lawn mower blades

[Pete M]

I have a new system.  the new blades I just installed will be swapped in the fall for the old blades I just pulled.  an acre of leaves from the giant trees surrounding the house is pretty harsh on the cutting edge and my attempts to get an edge back usually result in an unbalanced blade.     heck, one year the "cutting edge" was almost as dull as the back side of the blade!   oh, and our "lawn" consists of whatever grows that's green.    some of it is grass.  I'm so glad to be free of suburbia! 

 

what do you guys do about them each year?

[mjeff87]

I chose sharpen each year (on my bench grinder), but in truth it might be 2-3 times per mowing season (which for me is roughly March thru the end of November).  A dull blade will KILL your grass, leaving a rough, ragged edge.  That is an open invitation to leaf blade infection, which will kill the grass.  Not to mention it looks terrible.

 

I'm kind of a lawn nazi, in case you were wondering.  LOL.  It's one of the few hobbies that I actively enjoy doing, along with wrenching on things.  Just ask my wife, she'll be quick to tell you how goofy I am when it comes to our landscaping.

[ComancheKid45]

My first year owning my own house and ground to maintain. I just sharpened mine on the bench grinder a couple weeks ago. After 2 mows they seem to work great.

[FrankTheDog]

Snow just finished melting a week ago, I’ll worry about mowing the lawn in another month. If I plant any grass.

[Keyav8r]

Reading on some of the landscaping and mower manufacturer’s websites, the recommendation is to sharpen your mower blades with a file rather than a bench grinder.  They say it’s easy to get the blade too hot on a grinder which can soften the cutting edge.

i just bought a new Honda mower and I plan to try the file method with it.  Always used a bench grinder before.

[mjeff87]

Yeah, it is easy to overheat the cutting edge with a grinder.  If you see the metal changing colors you've gone too far.  I've used an angle grinder on them before, it's not quite as harsh.  A hand file would probably be the best.

[JMO413]

I sharpen mine each spring with a flap wheel on a angle grinder. 

[gogmorgo]

I had a job a bunch of years ago where my first two days were spent entirely sharpening mower blades. Custom-built "bush hogs" to pull behind a quad for trail mowing. They took a serious kicking, going through all kinds of crap. Later jobs with similar work, we changed blades every couple seasons, never bothered sharpening. 

For the lawn mower I have now? Well... At least I check it has oil in it. I'm not too concerned about having a pristine lawn. The previous occupant was a rescue dog handler and where his run was will never have good soil for growing, there's some spots that were gravel and/or garden that filled in with grass and other weeds, picnic table /firepits areas with high traffic that wears it down, grazing by elk despite the six-foot fence, a couple canoes parked along said fence... It's a rental property. As long as it looks like it's being looked after it keeps the neighbours happy. I prefer the natural look as well, I don't really see the appeal of living on an artificial golf course... mowing just mostly keeps it looking tame.

[schardein]

I mow about 2.5 acres.  I replace my blades every other year, unless I've obviously damaged them, which has happened.  By the time I replace them, sharpening them doesn't seem like a option.  Been looking on Amazon and Ebay for a deal on buying 10 blades at once.  Found one on Amazon for $77, hesitated and then it went up to $100 and never came down.

 

I look at lawn care as a necessary evil.  Time and money that I could be spending on other things.  In fact this year I was thinking of letting part of the lawn return to natural.  I live in the country.  I enjoy driving through suburbs with nice houses, perfect lawns, garage doors all shut, no motorhomes or boats or project vehicles in the driveways... but could never live there.

[ftpiercecracker1]

In FL on my "old" 3 blade cub Cadet I had to sharpen them every other cut to razor blades or else they would just tear the grass. It was maddening.

 

I now have a two blade rider and that thing cuts excellent with two pieces of flat stock for blades.  Exaggerating for effect but you get the idea.

 

I like the outer perimeter of the property to look more natural, but at the same time I would like to try keeping the immediate front and back yards more well kept. Problem is most Florida grasses SUCK under foot.

 

In TN my dad likes to mow rocks, so keeping blades sharp is a fools errand. Keeping blades straight, now thats part of routine (daily) maintenance. Wish I could bring some TN grass to FL, stuff is like walking on a velvet carpet    and we don't do a d**n thing to it, it grows like that all on its own.