Mower Blade Sharpening

[Dr.Faustus]

Yes. I've found removing material from the lighter side ddoesn't help balancing at all!

I didnt mean remove material from the heavier side vs removing from the lighter side. LOL. i mean remove material from the heavier side vs adding some sort of weight to the lighter side.

I've never played with the blades before - usually by the time i think they need sharpening, they are so badly messed up i just pick up a pair of new blades. This year might be the first i can have them sharpened. I got rid of all the high tree roots and rocks on the property that was messing them up.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I suppose you could add weight to the light side. I'd be afraid of it falling off the blade while its spinning though.

 

[Sprinter]

I use an angle grinder with the blade a bench vise. It works fine, but sometimes I wonder if it's worth the trouble. I have a three-blade ZTR and what I've found is that the blades get to a certain point and don't get much duller. And it happens fast. It's easy to go overboard and try to sharpen a mower blade razor sharp, but it immediately dulls to it's working level. Of course, if a blade gets chipped you need to fix that.

As for balance, I've found that a screwdriver shaft works just fine.

Understand that I'm a homeowner. Heavy duty pro use would require more attention, I'm sure.

 

[Warm_in_NH]

My yard was mostly moss when I bought the house. Over the years I've converted it back to grass and finally have started to thicken it up.
Put a new blade on the mower maybe 3 years ago, but w the rocks stumps and thicker grass now, it was bogging a little so I decided to sharpen it last summer.
(Historically I put it in a vice and use the side of am abrasive blade on my junk skill saw)
Ran into the easiest fix ever! I took a good look at the situation when removing the blade, flipped it over so it was facing the right way and had a brand new edge to use on my 3 year old blade, works much better now!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

It should be good for another 3 years!

 

[Sprinter]

Did it really cut at all that way? I've heard it said on a pro lawn care site that mower blades don't cut so much as hack their way through and that it's unnecessary to sharpen too much, since the blades dull to a certain point anyway. Your experience may support that. I still sharpen, but with three blades on my ZTR, it's kind of a pain.

 

[Warm_in_NH]

Did it really cut at all that way? I've heard it said on a pro lawn care site that mower blades don't cut so much as hack their way through and that it's unnecessary to sharpen too much, since the blades dull to a certain point anyway. Your experience may support that. I still sharpen, but with three blades on my ZTR, it's kind of a pain.

If you're referring to my experience, I wouldn't really say it "cut all that way". My "lawn" needed a LOT of help when I bought the house, it's crowded by Hemlocks and on the north side of a hill, so the prevalent green of my 2/3 acre lawn was moss. I've since dropped a lot of trees, raked hard twice a year, limed the heck out of it, over seeded and spread a little fresh soil every time I find some. So, now that I've got some areas that are actually lush green lawn again, the issue with the backwards blade became apparent. It would still cut the thin areas no problem, but the ticker lawn started to bog it down and clump up pretty bad.
So while a backwards blade may get you by if you're lawn isn't so thick and lush, when it comes to a nice lawn, the dullness (complete lack of an edge) became apparent.

 

[JA600L]

I find the easiest way to deal with mower blades is to simply touch them up each time. I use a sanding wheel and just lightly remove any bumps while taking a slight layer of material off. If you make them too sharp the edge bends and dulls even quicker. I do road service on ag and homeowner equipment and I've noticed other people are a lot harder on blades then I am. Then I have to get the grinder out. I always try to remove the same amount of material from both sides. At $100 an hour nobody wants to pay to balance them.

 

[Highbeam]

Sharpened mine again last week. I had hit a rock and wanted to check on them from straightness as well as sharpness.

When you hit a rock, the ding in the blades is ugly, smashed metal sticking up. Grind that shrapnel off and you are left with the hollow "nick". I sometimes dip the grinder blade into that hollow nick but don't usually bother. I do NOT try and grind back the whole cutting edge so that the nick is gone. That would burn up blades too fast.

So I check for straightness, remove shrapnel. Dress the edge a tad bit. Rebalance on the screwdriver clamped in the vice and then bolt them back on.

Oh I use a cheap bench grinder. I don't know if there is another use for bench grinders other than axe sharpening so that's what this one does.

 

[Sprinter]

I do NOT try and grind back the whole cutting edge so that the nick is gone. That would burn up blades too fast.

Same here. The nicks are a small part of the blade, so I always figured to just get the burr off was fine, unless maybe it''s near the tip where most of the cutting gets done, then I'd replace it. Really, blades don't cost that much anyway. I'm also getting less anal about sharpness after I found out that two hours later, the blades are always back almost where they were anyway. (I have three blades).

I used to use a bench grinder but now use an angle grinder with the blade on a big vice. I like that better.

I don't have a fancy balancer, but try to be careful and then just put the blade on a screwdriver shaft and see if it seems to balance with motion. I've always wondered if that's good enough, though. I don't want to stress the spindle bearings.

 

[Sprinter]

I might replace the blades when they look like this:

 

[BrotherBart]

My brother-in-law just made these from bent mower blades. Now making a handle for the one on the left.

 

[Sprinter]

Now that's some creative recycling. Great looking work. My Son in law makes nice knives as well. I'll have to relay this to him. Maybe I'll even provide some raw materials....

 

[cpttuna]

We have a guy who picks up stuff at the local hardware store. From reputation the $5 he charges for mower blades is well spent money.