We're all stuck at home grooming, salons are closed and being a groomer . I’ve had a ton of calls I have to groom my dog at home, what blade do I choose. And in the article by the end of it, you will know exactly what blade to use for your dog.
All the blades have a number on them and the number determines the length. The important thing to remember is the higher the number the shorter the hair and the smaller the number the longer the hair. For example, a 30 blade is going to cut much much shorter than a four blade. Check out the teeth on them, it's obvious that the four is going to cut the hair much much longer than the 30.
Pick the proper blade for where you're actually using it on the dog’s body. For example, in the pads of the feet it varies, always use a 30 but I probably would recommend that if you've never done it before that you use a 10 in the pads of the feet. You can also use the ten around the bum area and a lot of groomers will use a ten inside the ear. To avoid any complications I would probably avoid using a blade in the ears, because there's a lot of little weird skin flaps that you can Nick. I would stick to the basic feet balm and sanitary area fur for a 10.
When you purchase a clipper, one of they come with one blade and it's generally a 10 blade which you would be using in all those areas. I just mentioned so that's a good thing to note as well that you don't have to purchase a separate blade when you're buying the clipper, because it comes with generally comes with a 10 blade. Just read on the box but it'll their thing to take note is the blades come in. This is an example I used before, again they come in a 4 FC or they’ll come in just a 4, the 4 is a skip tooth. Don't ever buy the skip tooth, because that can cut a dog very easily. I always stick with the F beside it , so 5 F 4 F now the shorter blades pens and 30s you don't have that concern, because they don't come in skip tooth but the the longer blades do . So avoid the ones that don't have an F beside them.
Another thing that you might find confusing is there's different brand names for the blades and this G bore guide, Oster, Wahl, fido fave pet clipper and you might be wondering is your one that's better than the other. It really is a personal choice they're all Universal, they’ll all fit on the Clippers that you purchase as long as the clipper that you purchase is a removable blade and you'll just learn the ones you like and the ones that you don't like. As much some some sharp and better than others, so it's a personal preference.
The difference between a steel blade and a ceramic blade just to show you the difference. Point out that the ceramic blade they are a little bit more costly and they also the benefits are they don't get heated up as quickly and they don't corrode as quickly. That's two benefits to that, but one of the things that I don't like is they don't sharpen that well and that's a factor to consider when you’re purchasing blades as well because sharpening is can get very expensive.
Now picking the proper blade to do the body of your dog. It's probably the part that's going to confuse you the most and a big factor is how matted the dog is. Generally I’m gonna say for summer cuts for people that say I want them short so that it lasts them the full eight weeks during the summertime. When it's hot is my two most frequent blades that I use for short cuts are a four F and a five F. So those are probably especially right now because your dog hasn't been groomed for a while, one of those two blades is probably gonna go through your dog. If you use a longer blade and the dog’s matted it's not going to go through the code, because the blade actually has to go underneath the mat to cut it .
You also have to be careful that you’re not choosing a blade that's going to cut the skin like a seven F , I would stay away from because it's good for a really matted coat, but it's also a really tough blade because if you Nick a flap of skin like under the arms or the legs are tougher. A 10 on the body that you only use at critical times, when no other blades going to go through them. So that you can get the coat off to determine the length, it’s going to be left on the dog after you’ve used the blade.