Something to remember is most companies don't make a lot of their own parts.
I would bet someone makes them for them. I work at a company that designs
equipment. We always try to use off the shelf parts it is easier that way.
The blades you have might be the generic blades from company "xyz" but are
now the oem blade for company "abc".

"Joe Zorzin" xxxx@zzzz wrote in message
...
Yuh, that would be useful info- the only way we'd know for sure, but the
blade makers probably don't care to give us that info. Although I agree
that
the OEM probably are better- with other products, sometimes the non OEM
are
just as good, and the OEMs just want us to think there is a difference so
they can make their excessive profits.

I like the comment by Dr. Doctor that because most blades get so abused-
that reduces the quality difference.

In my case, my 2.5 acre lawn has lots of rocks in it. It was once part of
a
cow field and never really cleaned up for a lawn. The bigger rocks, I
don't
get near- every so often I use my weed whacker to clean them up. The
problem
is the ones that only stick up an inch or two- most times the mower won't
hit them unless it comes at them from a certain angle- then it scrapes
them. I should rip those rocks out, but we all know once you start- you
find
that some are as big as a truck.

When I took my blades off for the first time after 50 hours- I see that
there is a butterfly shape cut into the blade which is meant to fit over a
similar shape on the drive component of the mower to hold it in place. On
the drive bolt component, one of those butterfly shapes looks good,
another
is worn significantly, and the third is almost gone. I assumed this wear
was
from hitting rocks. My local repair guy said it was probably from the
blades
being lose. Actually, that may be the case as the blades came off
extremely
easy. I thought it would be a struggle and had a breaker bar ready.

On some other small mower and on my large heavy duty brush/weed cutter-
the
blade's threading is the opposite of most nuts and bolts in order to make
sure the blade as tight as possible and of course, they can be tough to
get
off. On this Sears tractor mower, that's not the case. Then again, I get
confused with such simple matters- I have zero mechanical skills- maybe on
the tractor mower the cutting edges are opposite from my small mower and
brush cutter.

Replacing those worn bolts that drive the blades because of the worn
butterfly is going to be very expensive- each bolt costs about $35 direct
from Sears and the local repair guy says his labor rate is $30/hr-
although
the repair guy said he can get the bolts cheaper than Sears' price. At
this
time I can't afford to do this. So, I'm going to just put the blades back
on
and tighten the nuts up to the max. 55 pounds torque and hope for the
best.
Although the butterfly pattern was worn, none of the blades had turned
from
their original positions- they were all still lined up perfectly- so
perhaps
they'll hold, especially if I make a point of retightening them frequently
with a good torque wrench. Then when I can afford to replace those drive
bolts, I'll do so- and maybe do it myself with the help of a friend who
seems to be able to fix anything.



"Chris" wrote in message
...
I know ther are different qualities of steel and it does mkae a
differnce
as
far as quality. Can you get the specification of each blade and find out
what steel each is made of?
"Joe Zorzin" xxxx@zzzz wrote in message
...
I have a nice Craftsman lawn tractor purchased at Sears. My 3 blades
are
now
getting sharpened. I decided I ought to buy a new set so I can rotate
them
while having one set being sharpened.

I think Sears quoted me something like $18/blade. A local guy has a
shop
for
maintenance work on lawn tractors and he said he can get the identical
blades for $11 each.

Wal-Mart has blades even cheaper. I asked the local guy if there is
much
difference in quality- he said that the cheaper blades will have lower
quality steel and won't last as long or retain their sharpness.

Comments? I do believe in getting good tools and maintaining them, but
I
sometimes get ripped off on prices. If the local guy is right- sure, I
want
the better blades, but he is really right?

--
Joe Zorzin