Articles by Love's Sharpening
© 2005 Tim Love, Love's Sharpening
2145 Good Hope Road
Edwards, MS 39066
601-529-1973
lovessharpening@aol.com

Blade Cleaning and Care

I don’t have time to clean my blades! How many times have you heard or said that? If I told you a way to save sharpening costs would you be interested? Clean and oil your blades! It is amazing how much gunk a blade accumulates in just an hour between the cool sprays, oil and dirt from the animal, heat generated by the blade, etc. As this gunk builds up a few things start to happen. 1) The blade starts to not cut like it should. The blades are being held slightly apart by the gunk so they are not cutting anymore, but instead are pulling the hair. 2) The blades get hotter faster. This can also be from blade tension. When a blade is harder to move it will heat up quicker. 3) Clipper starts to slow down or get hot. This is due to the clipper having to work harder to keep the blade moving.

Usually when a blade starts to not work right, some will reach for the Cooling Sprays. They spray the blade and it speeds up and starts cutting again. What has happened is the gunk had been diluted and some has been removed, but will soon build up even worse than before. These sprays get sticky like hair spray once they dry. Now think how sticky hair spray is and how hard a clipper must work to keep the blade moving. Some of the Cooling cans now say to re oil the blade after using them. One thing that happens when using the sprays is the oil is removed from the blade guide (plastic piece on top of the small blade) and this will create more friction, which results in more heat generated and more wear on the clipper. Sometimes you will hear a high pitch squeak on the faster clippers. This is the blade guide. It is important to keep this well oiled all the time. You may have to put a couple of drops on it once an hour or more. This depends on how much of the Cooling stuff you use. It does not take a lot of oil to keep a blade working, but you have to do it regularly.

What type of blade cleaner to use. Some take the blade apart and use soap and water, dry completely and re oil. Some use a commercial product of some type and re oil. I have even seen a mixture of mineral spirits and motor oil. I know it works, but why do you want to put motor oil on an animal and take a chance of skin irritations or worse. The commercial product I like is the H-42. It has a rust inhibitor, kills stuff, has some oil in it, and smells good. It does come in a spray bottle so you can use it as you are grooming. You still have to re oil the blade. The cheapest blade cleaner is rubbing alcohol. It cleans well, dries fast so you can re oil and get going again. Do not put hot blades in rubbing alcohol! This is for cool blades only. Rubbing alcohol does not disinfect blades either, so you will have to use something for this.

How often do I clean my blades? At least once a day. If you don’t feel like cleaning the blades at the end of the day, then take a brush and get most of the hair out of the teeth and use the blower to get the rest of the hair out and place the blades into a caddy of H-42. In the morning run the blades in the solution according to the directions on the bottle and re oil the blade. Place oil on all of the contact areas: blade guide, teeth and on each side of the back rail. You need only a drop on the teeth and rail, but a several on the blade guide. If a blade is left dirty it can cause rusting and pitting of the cutting area and shorten the life of the blade.

Tips on when to clean and re oil a blade:
1) When blade performance is not normal.
2) If the clipper seems to be slowing down.
3) Blades seem to be getting hotter quicker than normal.
4) If an animal you just did was dirtier than normal. You may have to even clean it during the groom.
5) You can’t hurt a blade by keeping it clean and oiled. If you want to keep repair and sharpening cost down, then clean and oil your blades.

Blade cleaning procedure:
1) Remove excess hair and dirt from blade. Use a soft bristle or wire brush to get hair out of the teeth. Make sure the clipper is turned off!
2) Put blade on to clipper and dip the blade only in to the blade cleaner of choice while it is running.
3) Remove blade from cleaner and turn clipper on to its side or down to the floor. Never point the clipper straight up with a wet blade. Liquid can get into clipper and cause serious damage.
4) Wipe off excess cleaner and re oil
5) Repeat same procedure with all other blades.

Using Blades On Different Clippers

I am often asked if you can use Oster blades on Andis Clippers, Wahl blades on Oster, etc. The answer is yes, but there is one problem, hinge assemblies on clippers are not equal width. I have found Oster has the smallest width hinge on the market so far and Oster is the industry standard that every manufacturer tries to match as close as possible. So if you put a blade on an Andis clipper and then put it on an Oster, it will sound noisy and not cut well. You put it back on the Andis and it cuts again so you think the Oster clipper is bad. What is happening is the Andis hinge is just slightly wider and spreads the ears apart, so when it is put back on an Oster it makes a loud noise. Even new blades from all manufactures rattle on that manufactures clippers right from the package. When I get new blades I adjust the sockets to fit an Oster and test cut with them to make sure they are working correctly. The blades will be snug the first time they go on a clipper other than Oster, but then they will then fit that clipper perfectly.

Even switching between the same brand clippers can cause the ears on the sockets to spread. Hinges wear overtime so a newer hinge will spread the socket the same as if you switched to another brand. One way groomers have gotten around this problem is they designate certain blades to be used on certain clippers. This helps keep blades from spreading as easily. Others have learned how to adjust the sockets themselves. This is good skill to learn because some sharpeners might use a different clipper than you and spread the ears during their test and then when you put it on your clipper it rattles and won’t cut. Also the ears can spread in between sharpenings and this make you think the blade is dull when it is not. So learning this skill is can be very valuable. I have made a gauge block to set the socket the same every time and have found this to be very useful in not over adjusting the ears. In the next issue I will talk about different blade noises, causes of the noise, and how to solve them.

Why do my blades get hot so fast?

My name is Tim Love and I have been sharpening for 30 years. I will be writing a series of articles on various clipper blade topics. If you have a question or would like some more information on topic please, or have topic ideas please contact me at LovesSharpening@aol.com.

“Why do my blades get hot so fast now?” is the most asked question that I hear. I will cover some of the reasons for blades heating up and how to prevent it.

The biggest reason for hot blades is the clippers are faster now. Most clippers were about 2000 spm (strokes per minute), and now they are 4000 plus spm. This is like going from a moped to a high performance car. With the added speed you get more heat. What is the best way to keep two metal parts from heating up….. LUBRICATION! Keeping your blades clean and lubed will increase the life of your blades and clipper.

To help illustrate this point, rub your hands together slowly. You will start to feel a little warmth, but not anything unbearable. Now rub your hands together faster. The heat is more intense and is generated quicker. After a minute or so they start to feel sticky. Now if you put some lotion on and do this again your hands stay much cooler and are easier to rub to together. When I do this experiment with people they usually say “I use one of the cooling/lube/etc sprays.” That is great, but it is hard to have a product that can cool/lube/clean equally. The spray products are not intended to take the place of regular cleaning and oiling. They are to help you get through grooming that animal as quickly as possible.

The sprays naturally dry out the blade guide (plastic part on top of the blade). The sprays contain some type of cleaner, which is for removing oil, so all the oil is sucked out of the plastic blade guide. When this happens you will hear a high pitch squeak from the dry plastic rubbing on the steel. Also the blade will seem to cut slower from the increased friction. To get the guide roiled may take several drops of oil. Once the guide is re-oiled, the clipper will speed up again and the heat will be less. The greatest cause of blade heat is from the blade guide being dry and increased clipper speed.

The sprays also leave a sticky residue after the blade runs for a while. When the blade starts to slow down again and not cut, it is the spray getting sticky again. When you re-spray it, this loosens up the sticky stuff so the blade speeds up again. An example of this is when you spray a hot pan with cooking spray. When the cooking spray hits the hot pan it sizzles, then gets brown and sticky. The spray now has a crusty appearance and does not coat the pan as it should. When blades have dirt/gunk in them, this will cause the two cutting surfaces not to meet. If the blades are continually run in this condition the gunk bakes on the blades. A lot of blades are not really dull when a sharpener gets them, but are in need of a good cleaning. The sharpening process removes all the gunk and gives you two new clean surfaces that will mate correctly with less friction. Dirty blades get hotter faster, which can remove the “temper” of the blade. Temper is the hardness of the blade and its ability to hold an edge.

When the Super fast clippers (5-10,000 spm) first came out, I was getting blades in that were blue from the overheating of the blades and also had this brown tinge to them from the cooling sprays. The solution given to help with the extreme heating problem was to loosen the tension of the blade, which does help to generate less heat, but can create a new problem of blades “catching” the hair. By “catching” I mean you make one swipe and the blade quits, then you slide the cutter to remove the hair stuck between the blade teeth. The reason the hair is “catching” is the blade is separating just enough to not allow the hair to cut, so it wraps around the teeth instead. Sharpeners do try to set the blades as light as possible, but not so light as to cause this problem. Another problem of too loose of tension is screws in the blades vibrate out because there is not enough tension to hold them securely.

As a blade gets hot, it can quit working, but will usually start working again once it cools off. The reason for this is when metal heats up it expands, which creates more friction. The clipper can’t move the blade as fast so it seems to be dull. How many times have you handed a blade to the sharpening person and they test it and it works?

The easiest way to help with the blade heat problem is to have 3 or 4 of the same number blade and rotate them out when they get warm. Some people put them on a piece of tile, in a window or under a fan to let them cool while they continue to work. The customers I have that do this increase the time between sharpenings dramatically. Some people say it waste time to keep switching out blades, but when you look at how much slower and harder you have to work with hot blades it is actually faster.

The Clipper Vac® systems really help keep blades cool, but they also give a false sense of not having to oil blades. Anytime two pieces of metal rub together they will need to be lubed. Think of the blade as a mini engine. If you don’t keep the engine oiled it will seize up and be costly to replace or repair. By keeping your equipment well lubed and clean, will greatly decrease your maintenance cost and amount of sharpenings you should need.

Clipper Blade Care Basics

By Jeff Andrews, Northern Tails Sharpening
Copyright 2005 Jeff Andrews All rights reserved

Ask around and you will likely get a few opinions on this subject and all will probably work ok. The basic thing about blade care is how much time you want to dedicate to it. If you want to leave the shop as soon as you are done grooming without even cleaning the hair off the blades, you'll never stick to a blade care program that will save you money in buying new blades and sharpening costs.

I have received blades that were so impacted with hair that I could not figure how the groomer got it on the clipper. These same groomers then complain about these blades dragging again after a week or two, and the sharpener doesn’t know if the problem is the blade or the clipper. There are several things that the groomer has control over that can save the metal itself and keep off buildup that will bind the blade up and damage the clipper. If you don't take care of the blades it could damage the clippers.

The basics are these: clean the blades of hair and the red buildup, and maintain a level of lubrication with which you are comfortable with daily.

Cleaning

You can’t use that many blades during the day - 5 or 6, maybe 8 or 10 depending if you are finishing or shaving down. At the end of the day I would gather all the blades that have been used and use the high velocity dryer to blow all the hair from them. Take a pipe cleaner and slide it under the cutter (side to side) and get the hair from under it as well. Hair sucks up oils and will prevent the blade oil from being useful. After that, I check the blade for reddish or brown buildup where the teeth slide back and forth together.

Spray coolants are made by about every clipper manufacturer out there, and are misused by about every groomer who uses them. They all contain about the same thing in them: 1,1,1 Trichloroethane (brake cleaner), glycol, CO2 and water, and very little lubrication (not oil). These products do exactly what they were manufactured to do and that is cool the blade. If you read the back of the can (nobody does) it says to use the product occasionally in a well ventilated area. Some also say to use clipper oil along with the spray coolant. There is not enough lube in spray coolants to use them as a base for blade care. Your not even suppose to spray the teeth of the blade with them, it says so on most of the cans. The solvent will displace the water and prevent rust (so it says) but using these products continually will cause damage to your lungs and your blades eventually. Here is the correct way to use them.

Spraying the teeth of the cutter causes the reddish buildup on the blades. When the buildup gets thick enough it will cause the blade to drag. Sometimes it will seize the blade parts together and cause damage to your clipper when you start it up with that blade on there. We’ll talk about this a lot throughout this paper.

Buildup

Buildup comes from a lot of places, mostly the melting of pet dander, oozy stuff from under mats, and sometimes moisture from the coat you can’t get totally dry. If this buildup is ignored it will cause the cutter to lift up from the comb part of the blade and the blade will start to drag. Buildup will also cause the cutter part to slide very hard back and forth. When that happens many groomers spray it with spray coolants that are mostly solvent and water. The solvent breaks down the buildup for a few minutes and gives you that happy feeling of it actually cleaning and lubing the blade. Groomers also make the mistake of spraying the teeth of the blade with spray coolants. The directions say to spray the BACK of the blade and oil the teeth. But, in 3 minutes you are spraying it again, and if your blade is this far gone you’re in trouble. Remember this, how did the blades look when you got them back from the sharpener? They didn’t have a red or brown, or worse yet, a black buildup on them did they? No, you put it there, you need to control it.

Buildup damages clippers

Years ago, if you can remember back that far, clippers were made of good stuff, they were made to last a lifetime. Today, they are made to break down and the manufacturer will sell you a part to fix it. One way of controlling the breakdowns is to control the one thing that causes clipper failure most of the time...dirty blades. When the blades are tight from buildup they cause parts of the clipper to fail. On the Andis, the drive, the front motor mount and the hinge go first. When they do the drive system becomes loose and this can cause "corn rowing" with a #10-15-30, or a #9 blade, and the blades will drag 75% of the time. When loose, the cutter hesitates on the side before coming back to the other, this causes dragging. If the parts were made better they could take more abuse but they aren’t. Osters are the same way, the hinge and the fiber gear (which used to be metal) will fail. This will cause the same effects with the blades, corn rowing and dragging. When the fiber gear finally fails for good, there will be a groove cut right in the middle of it where the worm gear butts up against it. Every other part in the Oster head costs about $2.00, this fiber gear costs $10.00. See the connection on the spare parts racket they have going? I could be wrong though.

How to clean off the buildup

Forget spray coolants, they don’t clean and they don’t lube. They are a quick fix to keep you going and I use them myself, BUT, each night I clean off the buildup they sometimes create on the blades. Not cleaning daily will give the buildup a chance to go from a semi hard substance that can be removed, to a concrete-like film that may not be able to be cleaned off. If this is the case, the blade will have to be sharpened.

H-42 is one of the best cleaners around, it was made just to clean this film off clipper blades. It can be used as a dip (stick a running blade in it). Some have used an ultrasonic cleaner and put a whole batch of blades in the unit, covered them with H42, and turned it on for awhile. H-42 not only cleans this buildup off, but will lube the blade as well. It will not cool. I always put a drop of oil on after H-42 anyways to make sure its lubed real good. If the buildup is too tough and H-42 cant get it off try the following products first, THEN clean in H42 to get these solvents off. Try "Goof Off",WD-40, brake cleaner (use outside), and believe it or not, charcoal starter. You can use kerosene, but that smell will make you sick after a while.

What about Oster blade wash? If you want to spend 6 bucks for a half pint of Blade Wash, go ahead, or spend $1.99 for a quart of charcoal starter, same difference to me. Get the H-42, you'll never regret it.

This is my opinion and it works, I’ve had groomers go 13 months without blade sharpening. They take the time to clean the blades. If you don’t clean your blades, your sharpener will be glad to for you!

Lubrication

Lubrication is essential to the blades, they can never be allowed to go dry. Every time hair builds up in the blade it scoops up badly needed oil and removes it when you clean them out with your HV. How much oil should one use? With today’s new clippers having higher speeds this produces more heat. Heat can be controlled by changing blades while keeping the oil on them and never letting them get dry. If the blade gets dry it will cause more friction and more heat. So, the more you keep a good comfortable amount of oil on your blades, the less chance of heat causing red buildup and the cutting surfaces going dull quickly.

Rusty Blades

What about rusty blades? They are ok and you can get sanding sponges that will let you rub the rust off. If a blade is discolored it usually means it is oxidized pretty deeply, and this deep oxidation isn’t going to hurt the cutting surfaces. If the cutting surfaces are rusted and pitted the blade is junk.

What causes the rust?  Rust comes bare metal (loss of plating) and no protection. The protection is oil or H-42. The plating loss comes from using the blade, dog hair is very rough and will take the plating off between the teeth of the comb, that’s where rust starts. Sometimes you can scrape the rust off but using the blade will get rid of the rust between the teeth. Spray coolants have a high grade solvent in them and can cause rust to start from little pits in the metal, usually on the backs of the blades that look like spots. Clean these areas off with a sanding sponge and keep the blade lubed.

That's all from me. There will be recommendations from others that will also work. These are my key points. No matter what maintenance program you use YOU have to follow through with it to make it work.

Jeff Andrews
Northern Tails Sharpening
P.O. Box 588
Grayling, MI 49738
989-370-1084
Please visit the grooming and sharpening website for more info
http://www.northerntails.com

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