Jeff Andrews, Author at Groomer to Groomer

Jeff Andrews

The Daily Goals of a Pet Groomer

To be successful in this business doesn’t just depend on your knowledge of grooming or the equipment you use. It can also depend on some very basic goals that you accomplish every day. They are simple goals, such as making money, customer perspective, and safety. These three little goals pass through our minds, but we never really think about how much they impact us every day we work.

Why Is There a Space Between the Blades of My Shears?

On some shears, there is supposed to be a noticeable space between the blades. This is called the “set.” On beveled edge shears, it enables the shear to “slice” the hair. Without this space, the hair may fold. As you open and close a beveled edge shear, you can look down through this space and see the blades touch in only one place along the blade. This gives the beveled edge shear that powerful slicing ability that most groomers want.

How to Make Your Blades Fly Through Coat

Today, blade manufacturers are painting blades with a certain kind of paint to make them glide through coat. When the blades are used for an extended period of time, the paint starts to flake off because dog hair is very coarse and aggressive. These paint chips are hard to get out of the coat, short of washing the dog again.

Preventing Clipper Cord Problems

Some groomers have been experiencing cord problems with clippers that have voltage converters on the end of the cord. These converters adapt 120 volts AC to DC current that runs your clipper. DC motors have more torque and seem to hold speed better in tough coat. Because of the extra weight of some of these cords, they break and short out right behind the clipper.

How to Properly Oil a Clipper Blade

It doesn’t take that much oil to oil a blade, most groomers over oil them. When you over oil, the oil will drain through the teeth and onto the coat. So they turn to other forms of lubrication like Spray Coolants, Rem Oil, or WD-40. Blade oil is the best form of lubrication.

A Quick Guide To Shear Care

When you get new shears, or shears back from the sharpener, they are adjusted to cut. The adjustment for tension (or balance as some call it), is a screw or thumb wheel on the pivot of the shears. Beveled edge shears are adjusted to where the blades grab, about three-fourths of an inch from the tip. This enables the blades to slice from the pivot all the way to the tips.

Blade Plaque

Blade plaque is that stuff that sticks to the inside of the teeth on your clipper blades. Most don’t pay attention to it, but in reality it’s something you need to remove and keep off your blades as part of your blade cleaning process.

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