I am curious about how often you should sharpen blades , my cub cadet blades lose their edge after cutting 3/4 acers of grass ,is this normal or are the blades not properly heat treated .
Depends on what you consider sharp. A .030 cutting edge is considered the sharp starting point according to Oregon which is probably who made the blades.
#3
StarTech
Also many blades are not heat treated so they dull faster but said by IL .030 is considered sharp. Even when put on a new sharpen blades they dull somewhat the first cutting. It is the major rock (impact) damage that is more concerning. I do install heat treated blades here and they do last up the 2X as longer as OEM blades. So far I haven't quote heat treated blade for the MTD 46" decks; although, the MTD blade style I from Stens looks to be very good blades and they are .164 thick.
I would only sharpen when the quality of the cut becomes poor. Different grasses wear the blades differently so there is no fix time frame as to when to sharpen.
#4
Charlie8d
I don't know your terrain but here in Florida, I cut about as much sand as I do grass. Blades will get dull pretty quickly, so I only buy good blades.