bum auger...ideas??

[TeamIceBucket]

I bought a Mora Strikemaster hand auger from a pawn shop here in lovely Wyo for $15 thinking I had scored.  The blades were sharp and appeared to have only cut a few holes at most.  The bright blue paint looked brand new.  I showed it to my ice fishin crew and they all thought it looked great.  This Wed I took it out on a solo trip and spent 20 min punching 2 holes.  I figured I had just been lifting too many beers and too few weights over the summer and blamed the rest on moving from a 6" to an 8".  Yesterday, however, I brought out an hand ice drillin maniac who let me know that it was actually just that the auger wasn't gripping and cutting normally.  The blades are sharp, not loose and are not upside down.  The shaft doesn't look bent, but the auger doesn't cut....it just slides along the ice and kills your arms as you try to cut a hole......  any ideas?  I hate to send it back to the pawn shop circuit and have other poor souls get laughed at on the ice, but I just can't figure out what's wrong.

[camo_fish]

I would buy new blades and try that first, if that doesn't work, I would say that the auger was dropped and beld the blades out of there correct angle and degrees, they I would say your scr#w#d.

[Oldfart]

It could have the wrong blades on it from the first owner. Or..... Dont get mad at this idea, but look at it closely. Did he put the blades on upside down or something dumb like that???

[Turkeyhunter10ga]

Like Camo already said , try a new set of blades first. If that doesn't do it , i would just hang it up to experience and forget about the 15 bucks u spent for it before buying the new blades. Next bet for a hand auger would be to get a strikemaster laser for around 70 bucks , you'll never want to go back to the Mora.

[Bobberstop]

It sounds like the blades are shot. Get new ones first,if it does the same thing, try shimming the blades .002 at a time till it cuts

[archbishop]

heck if you cant figure it out tell one of your buddies that thouight it looked good that your wifes getting you a power auger for christmas and youll "let" him have the other one for say $10 and youll take a $5 loss for a buddy

[icejunky]

I'm with camo on this one. I think it has to do with the angle of the blades, maybe they were set in wrong or sharpened wrong. it happens,

[chumster]

An 8" Mora.... man thats the worst and most difficult auger to cut with. If you want to discourage someone from icefishing, give them that model. Even the new blades wont last long on them. A BUDDY at work gave me one as he got a lazer. I used it 4 or 5 times out and i was thru with it. Tried cutting thru 13" ice with it. 20 minutes a hole and thats with taking a breather so i wouldn't sweat to death. Went and got me a 7" lazer. This one cuts ice like a hot knife thru butter. Worth every cent i paid for it.

[fishuhalik]

The last guy that had it b/f you probably dropped it and figured he could just pawn if off and get as much as possible for it.  I think they usually cut perty well.

[FishDaddy09]

i'm with chumster the 8" mora is a real pain to cut a hole with. And that's when they are working right. Sell it to someone with more braun than brains. Then get Nils master it makes all other augers like tring to punch a hole with a 2x4.

[boxcar]

I agree, I bought a new 8" strikemaster laser hand auger a few years back. Drilled 5 holes and said thats enough. Its been in the basement ever since.

boxcar

[trapperdirk]

It sounds like the blades are shot. Get new ones first,if it does the same thing, try shimming the blades .002 at a time till it cuts

Actually this was my first thought too Bobberstop as I had to do this more than once and with brand new blades .

                  TD

[Mugz]

There are a couple different models. I had one years ago (maybe 15) that had an offset top handle. The top handle was offset from the middle handle making it terrible to get any leverage. On the newer ones the top and middle handles are directly above one another giving you more leverage and less likely to wobble all over the place.
Is yours like this??? I would however get new blades.....even with an offset handle, it would make it usable.
Wish I had a picture.......let me look around.

[Mugz]

Here is what I mean about handles being offset. Not necessarily a bad auger itself. The Fin Nor is the bottom auger which has a different blade config than the Mora on top. I am just trying to make my point about the offset handles. This is by no means a battle of the augers...these were the only pictures I could find to make my point.

Good:


Bad:

[Barleydog]

T.I.B.,  Your Mora can work fine!  I shouldn't buck 75% of you that say it's a bad piece of equipment, but hear me out.
I own a mora for emergency backup and early ice.  It's never failed, BUT I take exceptional care of the blades!  After you replace or shim the blades, follow these retentive steps.....
  
First, NEVER let anyone drill a hole that won't bang it or toss it around the ice, (kids, a drunken friend, your dog etc..)  I know this sounds elementary, but those blades are easily mushroomed or bent.  The blades may be dull even if it cuts your clothes to shreds and opens your hand wide open!  They won't cut ice for squat!  Took me a long time to figure out the blades needed to be handled like they were fine china, glass, or a bottle of Blatz.
  
Second, Set auger on the ice like the blades are resting on a carton of eggs.  Again, I know this sounds an#l, but it's a surgical precise cutting blade you want, not a lawn mower blade.
  
Third, Place the guard on it during downtimes, even if your setting it up against the shanty.

Forth, When you get home squirt some WD-40 on them to inhibit rust.  Saves your blade and won't spook the fish off like other conventional oils.

Please don't take this as dumbing anyone down, (Dimwits like me aren't allowed to do that eh!)  I'm just sharing some past learning experiences that have saved me from buying blades every year, and cussing out the old Mora!  One last thing.  Most stores sell the replacement blades.  When you pick up a set up, send your old blades back to the company for resharpening!  I don't know about anyone else, but I couldn't put a factory sharp edge on one of these blades to save my life.  Used the Lansky sharpener, diamond sharpeners, and the pull across model I think HT or Gary Roach made/sponsored?  No such luck!!  It's always nice having an extra set in the box for those dull moments.  Good luck!!!!!!

[capt.shay]

B-Dog, you are so spot on here!!!  Truer words were never spoken.  I am older than I care to admit and have only ever owned a hand auger.  I have had some guys snicker at me when they see that I don't have a gas auger but I can blast through 18" of ice in under a minute.  That usually silences them.

The key is to keep your blades in perfect shape.  And don't even think about trying to sharpen them yourself.  As a landscaper, I have to sharpen a dozen or more blades a week and in two minutes I can have a blade that will cut paper and shave the hair off of your forearm but after five minutes of use, they wont cut grass.  It's all about angle, and the precision that you need to cut ice properly is almost impossible to achieve without a professional sharpening set up.

And after you have them sharp you must take every  step to keep them that way.  And you can't be to anal about it!  Take every percaution.  And please don't ever knock the ice off of it.  Put it in the sun or next to the heater but don't ever let anything metallic near it.

As a finall note, I use Pam vegetable oil for rust prevention.  Not sure that it makes that much of a difference but it just seem to be more environmentally sound than whatever WD40 is made of.

Best of Luck,

[JerryofWNY]

You're a wisa man B-dog. A friend banged my Nils on the ice to clear it of ice and that was the end of that. Fifty bucks and a new head & I'm back in business, but I learned a lesson. The Nils is mine and I bring the Mora for anyone else who needs one.

[Barleydog]

Right on Capt!  Pam eh?  I'll be switching over!

50$ JERRY?  Owwww.....  No touching my Nils is a good rule!

[ChenBassHead]

Alright, this is my take on it.  Two years ago, I got a Strikemaster Lazer 8" for a Christmas present.  I brought it out, and immediately knew something wasn't right with it.  It never cut well, often taking 20 minutes to punch one hole! After one season, I figured that the factory  blades were crap, and I e-mailed Strikemaster.  They sent me brand new blades, free of charge, and I put them on.  The next trip on the ice proved to have the same results. I'm thinking "Okay, what the hell now?"...So I said screw it, I need an auger, and bought a new 7" Mora that was on sale for like $30. The Mora has been a godsend next to that Lazer. I have never had problems cutting holes with it.  Come to find out, the pitch on the Lazer bit was off, so the blades didn't grab the ice as well as they should have.  Strikemaster said they couldn't refund the money on the auger, since they had no way of proving that I wasn't trying to rip them off.  But my point is, maybe the pitch on your bit is off also. Maybe it's worth investigating, just so you know? 

-Zach

[Nozzlejocky]

I had a similar experience with a Mora.  Found out that while the blades were sharp, whomever had "re-sharpened" them, had put the wrong angle on the blade. I got new blades and it cut like no tomorrow.  My thumb will attest to that!

[TeamIceBucket]

Thanks for all of the advice and suggestions guys.  To answer some of the questions, yes it is the model in the "good picture"  It is actually really easy to get leverage on.  The blades are definitely on the right way and very sharp.  It literally is nearly brand new, the blades have not been sharpened.  I'm guessing that there is a problem with the shim or pitch or whatever and the original owner just pawned it off after a few frustrating holes. I will definitely investigate that more.
Went out today with the same fishing buddy and took his extremely-dull 6" Mora.  Blasted over 25 holes on 4 different beaver ponds through 7" of the hard stuff with ease.  Caught over 25 brookies between the two of us...about 1 for every hole...though we didn't fish about 40% of them as they were too shallow &/or weedy.  A windy blizzard blew in at the end of the day, but we fished through it for a half hour or so because pond number four was producing some nice-sized brookies...wish I would have brought the camera!
cheers all