Miss matched ice auger

Hi all, am new here, I hail from Northwestern Ontario. I have a question about a gas powered ice auger I bought used this weekend. It has a StrikeMaster power head but upon closer examination when I got it home the auger and blades apear to be off a Eskimo auger. I tried cutting ice on the river on my property and it needs a lot of pressure applied and takes about 30 seconds to go through 6″ of ice. The blades seemed to be sharp when I examined them when I bought it and I am wondering if this miss matched combo is incompatible for some reason or do I just need new or sharpened blades.
Thanks

I wouldn’t think so unless it’s an older Eskimo which rotated counter clockwise.

Pitch could be off?

blade upside down? post a pic

It’s not the old 3 blade drill is it? 3 blades?

It rotates clockwise and the blades are set up to cut in that direction. I am going to try turning the blades over but from the pictures I can find online they appear to be mounted properly. Is there a way to determine the proper pitch or should I just start experimenting with shims?

It’s possible that the blades are just too dull to cut well. They can look and feel very sharp but just a small nick or less than perfect edge can make them not cut well.

You could try to shim them slightly with 1 or 2 pop can shims at the back of the blade. If it doesn’t cut and they are installed correctly I’d try new blades.

Tucker

More than likely the pitch on the blades got bent.
Take a large, long piece of paper with a straight edge and wrap it around the auger even with the cutting edge.
If the cutting edge doesn’t extend farther down the paper than the trailing end of the blade, your pitch is out of tune.

Tom schmitt wrote:

More than likely the pitch on the blades got bent.
Take a large, long piece of paper with a straight edge and wrap it around the auger even with the cutting edge.
If the cutting edge doesn’t extend farther down the paper than the trailing end of the blade, your pitch is out of tune.

That is an interesting tip Tom, I will try that. Any thoughts on how much they would need to be shimmed if this was the case or do you suggest trial and error?

It doesn’t take a lot, too much will make the auger catch really bad.

Just a follow up, sharpened the blades on my Work Sharp belt sharpener, cuts good now. Thanks for all the advice.

Often people sharpen the blades, and make the mistake of sharpening both sides of the edge. You should never touch the ice side. Even leaving the burr on the ice side is better than sharpening from the ice side. Sounds like you did it right.