I use a 40 grit flapper disc on a Dewalt angle grinder. Makes for a very shiny look. I would think a 220 grit would take all day. Yes, very fast, but often I have to dress up the tip on a grinding wheel. Got to have the tip as close to a square angle as you can get it. The more rounded the tip is, the worse job of cutting occurs. I use a Magna Matic balancer. Love it, does an excellent job. I have used my shop press to straighten blades, but it's time consuming unless I'm doing it for myself. Only encountered that with the 21" blades, never on the 18" blades. When I was mowing more full time, I changed my blades every day, that way they dressed up very fast. I use two hoists in my shop to lift the whole mower, can change the blades out with a 3/8" impact wrench in less than 2 minutes.
Sharpening Blades
- Thread starter Tiger Small Engine
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borisdmower
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Sharpen!!! My blades wear from the back. (Sandblasted) I’m lucky if I need to sharpen them once before they are flogged out, I reckon they last about 15 hours. Mower shop said that is normal for where I live.
Wish I could find blades made out of AR 400
Hammermechanicman
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The best blades are made of marbain steel. They are OEM on brands like Ferris Scag Grasshopper commercial JD and the like.
Marbain
The Marbain heat-treating process is a controlled, proprietary operation that creates ultra-hard properties without the brittleness.
www.fisherbarton.com
AR 400 is what they use on snow plow cutting blades, and similar applications. It would be expensive, but effectiveThe best blades are made of marbain steel. They are OEM on brands like Ferris Scag Grasshopper commercial JD and the like.
Marbain
The Marbain heat-treating process is a controlled, proprietary operation that creates ultra-hard properties without the brittleness.
Tiger Small Engine
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I appreciate all the replies and interest in this thread on blade sharpening. Most of my blade sharpening comes from a complete tune up and sharpening the blades being a part of the service. It takes lots of practice to get good at consistently getting a nice sharp blade with an angle grinder. Knowing how to effectively and accurately sharpen a blade is not my issue. My problem is going through lots of grinding wheels prematurely and them losing their effectiveness due to glazing( loading up with metal material). I still don’t know the solution.
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Hammermechanicman
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Good flap wheels are relatively cheap. I get mine from Supergrit. I buy a dozen or so at a time.
I've sharpened over 1000 blades with a Magna-Matic sharpener and have never had one of the grinding wheels even remotely glaze. If you're using a bench grinder, its wheel is much harder and is much more likely to glaze. I can sharpen over 200 blades with one of their 1" wide 'soft' wheels before it's worn out.
Magna-Matic now sells a belt sharpener. I bought one during their holiday sale but haven't had a chance to use it yet. I've seen the videos of it and it really blazes through blades that are in bad shape. That's the reason I bought it, because I get a lot of blades that are extremely dull, and like you it I think it takes an unreasonable amount of time to get them back in shape.
ILENGINE
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I used one of these for years until Oregon changed the wheel material or something and started glazing
Went to one of their belt grinders which is the oregon version of the Burr-king 760 with the 1-1/2 width belt x 60 inch.