I have discovered the “heavy duty” blades are a worthwhile investment. The thin ones are just too easy to damage. Even a small mole hill will bend a blade these days.
Do you usually sharpen or buy new blades?
- Thread starter ZZman
- Start date
On my riding mower, I take the deck off for maintenance including blade sharpening.
If the deck and blades have a lot of grass muck buildup, I'll take the blades off and down to workshop to use a bench grinder. I simply make quick passes and switch sides often to avoid overheating the blade temper. I have two sets of blades, so i take the set that came off and leave near the bench grinder for next time I'm using it for something else, and grab the other set of blades which I've already cleaned and sharpened.
If the deck and blades do not have much buildup and have had other lube/cleaning done recently enough, to the point where it doesn't need that again so just a quick job, I'll flip the blade over on the spindle to access the recessed edge (mulching blades), put a block of wood wedged in to keep it stationary, and use a 4" angle grinder, then flip the blades back over to normal spindle position to put final minimal cut on the downward facing side.
I am not very picky about how sharp the blades are. Mower probably gets about 50 hrs/year these days and I sharpen blades every couple of years, or every now and then, it won't be very windy at the right time in fall, so the leaves from massive oak trees don't blow away as much and so I have a lot more leaves to mulch and in that case, I'll sharpen them again, just prior to fall mulching-mowing to get a better mulching action.
If the deck and blades have a lot of grass muck buildup, I'll take the blades off and down to workshop to use a bench grinder. I simply make quick passes and switch sides often to avoid overheating the blade temper. I have two sets of blades, so i take the set that came off and leave near the bench grinder for next time I'm using it for something else, and grab the other set of blades which I've already cleaned and sharpened.
If the deck and blades do not have much buildup and have had other lube/cleaning done recently enough, to the point where it doesn't need that again so just a quick job, I'll flip the blade over on the spindle to access the recessed edge (mulching blades), put a block of wood wedged in to keep it stationary, and use a 4" angle grinder, then flip the blades back over to normal spindle position to put final minimal cut on the downward facing side.
I am not very picky about how sharp the blades are. Mower probably gets about 50 hrs/year these days and I sharpen blades every couple of years, or every now and then, it won't be very windy at the right time in fall, so the leaves from massive oak trees don't blow away as much and so I have a lot more leaves to mulch and in that case, I'll sharpen them again, just prior to fall mulching-mowing to get a better mulching action.
Mowed today for the first time of the year.
This blade was a new Oregon OEM replacement mid-last-season. I don't use this mower every week, but it gets used for at least part of most mows(it was the only one I did today).
It honestly wasn't bad, but the grass was thick(it went from not growing at all to growing like crazy) and I figured I'd put the mower at as much of an advantage as possible. I didn't use a mulch plate, but kept the mulch fan in place as I feel like it gets me some clipping recirculation under the deck and gets me finer chopped grass(and a better looking cut in thick grass) even with side discharge. I'm not sure if mulch fans are even a thing on anything made now...
In any case, this was about 15 seconds per side with an angle grinder and flap disk. Yes, there are some nicks that I could have worked out of it, but if you've ever watched "Taryl Fixes All", he's fond of saying "They don't matter just as long as they're sharp nicks." I didn't balance it-I know, bad of me, but I took off so little metal I'm not super worried.
Less than 5 minutes total on this to pull the blade off with my impact wrench(including having to walk back to switch the air compressor on when I couldn't figure out why the wrench was only hammering but not moving the nut...), sharpen it, and put it back on. Considering that a full mow takes me about an hour of continuous work, and I knew I had about an hour and a half of daylight left when I was finally able to get out to mow, I only had a finite amount of time to cram in what little spring maintenance I could! Hopefully I can do a proper spring tune up next week...
This blade was a new Oregon OEM replacement mid-last-season. I don't use this mower every week, but it gets used for at least part of most mows(it was the only one I did today).
It honestly wasn't bad, but the grass was thick(it went from not growing at all to growing like crazy) and I figured I'd put the mower at as much of an advantage as possible. I didn't use a mulch plate, but kept the mulch fan in place as I feel like it gets me some clipping recirculation under the deck and gets me finer chopped grass(and a better looking cut in thick grass) even with side discharge. I'm not sure if mulch fans are even a thing on anything made now...
In any case, this was about 15 seconds per side with an angle grinder and flap disk. Yes, there are some nicks that I could have worked out of it, but if you've ever watched "Taryl Fixes All", he's fond of saying "They don't matter just as long as they're sharp nicks." I didn't balance it-I know, bad of me, but I took off so little metal I'm not super worried.
Less than 5 minutes total on this to pull the blade off with my impact wrench(including having to walk back to switch the air compressor on when I couldn't figure out why the wrench was only hammering but not moving the nut...), sharpen it, and put it back on. Considering that a full mow takes me about an hour of continuous work, and I knew I had about an hour and a half of daylight left when I was finally able to get out to mow, I only had a finite amount of time to cram in what little spring maintenance I could! Hopefully I can do a proper spring tune up next week...
I might get by sharpening my blades once before they are too far gone. And I have to change them at least once before summer is over. Here in Florida we have a long growing season and the sandy soil sand blasts the blades and destroys them. When they wear they don't wear evenly and the edge has a wave that makes them hard to sharpen.
