A Midsummer's Sharpening: How to Sharpen Your Lawn Mower Blade

SAFETY. make sure the plug lead is removed. There have been lots of accidents occur with accidental start while removing entangled rope from the cutting disc, same with blade removal. Be careful with this.

Great writing on the sharpening process. I applaud all efforts to get people to keep their tools sharp. I'm a maniacal honer and you can see my stuff at www.theperfectedge.com. The lawnmower blades here in New England are especially tough to keep sharp due to all the rocks in the soil. They come up every year from the frost.

Good video of sharpening technique.

Need to address "cordless electric" mowers as well as the old gas fired beasts. Hopefully we have more people switching over to electric everyday.....

Bruce.

I installed 2 of the "yellow" self-sharpening blades on my riding mower recently. Rather expensive, around $90 for the pair. Sounded great not having to sharpen, but then started wondering while installing. If I can cut them to size with a sharp object and the amount of "give" to the blades when I was tightening them to the deck, how will they really hold up? I never could find anyone who rated the blades before I bought them, which made me put off buying for a couple of years. My grass, mow about 4 acres each week, doesn't look any better, and in fact am getting the pulled look of a dull blade. Feeling under the deck, mower off of course, the blades do not feel sharp. Anyone else using these blades? Comments?

I have two of the new "hardened" blades on my riding mower... which i appreciate. It takes a lot less sharpening, it holds a sharper edge longer, and the cut is more cut than tear.

Blades must be balanced as they are sharpened, or you'll notice a vibration that gets worse with every home sharpening. It's simple to balance a blade --- put a short piece of 2 x 4 on your bench, table or ground w/ one of the narrow sides up. Put a round pencil on top of that. When you've sharpened both sides, put the blade on the pencil so the pencil is visible thru the middle of the bolt hole. If the blade tilts, re-grind the heavier side (the side which tilts down. Keep going till the blade stays almost level. Close is good enough.

And another thing ... try to make the outer corner as square as you can. A rounded corner doesn't cut worth a darn. If that is difficult, then go thru your lawn and remove rocks, bricks, pavers, etc so there is little for your blade to dull itself against (apart from grass, that is)

I use a 6" high cut which gives me just as much (or just as little) mowing as the standard golf course bur cut. However, when it gets droughty and dry, and others lawns have large brown spots ... our lawn is green and comfortable for bare feet. In general, i prefer the feel of a long-cut lawn, both to walk on and to lie around on and for the looks of it. +, we have a larger number of species --- six or seven grasses, ground ivy, a couple vetches, lots of white clover, a little red clover and a number of other. We occasionally let it grow up to give us seeds for next years lawn.