# Experience with Dethatching Blades?



## Thunder Chicken

Like many folks up here I have a lot of dead grass and weeds in my lawn, and it is going to need a good dethatching so I can set new seed. I've got about 4,000 sq. ft, of lawn, not very level with the occasional rock at the surface.

In past years I have just raked out the yard very thoroughly in spots that needed it, but now the whole lawn needs it. I don't think a rental dethatcher is going to work due to the potential of rock damage, so I am looking hard at one of the spring tine dethatching mower blades that they sell for my Bolens.

I have read a lot of articles against these blades. However, I have seen them used locally once on a fairly good deep turf lawn and it seemed to do the job of getting up all the dead stuff without trashing the lawn. It seems that you just need to set the height properly.

Any experiences, tips, warnings of pitfalls? I'm hoping/expecting to clear large areas of my lawn down to bare soil for seeding - I know the lawn is going to look torn up for a while.


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## joecaption

I've been told by John Deere dealer that those blade can damage the mower.
I use one of these and it works just fine.
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200512927_200512927


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## Thunder Chicken

joecaption said:


> I've been told by John Deere dealer that those blade can damage the mower.


Did he then turn around and show you a shiny new John Deere dethatching machine? :laughing:

Seriously, I'm curious what the deal is. I haven't seen anything posted from an irate lawnmower owner griping about his broken mower due to these blades, but I have heard this sort of statement from equipment dealers saying it can wreck a mower.

Has anyone personally had a bad experience with these dethatching blades?


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## joecaption

Key word "thatching blade reviews". on the net.
http://www.amazon.com/Ace-Universal-De-thatching-Blade-Kit/dp/B000H5Y7SO
Go the bottom of the listing to see reviews.


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## Thunder Chicken

Thanks for the link. Nobody griping about broken mowers. It seems that the negative reviews are from people who didn't expect a spinning piece of spiked metal to tear up their lawn :laughing:

I'll give it a shot.


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## SPS-1

I have used that style if blade. Seemed to work. You will be amazed at how much "stuff" comes out of your lawn. Have a plan on what to do with all the thatch. 
The only thing I am not sure if fall is the best time to de-thatch. I thought it was normally done in the spring.
If you are going to overseed, it does make sense though -- fall is the perfect time to seed.


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## Thunder Chicken

I know I'll have a ton of stuff to dispose of. I am using it as cheap mulch to keep the weeds down on the back of my property, so the more the merrier. I definitely need to do this this fall to prepare for overseeding. I've got big areas of dusty, bone-dry dead grass that I need to fill in.


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## 95025

My one - and only - experience with them left me with grass that was far more "thatched" than I had anticipated. I probably had the deck set too low, but I've never bothered using them again. What I've used for the past 20 years is a pull-behind thatcher. It does what I need it to do.


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## user1007

I think the possible pitfall is if the things end up dragging and pulling at turf rather than actually dethatching. 

Just as a general comment? Aerating and dethatching services are so common and competitive in places I have lived it is hardly worth it to Mickey Mouse around with it all yourself.


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## SingleGuy

joecaption said:


> I've been told by John Deere dealer that those blade can damage the mower.
> I use one of these and it works just fine.
> http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200512927_200512927


I have this also and it works great.


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## Thunder Chicken

I've seen the pull-behind dethatchers, but I don't have a tractor (this is only 4,000 sq ft, 0.04 acres). Buying one and pulling it around the yard by hand seems crazy.

I've called a few local places - they want between $200-$250 to dethatch and clean up. I'm stuck in that they all want their minimum one hour billing even though the job would take them about 15 minutes. I know they need to pay the bills, but so do I.

I can mow the whole thing in 15 minutes and rake in an hour or two.


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## SingleGuy

Thunder Chicken said:


> I've seen the pull-behind dethatchers, but I don't have a tractor (this is only 4,000 sq ft, 0.04 acres). Buying one and pulling it around the yard by hand seems crazy.
> 
> I've called a few local places - they want between $200-$250 to dethatch and clean up. I'm stuck in that they all want their minimum one hour billing even though the job would take them about 15 minutes. I know they need to pay the bills, but so do I.
> 
> I can mow the whole thing in 15 minutes and rake in an hour or two.


Buy a dethaching rake, maybe two ( 30 bucks or so each ) and get some neighborhood kids to do it for 50 bucks. That would be less than half the cost of paying a 'pro'. Do you have any friends that could do it with/for you?


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## Thunder Chicken

SingleGuy said:


> Buy a dethaching rake, maybe two ( 30 bucks or so each ) and get some neighborhood kids to do it for 50 bucks. That would be less than half the cost of paying a 'pro'. Do you have any friends that could do it with/for you?


It's amazing how busy my friends and wife get when I start asking for help in the yard. :laughing:

I don't mind doing the work - it beats shelling out for a gym membership. But I am also a "work smarter, not harder" sort of person.

I thought about a dethatching rake, but as long as a dethatching blade won't likely damage my mower, I think I will experiment with that first. I can set the deck level and do some test patches to see what the best height is. If it is going to grind the whole lawn down to bare topsoil then I'll go get a dethatching rake.


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## SPS-1

joecaption said:


> I've been told by John Deere dealer that those blade can damage the mower.


Did he happen to say *how* using a dethaching blade could damage the mower. Ever since I read that, I have been trying to figure out how on earth the detatching blade could damage the lawn-mower, but have come up with nothing. 
No reason to think a dethatching blade would be more off balance than a cutting blade.
Doubt it puts more load on the engine than cutting tall grass.
The blade itself does not touch the mower except where it is mounted.


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## user1007

It is really a case of not the right tool for the job. :thumbsup: A detatcher or power rake should reach down to the soil and really tear up the tatch layer using a series of vertical cuts if need be. Something spinning around on the shaft of mower is not the same thing. Will one hurt? Maybe not? Will one help? Maybe so? Will one replace a detatching machine designed for the job!?:no:


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## 95025

sdsester said:


> It is really a case of not the right tool for the job. :thumbsup: A detatcher or power rake should reach down to the soil and really tear up the tatch layer using a series of vertical cuts if need be. Something spinning around on the shaft of mower is not the same thing. Will one hurt? Maybe not? Will one help? Maybe so? Will one replace a detatching machine designed for the job!?:no:


It's also good to remember that a certain amount of "thatch" in the lawn is good and necessary. We're not talking about vacuuming carpet.


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## Thunder Chicken

Well I got my dethatching blade. The local hardware and box stores only carry the Arnold blade with the cheap plastic tines, so I ordered one of the Ace 16" dethatching blades with the spring tines on it.

I mowed everything on the low setting with my Bolens, then put the dethatching blade on while still at the lowest blade level (set by the wheel heights). I gave this a test run on the dead part of my lawn (which I wanted brought down to bare soil anyway) and it did it handily. I tested a patch of my better grass and it did a nice job even there. Didn't tear out the grass, but it made the crabgrass disappear. Where the grass died it is bare soil (as hoped and expected), but where there was still good grass, it is still green with soil visible between the grass clumps. Looks like it got an extra-good raking.

Got about half of the clean-up done this afternoon, will probably finish tomorrow and overseed before the rain hits. 

Some notes for folks who might be interested:

1. If you think that running a spiked motorized thing over your lawn is going to automatically make it green and beautiful instantly, as Jeff Foxworthy said, "Here's your sign". You will see and smell lots of dirt, especially if you are using this on a lawn that is in bad shape. This is a GOOD thing, as now you can get your amendments and seed to make good contact with the soil.

2. It did a nice job of sorting out the really dead grass from the looks-dead-but-is-really-dormant grass. It cleaned out a LOT of the shallow-rooted crabgrass :thumbup:. 

3. Blade seemed well balanced and operation was pretty smooth. If you have a bumpy lawn this thing will definitely dig into the hills and help level things out. Didn't seem too much harder on the mower than the normal blade (I have a "rock" blade for when I mow low and a better blade for when I mow at the proper height).

4. Eye protection is a must. This thing will send gravel shooting everywhere. Wear long pants too (I did both , thank goodness)

5. Have a wheelbarrow and a rake ready. I have done a good job of deep raking the last few seasons, but this thing still brought up a LOT of thatch. I don't think a bagger would help - it would probably fill every 30 seconds. I already planned to use all this as mulch in the back of my lot so I am glad to have it. 

5. Keep moving, unless you like crop circles in your lawn.

6. If you have a rocky and bumpy lawn, don't count on the spring tines to last more than one mowing. The tips wear down and they soon become ineffective. My small front lawn will probably need to be redone with new tines (I thought to buy a replacement spring set so I can do this tomorrow). You probably want to hit the parts of the lawn that need a deep dethatching first, then move to better sections of the lawn. This is probably a smart way to go anyway especially if you have never used these blades before.

Overall assessment: Awesome, so long as you have reasonable expectations and a small lawn (mine is about 4,000 sq. ft) :thumbup:


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## AlleyG

I test ran a dethatching blade with the plastic spikes. I am sure it would do okay on a lawn that is 90% gone, but where there is still grass, it leaves the wide fescue blades very frayed and split-up.

For hand raking, I use a stiff metal leaf rake. The dethatching rakes are just too much work for a large area, especially hard on your back!

Al


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## bbo

I rented a power rake last weekend. 28+tax for two hours.

the amount of thatch i pulled out was amazing. i'll be doing the aerating and overseeding this coming weekend hopefully. hope we don't get any early frost. but not too worried in any case.


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