Be careful. They bite!

[+Harry Dolphin]

KV1349

It bites! I guess I'd never run into this situation before. This one is on the edge of a field, along Lamington Road. It has, obviously, been hit by mowing machines many times. I applied corn starch to see if I could bring out more than just the '25', maybe the 'T'? I wiped off the corn starch with a paper towel, and it bit me! The darned thing is very sharp!

Poor condition? The disk and the post are still very secure, but the center point, and most of the writing has been obliterated by the mowing machines. I did report it as 'Poor'.

[+NorthWes]

Ouch! ... Harry, I have to admit I checked this thread to see if porpoises have red blood too...

but the photos were your usual excellent station shots - no bitten porpoises in view!

 

I've been lanced by cactus, chased by moose, busted nails digging in gravel (when hunting unprepared), read the 'no photos - get out of here' act by US Marshals (at New Orleans Courthouse), barked shin on a mark placed 18" agl on a pipe - in high grass, but I've never been bitten by the disk! That had to hurt - I've learned (the hard way) to wear stout leather gloves around the aluminum sign blanks we use here work (over 50 tons of it last year...) because of the occasional metal spall along their edges when fresh from the mill.

 

You have to wonder how many mowers have been laid low over the past century by the humble concrete-setting benchmark, eh?

I'm sure whacking the setting does no good for the mower's shaft bearings, let alone the blade itself!

[+RazorbackFan]

Here's one (NA2219) I found at a golf course a few months ago that had encounter(s) with a mower. It must have been this way for awhile, because the NGS report from 1976 mentions the damage. Fortunately this one was much smoother then Harry's find and didn't cause me any harm. Since the center point on this disk was still discernable I reported it as Good in my recovery.

 

+

Edited January 22, 2008 by RazorbackFan

[Bill93]

RazerbackFan, that doesn't look like it is all mower damage. I'll bet before the area became a golf course someone fired a shotgun at it from not too far away.

[+Black Dog Trackers]

I have often wondered whether those marks are not from the mower blade itself, but instead from rocks sucked up by the mower and then hit downward by the blade onto the disk.

[VagabondsWV]

RazerbackFan, that doesn't look like it is all mower damage. I'll bet before the area became a golf course someone fired a shotgun at it from not too far away.

 

There's also the occasional rifle shot

JX1039

[68-eldo]

I’m sure most of you know there are different types of mowers. For home use there is the reel type and the rotary, but along the highways flail mowers are frequently used. These have small blades attached to a shaft with a short piece of chain. As the shaft rotates the blades straighten out the chain and cut the vegetation. If it hits something hard like a rock (or benchmark) the blade will bounce off with little shock to the shaft. It’s possible the dents on NA2218 could be caused by a flail mower.

[+shorbird]

It's too late for this one. KY1040

Edited January 22, 2008 by shorbird

[+Ernmark]

..here's one monumented in 1997 - a baby!

AE7848

..didn't know if it would've bitten, but I didn't get too close!

 

This is on PA Turnpike R.O.W., so I believe the gouges are indeed from mowers..