I am not familiar with the Murray, but I have a 1.5hp Craftsman about
the same size as the Mantis. I got it used and It did not seem to cut
as good as a Mantis that I had tried. I checked the rpm and it was
governed at 6000. I set it up to the recommended 7600rpm and it does
good. I have a Troy 5hp and a front end 3hp tiller. If the ground was
broken up by a larger machine before planting, these little fellas do a
great job at cultivating. You mentioned that the blades had a blunt
edge, no they will never sharpen themselves. Take a close look again
and see if the back side of the blades are ground to an edge. If so,
remoe the tines and reinstall the ones removed from one side to the
opposite side and visa/versa
Ken Weitzel wrote:
Hi...

Wonder if anyone happens to have knowledge of these Murray
cultivators... small 2 cycle engine, perhaps 30 or 40 cc things?

I bought one for a small garden (10 x 15 feet'ish) at the lake.
Durned thing bounces across the top really well, takes forever
and a lot of coaxing to get it to dig down even a few inches.

Studied the manual, made sure that tines were right way, etc.

Noticed that the manual warned me that the tines were self-sharpening
and that I had to be careful to not cut myself. Something wrong
here, 'cause I'm not sure they'd cut through warm butter!

Should mention, brand new. And the "cutting" edge is just flat
steel, no edge at all.

So, the question, if I may? Should I sharpen them? Have them
sharpened? Or wait for them to "self-sharpen"? Or throw it
away!

Thanks in advance, and take care.

Ken