Clipper blades??? HELP!!!

[Matthijs]

I have an older pair of Oster A5 clippers just had them serviced and my blades sharpened they are miAco's. The first mini I clipped in one hour. After spending 2 hours on one square foot of the second horse I went and bought a brand new pair of Oster #10 blades, it would not cut at all, just pushed the hair out of the blade. I like to cut with the hair, as I am not clipping for show, just so the poor horse does not get soaked as we drive them regularly. Thankfully our tack store took the $78.00 blade back, or that would really ruined my day.

What is your advise, sharpen after each horse seems a bit much.

Thanks for your input.

matthijs.

 

[JMS Miniatures]

$78 for an Oster blade? Ouch!

I've used Oster before in the past and I've never been happy with them but they never did that with me. Is he clean? I realize new blades should do the job but a dirty horse can hurt the clippers.

What I use now is Wahl clippers and blades. The blades lasted me for the entire show season except one I had to get sharpened at Nationals. The Wahl detatchable baldes should fit your Osters. My Oster blades I can go thru maybe 4 clip jobs and you notice they are starting to get dull. My Wahl blades I was able to get close to 10 jobs done without needing sharpening.

 

[Marty]

Blades don't last long for me at all. I go through them like water. If your horse was pretty hairy I'm not surprised that you got only one horse clipped out of a blade. That's the way it is here too especially for the first clip of the season I will get one horse clip per blade. #10 is usually what I start off with. I think its safe to say you dulled your blade on the first horse which around here anyway would be normal. Also be sure you are clipping a clean horse and dunking your blades every few minutes to cool off and oil and clean them which will help a little bit with longevity.

I have Oster A5's also but they are not fast enough (for me anyhow) to tackle the job of a full body clip so I usually use them just for maintenence, fetlocks, bridle paths etc. For a full clip I use my Double K's. Good luck to you.

 

[Margo_C-T]

It's after the fact, and you may know this,but in case you(or others reading this thread), don't)--it is common for brand-new blades to come from the factory with some sort of 'coating' that needs to be cleaned off BEFORE first use. I don't recall exactly(haven't bought new blades in quite a while now!), but I *think* that it may just require a good dousing(then running a bit?) w/ blade wash? In any case, you were fortunate to be able to return that blade(yep, $78 sounds VERY pricey to me,too--WHEW!)

IMO, an Oster A-5 just isn't powerful enough to do much of a job on body clipping. I have one, but quickly found it wasn't up to the job. Now I use it when I clip down my Maltese dog, and I have a Double K for the horses. I make sure the horse is ABSOLUTELY clean, blades sharp, properly lubed and cleaned regularly, and alternated during a clip(I usually alternate three sets of blades). It is NO fun to try to clip when the clippers don't cut right, for SURE!!

Good luck,

Margo