High Desert Cowboy
True BYH Addict
So here is my honest review for the Premier 4000S shears. They arrived promptly and they looked decent. I purchased the complete set with their spitfire blade and spirit comb. I also purchased a ceramic blade and their Apache comb as if read on their site that they were a little better for shearing. First problem I had was no power out to my corrals, but I do have a generator that wheels around and worked great. Premier says their shears come ready and raring to go but upon inspection I felt the comb was a little too in front of the blades so I made some adjustments to how I’d read they should be and away we went. I started on my best ewe Heart and used the spitfire blade and spirit comb. It was miserable, taking forever just to do a quarter of the ewe. The shears were getting warm and I had to constantly oil them because it was taking too long. Finally I said forget this and checked my shears and they looked right. “Great Cowboy, you wasted $400.” But wait I have the ceramic blade and Apache comb, let’s give those a whirl. Y’all it was like a hot knife through butter. It zipped right through the thickest wool like it was nothing! I took 20 minutes fighting to do a quarter of a ewe and knocked the rest of her out in less than that. Cue a dinner break which allowed the shears to cool off. After that they never heated up again and stayed cool through the next 3 sheep. The only other hiccup I had was in doing the ram. He decided to start fighting and as I was struggling with him he kicked the cord right into the shears, severing the cord in half. If you heard faint cursing on the wind wherever you were at I apologize. I’m pretty sure all the angels in heaven had to plug their ears. Fortunately my mamma raised ugly children not stupid children and after a couple of minutes I was able to repair the cord and finish my ram and my last ewe with no other incident. So the biggest con is the cord, you need to keep an eye on it at all times to avoid making my mistake. It does have a fairly long cord though that allows you to get a little distance from an outlet or in my case the generator. The spirit comb I feel would be good for trimming up show sheep but I feel that they are less than ideal for actual shearing. The Apache comb is made for actual shearing, it has less teeth allowing it to get into the thick wool better. And the ceramic blade is incredible, it went through 3 and 3/4 sheep and I never felt it start to snag or pull. Also once I had swapped to this combo the shears never heated up again, they stayed nice and cool. I didn’t notice any vibration from the piece either. Overall I feel like this would be a worthwhile piece of equipment for any small scale flock that you want to do yourself. Just make sure you get the Apache comb, a ceramic blade, and watch the %*$@ing cord!
