The Good : Easy to use, Durable, Inexpensive, Blissfully uncomplicated
The Bad: None that I can find (though I'm not wild about the handle)
The Basics: Easy to use and clean and made of durable materials, the Millers Forge small shedding blade can eliminate excess cat hair from cats easily and safely!
As Spring evolves into summer and summer evolves into autumn, I had been finding more and more animal hair all over the house and it was beginning to trouble me. This was until my wife, who knows everything there is to know about pets and worked at a pet store for a while, came home one night with an enthusiastic smile and a new shedding blade from Millers Forge. For those who have not read any of my reviews which would inform them of my animal saga, with my wife came her geriatric cocker spaniel (Mitzie), who now lives in peace, love and harmony with my two cats, Brillo and Gollum. Brillo is a corpulent Siamese who used to be an indoor/outdoor cat who is now deathly afraid of anything beyond the front door. Gollum is a little black cat with giant eyes who appears to enjoy nothing more than eating human food, chasing his toy mouse and tormenting Brillo.
Brillo, being a more sedate cat, has been less and less comfortable as the heat has risen in our second-story apartment in suburbia. We would see him mercilessly scratching himself and more often than not find large tufts of cat hair in odd places. Since my wife picked up the shedding blade, Brillo has been happier - both for the comfort of having less hair and the attention he gets. We've been happier about not having pet hair everywhere, so this is very much a product where everyone in the family wins from picking it up!
The Millers Forge #520C Shedding Blade is a double sided shedding blade designed for cats and small dogs. "Shedding blade" sounds infamous and intimidating, but in fact, this is an easy-to-use device that is is very simple and remarkably safe. The 520C is a loop of metal (the actual blade) attached to a leather handle. The tool is barely over seven inches long and the metal loop is 2 5/8" in diameter by half an inch tall. The metal loop is only a few millimeters thick and it is made of steel. The basic shedding blade is one that has teeth on one side of the steel loop, but the Millers Forge #520C Shedding Blade has teeth on both the top and bottom.
The shedding blade is best analogized as a saw blade that has been dulled and made into a loop. If one pictures a blade from a hacksaw or reciprocating saw and can imagine one that has been dulled quite a bit and made into a loop, one may easily envision what this product looks like. The loop is then attached to a 3 5/8" leather handle, which is little more than a reinforced strap. In fact, the only drawback of this product is that for those who have big hands, this is a slightly more awkward grip than many would like. That said, this is pretty much the perfect tool for cat hair control.
The shedding blade has little wavy teeth that are so dull that I could not cut myself with this tool be drawing my thumb over the teeth (not recommended; I'm a professional reviewer and this was part of my rigorous testing!). One suspects that the worst one could do with this is scratch themselves or their animal and the finer teeth on the other side of the loop are unable even to do that. Stepping on it is more likely to shock a person than seriously injure them as well.
Use of the tool is exceptionally easy. In fact, this is an idiot-proof cat grooming device. Simply set the shedding blade on the cat's fur and draw it back through the fur as if you were brushing their hair. The cat's loose and already detached hair comes right out and collects on the blade. About a dozen head to tail brushings of Brillo filled the blade easily and cleaning the blade off was as easy as wiping it off and spinning the hair into a little ball. Yes, this is how Tribbles are made, I suspect! Going against the grain (tail to head) nets clumps of hair even faster and within minutes, one will have a cat that is lighter, less likely to shed, and has a glossier, healthier-looking coat (because all of the dead or dying hair has been removed from the cat).
While this might sound painful, Brillo absolutely loves it and keeping his coat clear has left him with more apparent energy to fight Gollum when the little cat jumps him. The finer blade seems to be good on more sensitive areas, like the top of the head and neck. Brillo does not flinch when I use it on him. Mitzie, our cocker spaniel, likes the attention and the brushing from the shedding brush, but because the teeth are designed for shorter hair of cats, it does not remove nearly as much hair from her as it does from the cats.
Gollum lets me use the brush on him only when I trick him, but its functionality is as good. For those who likely spend hours petting their cats anyway, this is a great device as it can eliminate the hair that would accumulate on one's person or their furniture before one pets their cat. The unmentioned benefit to this shedding blade that I quickly discovered was that it can be used to clean hair off furniture as well! The fine tooth side of the blade may be drawn over rugs or sheets to collect the cat hair that has accumulated there!
It is hard to ask for more! This tool helps owners spend quality time with their animals and promotes better health and owner/pet connections while eliminating one of the biggest reasons owners loathe having animals!
For other pet grooming product reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Millers Forge Nail Clippers
United Pet Skunk And Tough Odor Eliminator
Millers Forge Large Slicker Brush
9/10
For other pet product reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2010, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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