How To Ensure You Get The Right Angle When Sharpening Your Blade
If we discuss how to sharpen a lawn mower blade, there are a few different ways, depending on whether you can remove the blade or need to sharpen the blade without removing it.
First, youll need to know the angle. A common mistake is measuring the wrong angle. So lets check how to read the correct angle.
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Balanced Blades Are Essential For A Level Cut
One of the biggest factors that determines whether or not you need to replace your blades is whether they are balanced or not.
If your blades are not balanced, you will have a hard time getting a level cut.
Additionally, unbalanced blades will add extra wear to your lawn mower, especially the lawn mower deck components like the spindles.
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Sharpen your blades removing any chips or dulls spots,
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Place a screw driver through the center of your blade,
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And check to see it remains level or tips to one side.
It is normal for blades to become slightly out of balance over time. Simply remove some of the material from the heavy side until the blade remains flat.
If however you have too many chips on one side of the blade, it may be time to replace your lawn mower blades.
Pro Tip! Always keep your blades balanced, otherwise you will end up wearing down your equipment faster. An unbalanced blade is more likely to break other components of your mower.
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- Remove the spark plug
- Pull the spark plug wire from the spark plug to prevent the motor from accidentally starting. Tape or tie it back so it doesn’t flop back into contact with the plug.
- Pro Tip:We recommend always removing the spark plug when you’re working on the blade. If the piston happens to be at the top of the compression stroke, a little bump to the blade might force the piston over the hump and into the power stroke. If that happens, the blade will lurch around and could break your hand!
How Do You Sharpen A Lawn Mower Blade With A Dremel
How to sharpen lawnmower blades with a Dremel, step by step:
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How Do I Know If My Lawnmower Blade Is Sharp
A lawn mower blade will feel sharp, but not sharp enough to cut you on the finger if you are tracing the edge. You want to feel the edge on new mower blades to get an idea of the perfect sharpness, but if you arent sure, a butter-knife edge is just about perfect in most cases.
Avoid sharpening your blades to razor sharpness, as this will make them dull more quickly and the thinned metal will be prone to damage.
Should The Blade Be Sharpened Or Replaced
Sometimes theres no need to sharpen your lawn mowers blade because youre actually due for a replacement. Lawn mower blades dont have a specific lifespan, but generally, they should be swapped out every 2 or 3 seasons. The best way to tell if this is the case for you is to take a look at your blade. If the blade is bent, has large nicks/dents, or is suffering some serious rust damage, you should probably buy a new one. Knowing when to replace lawn mower blades can save you a ton of time.
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Sharpen Your Lawn Mower Bladeswith Ease & Precision
Welcome to All American Sharpener
We provide high quality lawn mower blade sharpeners at an affordable price. Our products are made in the USA and built to last. You can save time, money, and effort with our sharpening jigs. We currently offer three design options based on the style and shape of your mower blades. The prices range from $175 – $220. To learn more about which model is best for your mower blades, check out our Blade Guide page.
How Do I Know If I Need A New Mower Blade
Your grass will tell you. Youll see the tips of the grass turn white and appear torn rather than sliced.
Another reason your machine might not be doing its job is off-balanced blades. If a mower blade is bent, you might hear grinding noises, and it may handle differently. The mower will need immediate repair services if thats the case.
Our knowledgeable, certified mechanics can get your lawn mower up and running quickly. Contact us to schedule mower services.
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Start The Bench Grinder And Slide The Blade Across The Table
Be sure not to over-sharpen the lawn mower blade when using a bench grinder. You only have so much steel to work with before you have to get a new blade. You also dont need to do much more than put that edge back on. Use quick passes back and forth when sharpening. This helps keep you from heating up the steel and eliminating the hardening process. This helps you keep that blade edge sharp for longer periods of time.
How To Sharpen Lawn Mower Blades In 9 Simple Steps
Heres how to sharpen lawn mower blades quickly and effectively
Learning how to sharpen lawn mower blades is essential if you want your mower to last longer. With each use, your mower blade will gradually dull, which means it wont cut as cleanly. The result: torn grass blades which give a raggedy appearance. In the worst case scenario, a dull blade can even tear out sections of grass or damage the root system, making your lawn appear more yellow than green.
But before you race out to buy a new lawn mower, you should check on the quality of the blade and sharpen it if necessary. Not sure what to do? Here, we will take you through the best methods to sharpen lawn mower blades with step-by-step guidance. By the end of this, your lawn mower will be working as good as new, leaving a clean cut behind.
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Why Its Important To Sharpen Your Lawn Mower Blades
A dull lawn mower blade rips and pulls the grass blades, leaving ragged tears that both weaken the plant and promote fungal growth and other grass diseases. A sharp blade, on the other hand, cuts cleanly, allowing the plant to heal and recover quickly. A lawn mower blade sharpening also lets you complete your lawn-cutting chore faster and with less stress on the mower.
These steps will work for just about any walk-behind mower. Riding mowers require different blade removal techniques, which we dont show here. If youre having trouble with your lawnmower find out why your lawnmower wont start.
Make Sure You Have All The Right Tools
One more thing make sure you are prepared with all the right supplies.
That includes a
You can use a number of additional sharpening tools as well, depending on your preference, but a bench grinder may be a little difficult to use because of the awkward shape of the mower blade .
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How Sharp Should A Lawnmower Blade Be
Be sure to continue sharpening the edge of your blade past any nicks or chips in the blades edge. Continue sharpening until the blades cutting edge is not only sharp, but its a straight line.
The Home Depot specifies that a blade as sharp as a butter knife is sharp enough to slice your grass. But not every homeowner agrees.
Alan Hayne runs The Lawncare Nut Youtube Channel. He uses a mower blade sharpening procedure several of my friends and neighbors swear by: Hayne uses a mechanics angle grinder to sharpen his mower blades and always grinds them down until they are razor-sharp. His motto is that sharper is always better.
So who is right? Is there such a thing as too sharp?
Firstly, the sharper you get your mower blade, the more metal you must grind off of it. The more metal you remove from your mower blade with each sharpening, the sooner you must replace it.
Secondly, you stand a chance of injuring yourself while trying to reinstall a razor-sharp mower blade. A butter-knife-sharp blade is much safer to handle.
What is more, the edge of a razor-thin blade is not as strong as the thicker edge of a duller blade. If that razor-thin blade strikes a rock, it is more likely to bend or chip.
Finally, if a blade can slice your grass without tearing the stems, it is a sharp enough tool for the task at hand.
Balancing The Mower Blade
These methods are rather forgiving, however, you should take care to not miss an important step: periodically balancing the blade. After taking off some metal on either side of the blade and achieving a nice edge, you need to ensure the blade still balances evenly.
To do this, hammer a 16D or similar nail into a wall in your shed or shop and hang the blade from its center point. If it stays balanced, youre all done. if not, mark the heavy side with a Sharpie marker and take some additional metal off that side by continuing to sharpen it. Most of the time, you can keep a blade balanced by staying aware of how many passes you make with a grinder. Still, periodically check the blade balance to ensure you havent drifted too far on one side or the other.
Regardless of which grinder method you use, balance the blade periodically to ensure it stays even.
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Buy New Lawn Mower Blades Or Sharpen Old Ones
After mowing a lawn for a while, you have a pretty good idea of where all the stumps and roots are. That being so, I still find myself grinding down a small tree stump every few months. Even if youre easy on blades, they still wear down and need to be replaced or sharpened regularly.
Why does it matter?
Dull mower blades shred grass, leaving frayed ends or even failing to cut it. This makes your lawn uneven, white or brown at the tip, and susceptible to disease.
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How To Properly Sharpen Lawn Mower Blades
Its crucial that once you know your angle, you can properly transfer it to the blade when sharpening your mower blade. My favorite methods to sharpen a lawn mower blade are to use either a metal file, angle grinder, or bench grinder. These methods, in my experience, give me the best results and make for an easy transfer of the desired cutting blade angle.
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How Often Should Mower Blades Be Sharpened
Lawnmowers will all get different amounts of use. During the summer, the average homeowners mower probably gets used once a week. Still, if you mow lawns for your profession, theres a good chance that youre mowing multiple lawns a day, which means your mower gets much higher mileage than your suburban neighbors lawnmowers do.
This means we need to come up with a standard that accounts for the time mowed, not time that has passed in general. For example, every couple months wouldnt work, because everyone mows for different amounts of time. This means that we have to come up with an average that accounts for that. Milage would work, but nobody wants to figure out how much ground they cover when they mow.
Instead, lets use total time spent mowing! Everyone generally has at least an average idea of how much time it takes them to mow the lawn, and how often the lawn is mowed, making it decently simple to track.Generally speaking, the blades on your mower should be sharpened for every 25 hours spent mowing. So figure out how long it takes you to mow your yard and go from there!
Blade Setup And Sharpening Tools
Grip the blade in proper position with a vice grip to clamp it in a place for its sharpening. Ensure that blades cutting edge should face upwards. Also, look for any crack or dent to make is sharpening is a better option compared to replacing. Now get ready to sharpen the blade with any type of tool.
- Hand Sharpener
Keep the sharpener at the top of the blades cutting edge, and move the file in one direction with a grain. However, moving forth and back will damage the blade and sharpener as well. You feel protrusions on the blade if not applying the proper amount of pressure while moving the sharpener. Or else apply a little more force to keep the sharpener working over the blades perfect angled edge. Usually, it needs less than 50 file strokes to sharpen the blade. After smoothing all rough patches, you have to flip them to continue the same process on the other side.
- Drill-Powered Tool
- Angle Grinder
It is used by professionals to do the sharpening task efficiently and with ease. Simply clamp the blade as other methods, then set this grinder with a flap disc. Usually, several sets come with this part. The cutting edge of the mower blade is lined with the grinder blade. move the grinder back and forth with minimal pressure. Also, smooth the rough patches of the blades edge by tracing its angle.
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How Sharp Should A Lawn Mower Blade Be
According to home and garden experts, the blades in your mower should be about as sharp as a butter knife, and an angle of about 30 degrees. You should not get a bruise if you touch the edge. If you want to get the most out of your blades, youll need to learn how to use them properly.
What Is The Best Grit For Sharpening Lawn Mower Blades
Lawnmower blades are no different. For lawnmower blades, we recommend grinding wheels or files with a 60-80 grit rating. This is generally known as the medium coarseness range and it provides a balance between removing materials and precision sharpening. Less or more grit can remove too little or too much material.
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How To Sharpen A Lawn Mower Blade Using A Grinder
Performing mower maintenance at least once every 12 months is essential to keeping your lawnmower in top running condition. This article is the third in a series of lawnmower maintenance articles that cover complete lawnmower care
Were performing maintenance on both a Craftsman 6.5 horsepower self-propelled mower, and a lighter duty 4.5 HP Murray mower. Both push mowers are powered by Briggs & Stratton 4-cycle engines. For this article, were only going to show the sharpening process on the Craftsman, but the principals can be applied to all mower blades.
Properly maintaining your lawn mower blade is important. A sharp blade ensures that grass is cut evenly and on the first pass, and the engine wont have to work as hard.
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Is Your Blade Bent
Although most lawn care pros will be hesitant to admit it, bent blades are a common occurrence.
Blades are frequently bent by hidden tree stumps, rebar or other large objects hidden in the lawn.
While a major bend in the blade may be impossible to correct, smaller imperfections in your lawn mower blade can be corrected with the proper application of force.
However, for the average DIY homeowner, replacing your blades and avoiding the spot that caused the issue in the future.
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How Do You Get Dried Fabric Paint Off
When the paint dries on the carpet, it hardens and becomes a bit harder to remove. However, you can remove it with a few elements. We know that the main ingredient in nail polish remover is acetone, which effectively removes fabric paint.You take a few drops of acetone on a cloth and rub it on the spot. Since the fabric paint hardens when it dries, you may need to rub it in pairs. However, you can easily remove dry paint from the tile floor using a razor blade.
My last word
These are the two main techniques, both techniques are easy. You can use both techniques on your mower. Choose which technique fits with you then apply it to your mower. I think these two techniques are helpful, and if you follow these both techniques so you easily test your mower voltage regulator, inshallah.
