deep nick on it so I decided to purchase this ninja blade before grinding down the original.. Even with the nicked original blade it cuts way better... there is no vibration from the old blade and it sounds good so I don't think its a bent crank..

going to just sharpen out the nick I guess on the original blade..


#4

J

jp1961

I bought a new Ninja blade for my Snapper. Yes, mine too was VERY dull, and YES you should sharpen it. You'll find you can sharpen the main cutting surface on a bench grinder, but the smaller secondary blade is hard to get at. Maybe a Dremel tool would work on the smaller blade. I discharge my clippings to the side, so the Ninja blade makes little to no difference over a standard blade. I think it would work better on a mulching setup.


#5

Snapperfreak

Snapperfreak

I mulch sometimes but not too often, I have one ninja blade on my WR 125. But I'll add what knowledge I have about mulching with snapper. If the grass is too tall when you're trying to mulch it won't work very well, too much grass to cut it up finely enough to recycle it back into the ground and it'll end up clumpy. It does help to have a more powerful engine when u mulch, which engine is on your snapper? The deck is another factor. While u of course can mulch with the hi-vac deck, the mulching deck does a much better job. Hope that helps some.


#6

M

menzi308

I had no luck with the ''Ninja Blade." What piece of crap.


#7

K

kcsnapper

I put the Ninjas on my 38" RER and wasn't impressed. Went back to the hi lift blades. I don't mulch.


#8

O

oh n 16

My experience was just the opposite. I didn't like the cut I was getting from the OEM blade, so I bought the Ninja blade and am very pleased with it. I keep it sharpened, and it does a great job of mulching. I only run into trouble if I let the grass gets too long because I am out of town, then it will clump up. I have two Ninja blades, that way when I take one off to sharpen, I can put the spare on, and I don't have to worry about how long it takes me to get the one I just took off sharpened.
I think the trick is to keep it sharp, because mine mulches great.


#9

B

bertsmobile1

Mulching only works over a finite range of grass heights and cut lengths.
And these will be different for different varieties of grasses.
Mulching cuts the grass then recuts the clippings several times so all this extra work will come at a cost, requiring a bigger engine or higher throttle.
The deck design, shape and height between the blade and the inside of the edge of the deck is critical for the system to work properly.
TYhe sharper the cutting edge, the less work is done by the engine and the better the quality of cut.
Downside is a fine edge is easily damaged and with work hardening Boron steel blades, repairing a dinged blade can be quite a job.
Not every combination of blade and deck will work properly.
A properly trained service professional ( they are a bit thin ) should be able to work out the best combination of blades for your lawn.


#10

bobthewoodbutcher

bobthewoodbutcher

maybe a year or so ago on this site someone wrote a dissertation on how to sharpen a lawnmower blade..I can't find it but it is somewhere in the archives

basically they said the blade should not be sharp but have a flat edge, maybe 100th of an inch, that hits the grass and the grass folds over the top edge and as it does the upper edge causes the cutting action. They had illustrations and everything and it seemed to make sense to me but the bottom lind is my mulching blade sucks. it leaves windrows and unless i cut an inch or less at a time i have to keep going back over the yard until i cant see the clippings


that is why i sold my 30" snapper RER and went back to a self propelled mulching walker... but i really miss the rer rider


#11

B

bertsmobile1

Bob read the previous post.
The thickness of the cutting edge will vary from blade to blade.
Gators ( Oregeon brand name ) ar sharp enough to cut your fingers on if you grab the edge hard
Most swingback blades will in fact as they have a knife edge.
Oem blades have a definate leading edge from about .040" to .125" depending upon which particular blade.

Think about it.
Your trimmer uses round plastic string to cut the grass and thus has a very dull leading edge.
Come blades will not work with some decks.
Mulching must be done to dry grass and the amount of cut can be no more than 1/3 the height of the uncut grass and you must mow slower.
Once the deck gets too high it can not maintain the correct airflow under the deck so it spits the grass out in clumps or windrows.


#12

S

snapperdog

My experiences with ninja blades has been all positive. Bent one up on my 21" push and replaced with a gator and was very disappointed. The gator holds too many clippings in the deck and bogs the engine, the ninja turns the clippings into dust. I even put a mulch kit and three ninja blades on my 48" snapper lawn tractor and am very pleased. I hand sharpen them on a vise with a file takes about 15 minutes and produces a fantastic durable edge. Unfortunately ninja blades have become a little pricey.


#13

wingless

wingless

Welcome to the forum.

My experience w/ the 21" walk behind Ninja blade is very positive. The cut is great and the blade life is terrific. They are "easy" to sharpen.

The only negative I experience is when cutting very thick, lush grass, the frequency of cutting has to be short or the taller grass will cause the rear wheels to collect the very fine cut grass dust, then unwind the strips of grass matting periodically, leaving long tracks on the lawn. The tracks may be broken up w/ a swiping boot motion.


#14

wingless

wingless

A shop press is my latest favorite tool.

It is great for flattening something bent, or for bending something flat.

It might be useful for restoring the bent blade.


#15

S

slomo

My opinion on sharpening, never use a grinder. Removes too much material at once. Then you have to balance the blade again on a GOOD balancer.

Why not use a simple hand file like I do? I can sharpen a blade in two whole minutes. It's also much more forgiving if you get the wrong bevel angle on it which is highly critical on a good edge.

Most people use a grinder and see shiny new metal and "think" it's sharp then stop. They never test the new edge out. Also grinding wheels are round, bevels are flat. See where this is going? Round wheels will contact in a small spot. A flat file will contact the entire bevel. Wrong tool for the job.

Next we can talk about over heating the bevel with a grinder and killing the heat treat, if the blade was even hardened from the get-go. Most OEM blades are a poor soft steel. Oregon blades are hardened, lets just leave it at that. Again my 3 cents guys.

slomo


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