When Your Blade Cannot Be Sharpened

You are probably able to tell rather quickly by the quality of your clipping jobs if your dog clipper blades need to be re-sharpened. But there are some instances in which clipper blade sharpening in San Diego, CA won’t be able to restore the health of your blade, and you’ll have to replace it. Here’s a quick overview of what you should look at:

• Cutter teeth: The cutter is the very top blade of the blade set. The teeth are obviously the serrated part of the blade. If those teeth are broken, chipped or damaged in any way, they will not work as necessary, because they’ve become blunt. This makes it more likely they will snag in the dog’s fur, or just drag along without actually doing any cutting. Damage to the teeth often results from knots or debris in the hair. You cannot repair broken teeth—you just need to replace the cutter.
• Cutter rail: The rail is the underside of the blade, and is the part of the cutter that does the cutting. A rail that’s been ground flat is no longer effective for cutting hair. A blade with a cutter that has no rail will probably just drag along the hair, or could result in some snags. Again, you cannot fix this issue, but you can replace it to repair the blade as a whole.
• Comb teeth: The bottom blade is often referred to as the comb. It determines the height of the cut. It comes in a couple different styles: full and skip tooth combs. No matter the type of comb, missing or damaged comb teeth is going to be a problem, but the extent of the problem depends on the type of blade. In a #40 blade, for example, many groomers will still use the blade if it has a single missing tooth, but multiple missing teeth can become dangerous, and the blade will need to be replaced. For blades larger than #40 (which is most of them), many groomers will use the blade if just the outside tooth is missing, but beyond that, there’s a chance the blade could cut skin with more missing teeth. This means the blade will need to be replaced for it to be safe for use.
• Missing comb rail: If the rail in the comb is ground flat, the blade will drag. The comb rail, like the cutter rail, cannot be fixed or repaired, so the blade will have to be replaced.

There are some other parts of the blade you can analyze that don’t really have much to do with the cutting itself, including the springs, screws and socket that hold the item together. If any of these parts are broken or missing, but the cutter or comb does not have any broken teeth or rail damage, you can still re-sharpen the blade. You’ll just need to replace these small parts, which any sharpening pro will be able to do for you.

For more information about clipper blade sharpening in San Diego, CA, contact Larson Sharpening, Inc. today.

Categorised in: Knife Sharpening