Height of a challenge knife

Can anyone tell me the height of a blade on a challenge knife?
I don’t seem to find that in the manual.
My blade measures 3.3” in from all the grinding, I imagine.
The knife adjusting screws don’t currently touch the top of the knife and won’t go any lower. I’ve confirmed this.
So I believe I might need to buy a new blade. Am I correct?

Thank you in advance.

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It sounds like you need a new blade.

Challenge is still in business, so you can Google them and go to their website if you want to.

Also there are sites like this:

https://www.mybinding.com/paper-handling/replacement-blades/challenge.ht...

I haven’t dealt with that company personally, but have no reason to doubt that they are good.

When I needed a blade for my 19” C&P cutter, I went to a local knife manufacturer here in Ontario, and after I gave them the details of my cutter, they had access to the dimensions of the blade and made me one, no problem.

You didn’t say what cutter you have. Challenge has made many different sizes. I assume you have the width and model number of your cutter, so you can give that info to a supplier and they can furnish you with the right blade. You don’t actually need the dimensions yourself. The supplier should have access to that information.

If the mounting bolts are still able to hold the knife, you can easily add shims to the top of the blade to make good contact with the adjustment bolts (or add longer bolts in their place). If, however, the mounting bolts do not still align with the frame of the cutter, you will definitely need a new blade.

John Henry
Cedar Creek Press

I have a 26.5” Challenge, and the oldest blade is also short, so short that I’ve taken a couple pieces of 2x10 steel furniture, ground dimples into the top face to reduce slipping, and used them as shims. (Glad to have a better knife now, with this just a spare.)
My first cutter was a C&P, and one of its knives had a bar spot-welded on the back for the same purpose.
One sure way to get the right replacement blade is to provide a full-size drawing including hole position. Challenge altered such things over the years.

Send the old Blade to a Sharpening place who sharpens Paper cutter Knifes and order 1-2 new ones, they all can make them.

The adjustment screws can get blunted and not go all the way up or down. We have always turned the screws all the up and using the blade changing handles slide the blade all the way up to the adjusting screws and rest tighten the screws. Then using a test cut move the blade little by little down into cutting position. We have a 1980’s challenge cutter and when we buy a new blade they grind off a little extra since I can no longer get the screws all the way up. The screws can be cut out and replaced but it was not a big problem so we let it go. If you try to cut with to tall a blade you cause damage if you are not careful. We get our blades from LA Grinding.