What is a lawn mower blade?

A lawnmower blade, sometimes called an oscillating blade, is a specially designed cutting component that is fundamentally different in working principle and structure from our common fixed rotating blades.

Core Concept: Movably Connected Blades

You can think of it as a "bolas" hanging from a rotating disk with a chain or hinge. When the rotating disk rotates at high speed, the centrifugal force will "throw" the blade straight to perform cutting; when encountering a hard object that cannot be cut, the blade will rebound or swing to avoid obstacles.

Detailed interpretation
1. What is it?

Basic structure: A swing knife is usually a separate, shorter blade connected to a rotating part called a "cutterhead" or "drum" by a pin, hinge or chain.

Core Feature: Active Connections. This is the most essential difference from fixed blades. The blade naturally droops when not in working condition.

2. How does it work?

Its working process can be summarized into the following steps:

Start throwing: When the engine of the lawn mower starts, the cutterhead begins to rotate at high speed, generating strong centrifugal force.

Expansion cutting: Under the action of centrifugal force, the originally drooping knife is quickly "thrown" into a horizontal or nearly horizontal radial shape, forming a cutting circle. At this time, the blade cuts weeds, shrubs, etc.

Rebound when encountering obstacles: When the tip of the blade encounters a hard obstacle that cannot be cut off, such as a stone, tree root, or iron block, because it is movablely connected, it will overcome the centrifugal force and swing backward or sideways (rebound) instantly to avoid the hard object.

Reset and continue: After bypassing the obstacle, the centrifugal force throws the blade straight again and returns to the cutting state.

3. Main features and advantages

Safety and impact resistance: these are its biggest advantages. The rebound characteristics greatly reduce the risk of "flying" foreign objects such as gravel, and also protect the blade itself and the machine transmission system from being damaged.

Strong applicability: It is very suitable for use in environments with complex terrain and a lot of debris, such as wasteland reclamation, woodland maintenance, road slope trimming, etc. It can handle thick shrubs, reeds, and tangled vines.

Dual cutting effect: In addition to direct blade cutting, the high-speed rotating blade will also have an impact and tearing effect on the vegetation, allowing it to handle tougher plants.

4. Disadvantages and limitations

Low cutting flatness: Because the blade is movable and cannot form a stable cutting plane like a fixed blade, the smoothness of the trimmed lawn is not as smooth as that of a drum lawn mower or a household rotary lawn mower, and is not suitable for use on demanding ornamental lawns.

Relatively high power consumption: more power is required to maintain the high-speed rotation and swing of the blade.

5. Common application scenarios

Knives are mainly used in heavy-duty lawn mowing equipment:

Brushcutter: Especially the type used for clearing weeds and shrubs.

Slasher Lawn Mower: A specialized medium- to large-sized commercial equipment.

Off-road lawn mowers and woodland lawn mowers.