Chipping vs. Shaving blades

[Cooperman]

Fisherman,

I'm trying to decide which ice auger to purchase, and I,m leaning towards the Mag 2000 because I have had a similiar unit(Mag III plus) for many years with no trouble. My questions are: Does the speed advantage of the laser blades out weigh the durability of the chipper blades? I changed my blades very little over the years that I used it. Will the blades on the Lazer dull sooner and reduce the drilling speed anyway? and now with the different variation of shaving blades (224)it's getting confusing. Please advise,

Thanks in advance

[Gus]

It's a hard question to answer but I will try to sum up my opinions as briefly as possible.

1. If you drill lots of holes on a given day (say 30 or more) then yes a shaver might be the way to go for you.

2. Do you re-drill old holes? If yes, then a chipper is probably a better choice. While a shaver can and will reopen holes it is much harder on the blades and operator than a chipper.

If you take care of your equipement either one will serve you very well. I usually get 2 years out of a set of shaver blades but I am very carefull about drilling and where and how I set my auger down.

[marine_man]

Gus made some good points...

One other thing to consider is the condition of the ice... if there's a lot of dirt / debris on the ice (like devils lake in ND some years) your shaver blades will dull quicker than the chipper...

Like Gus said.. a lot of it has to do with how you take care of them... no different than the blue mora hand augers... I once saw a guy use his to bust open an old hole by using the auger like a chisel... after he fished that hole he tried to drill another and didn't get very far the next hole.

marine_man

[CatManLee]

I have a Jiffy with a chipper blade and it seems to do the job fine. If I'm re-drilling holes it's great. I also only need to replace the blade very few years.

The only downside with the chipper would be the strength or endurance it takes when drilling lots of holes. When the ice gets pretty thick, drilling 10-15 holes in a row will [PoorWordUsage] you out! The actual drilling part isn't too bad, but when you get to the bottom of the hole the blade likes to grab the ice almost everytime stopping the auger completely.

The other posts covered this pretty well, just wanted to let you know my point of view.

When it comes time for me to buy a new auger, it will most likely be with a shaver blade because I like to move alot. And would rather spend a few extra bucks on blades than fight with my auger all day.

And one more thing, It will be a 2hp auger. I have the three hp model right now and it gets a little heavy after awhile.