Tungsten Steel Sickle Sections Catch On Fast

Tungsten steel sickle sections catch on fast COMBINES Accessories 10-3-22 More than 300,000 tungsten steel sickle sections have already been sold by a Kansas manufacturer who introduced the new long-wearing product last year. Don Smith, president of Colby Manufacturing, says the new sections last 2 to 5 times as long as chromed sections. The company has developed a process of using tungsten carbide for hardsurfacing. The tungsten is simply applied to the top of the serrations. This allows the underside of the section to wear on the guards, resulting in self-sharpening of the teeth as they wear. One customer, Robert McDaniel, a custom swather from Felt, Okla., used the sections last season. "My New Holland swather has two sickles, one running on each side. I placed chrome sections on one sickle and Colby tungsten sections on the other. I replaced the chrome sections after 300 acres and the Colby sections were still sharp after 1,500 acres." The new tungsten sections sell for about 10% more than chrome sections. They're ordered in lots of 100 starting at $1.15 apiece and going down to $.85 apiece, depending on quantity ordered. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Colby Manufacturing Co., 510 East Pine Street, P.O. Box 594, Colby, Kan. 67701 (ph toll-free 800-262-5267 or, in Kansas, 913 462-8244).

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