"Howard Neil" hneil@REMOVE TO REPLY.co.uk wrote in message
Hi Chris,

My brush cutter blade has three points. I am not sure how a four pointed
one
will differ in performance but I suspect that cutting the big stuff may be
a
little harder as there is less gap between the points. If you move the
blade
into small trees slowly, it will try to burn its way through and quickly
damage the tip of the blade. If you chop at the tree, the blade will take
chunks out of it.

Hi Howard,
You are probably right, It looks like I did get the wrong head, I have just
visited/ found a stihl website and they describe the blade I bought as being
for quote "Metal Blade
Steel, 4 cutting teeth, for working on large areas of tough weeds and heavy
grass".

Oh well, looks like I will have to get another blade for brush and scrub.



The blade needs to be a substantial one. Some of those available are
little
more than bent tin. Try to make sure that it is made by Stihl to be
certain
(although there are other good blades available).

I ordered it from a Stihl dealers so I assume its going to be the right
make.



The circular saw blade is the clearing saw blade that I mentioned. This is
for taking out trees up to about 6 inches diameter. I use the brush cutter
blade for everything unless needing to cut close to something that I do
not
wish to damage (e.g. stock fences, trees I wish to keep, etc) or which
might
damage the blade (e.g. stone walls).

Might get one of these as well



The blade on this machine runs anti-clockwise as seen from above. When
cutting things that might throw off big bits (such as small diameter tree
stumps), try cutting from left to right. This will throw the bits away
from
you. Otherwise, invest in some sort of leg shield. :-) A full face visor
is
also advisable, particularly when working near animal excrement.:-)

Thanks for the warning.


I know the enjoyment you are having with it. I started off with a "normal"

brush cutter and this was hard work. I then took a forestry course at a
local agricultural college and was introduced to the Stihl. I bought one
myself and it is now one of my most important machines.


I think its a fantastic machine.
I was using an Echo multi tool with a strimmer head, it really was hard
work, really noisy, I used to have to make several passes before it would
cut a few blades of grass near walls and then I would end up tilting it to
compensate which resulted in ripping a chunk of turf out of the ground, no
such problem with the Stihl, one pass and its gone, cuts as good as a mower.

Heres a link to one of the Stihl sites, it shows the different cutting heads
you can get, pity I did not find it before I went to the shop.

http://www.stihlusa.com/trimmers/blades.html

Regards

Chris.