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• PRO

  Green Girl Garden Care August 1, 2017 at 8:05pm

  I do now. Originally with a file which takes forever on a double sided hedge cutter and last winter I started using a dremel which was much quicker.
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    Craig Flatters > Green Girl Garden Care August 1, 2017 at 8:27pm

    Hello, 

    Thank you for your reply.

    What's a Dremel please? Thank you.
• PRO

  Gary RK August 1, 2017 at 8:18pm

  We find a good solution is to do "little and often" (ie tweek with a diamond file or sharpening stone regularly like you do with a chain). Then the blades maintain a good cutting edge.

  Occasionally we give in and get them sharpened or buy new blades when they've had some abuse.

  You'd be surprised how cheap two blades are, rather than a full mounted set compared to them in.

  (nb a Dremel is a trade name for a small 'drill' with a flexi drive - you mount various grinding stones, drills, engraving bits, polishing mops - some 240v some 12v. Many cheaper copies available). Good tool to have.
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    Craig Flatters > Gary RK August 1, 2017 at 8:28pm

    Cheers Gary,

    Top advice as always. 
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  Jeff McCoy August 1, 2017 at 10:50pm

  If in doubt YouTube, lots if videos on sharpening hedge cutters, I do my own with a flat file, yes its slow, but you are unlikely to mess it up.
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  Graham Taylor August 2, 2017 at 7:06am

  The Stihl blades are certainly not cheap................. the HS86 ones are £124!! I was lucky the other day and picked up a brandnew set on Ebay for £40 + postage

  There's been a few discussions on this topic in the past with varying answers. I use an anglegrinder where a few "strokes" on each edge brings them up razor sharp very quickly and there's no need to dismantle the blades. I've had a dealer sharpen mine once and it did look slightly better with every angleperfect but there was no discernible difference in performance

  If you're doing this yourself, then you might as well do the "servicing" yourself as well and save the £75. The schedule makes it sound a lot but there really is little involved.
  • PRO

    Gary RK > Graham Taylor August 2, 2017 at 7:37am

    Who said anything about Stihl blades ? ;)
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      Graham Taylor > Gary RK August 2, 2017 at 12:56pm

      True, but I'm sure most people have Stihl and from comments on here, the pattern ones, although half the price, aren't very good.
      • PRO

        Gary RK > Graham Taylor August 2, 2017 at 1:01pm

        Never had a major problem......
        • PRO

          Richard Gadsby > Gary RK August 2, 2017 at 5:24pm

          I'm guessing that if you have staff using them then pattern blades may be the way to go as they are probably not much worse than oem yet are cheaper.
          On your own it's probably worth paying the extra for oem as you will take more care than employees will!!