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I don't know the correct way to sharpen a blade, but I'll describe mine... what's yours?

In fact, sharpening is not a very important item for many users, because even if the blade is not sharp, the cutter will shred the grass or any tree leaf... but the result is not satisfactory, in addition to causing greater consumption with more passes and even damage to the deck as a whole.
To those who don't sharpen, but change it after noticing an inefficiency, congratulations... it's the most correct way... but expensive.
Let's go...

With the blade off the deck, clamp it with a clamp on the workbench and clean (rust, glued and dry grass, animal manure, etc...), on all surfaces, using a grinder with flap disc, wire disc, etc.
After cleaning, I change the disk for an iron grinding disk (carburundum, diamond, aggressive flap, etc...) and grind at approximately 45° until I get a good edge.
After satisfactory sharpening, I move on to the balancing stage, an important procedure to keep the deck serene, without unnecessary vibrations that can cause loosening of screws, premature wear of pulley bearings, noise, etc.
To do this, just fix a rod with a rounded profile in a vise or workbench and hang the blade through its hole... the photos speak for themselves...

Cleaning the blade

Cleaning up will make balancing easier at the end.

Sharpening...



Balancing

Blade one...

Very good...


Bade two...

Oops! Necessary adjustment...
Mark the side and remove material to make it lighter... preferably not on the sharp part.





Until equilibrium is achieved, several attempts can be made...

The end of the blade must be given special care, as it is the first to attack the grass... in any case, the edge is lost along the entire stretch due to stones, stumps, sand, sidewalks, hard fruit seeds and other objects. ..

I glass bead the blade to clean everything off it. Then file the edge, then balance it with the proper tool, which was not inexpensive. Far better than a screwdriver. I check the length of the blade from center the first time I sharpen one. Then I lightly paint it with a fast drying spray paint and when dry check the balance again. There is a limit to how far a blade can be sharpened, and yours below looks pretty worn. I also inspect for cracks after cleaning it. Blades can break when they are old, tired and have been used too many hours. I would not want to get hit by a piece. A neighbor hit a brass sprinkler head many years ago and his mower tossed the head about 80', thru my glass window, thru blinds shattering them, put a dent in some drywall down the hall. and ended up another 25' into the house. Imagine what a broken blade could do - and the instant imbalance that the system would suffer.

I always just use a file. The only blades I’ve ever sharpened are on my grandmas mower. It’s easier to just wear them out and replace them in my opinion.

I recently got one those commercially made blade balancers and I surprised by how much new blades can be out blade before they ever touch grass. Considering what I charge for sharpening sometimes new blades are a better deal for my customers; especially when it comes to the 1/4" thick ones. Besides stones do get expensive to wear out.

Taking some time getting use to the new balancer but I am getting better fast.

sgkent said:

I glass bead the blade to clean everything off it. Then file the edge, then balance it with the proper tool, which was not inexpensive. Far better than a screwdriver. I check the length of the blade from center the first time I sharpen one. Then I lightly paint it with a fast drying spray paint and when dry check the balance again. There is a limit to how far a blade can be sharpened, and yours below looks pretty worn. I also inspect for cracks after cleaning it. Blades can break when they are old, tired and have been used too many hours. I would not want to get hit by a piece. A neighbor hit a brass sprinkler head many years ago and his mower tossed the head about 80', thru my glass window, thru blinds shattering them, put a dent in some drywall down the hall. and ended up another 25' into the house. Imagine what a broken blade could do - and the instant imbalance that the system would suffer.

Click to expand...

I don't know what the technical limit is for replacing the blade... probably the manufacturer doesn't even recommend sharpening, but it ends up being up to each person's feelings.
Danger of breaking or throwing something out of the deck will occur even with a new blade, but with an old one the breakage is indeed greater...
I think manufacturers should indicate a TWI for blades...
I liked the paint procedure for inspecting cracks...

AutoMechanic said:

I always just use a file. The only blades I’ve ever sharpened are on my grandmas mower. It’s easier to just wear them out and replace them in my opinion.

Click to expand...

You are absolutely right to change the blade, but send the old and sharp ones to the mother-in-law, right? kkkk....
The cost of the blade around here is quite high and sharpening is the first option.
I see no problem in sharpening any cutting element, but I would like to know the technical limit.

StarTech said:

I recently got one those commercially made blade balancers and I surprised by how much new blades can be out blade before they ever touch grass. Considering what I charge for sharpening sometimes new blades are a better deal for my customers; especially when it comes to the 1/4" thick ones. Besides stones do get expensive to wear out.

Taking some time getting use to the new balancer but I am getting better fast.

Click to expand...

Good... you're a sharpener and with a dynamic balancer it's a show!
Do you know the limit for sharpening?
What better angle?
Is it very wrong to balance as I described?

This is the second sharpening I've done... the previous one has been sharpening for 50 hours with some stones, small coconuts, roots, stumps, etc...
I added blade inspection and sharpening (if necessary) to my preventative maintenance program. Do you think this range is good or should I shorten it?

What I see as the removal of the original cutting edge is about one third. But any cracked, bent, or broken blades should alway be replaced. Considering I charge a minimum of $9.00 plus sales tax the follow blades are border line sharpenable.

Bange said:

Good... you're a sharpener and with a dynamic balancer it's a show!
Do you know the limit for sharpening?
What better angle?
Is it very wrong to balance as I described?

This is the second sharpening I've done... the previous one has been sharpening for 50 hours with some stones, small coconuts, roots, stumps, etc...
I added blade inspection and sharpening (if necessary) to my preventative maintenance program. Do you think this range is good or should I shorten it?

Click to expand...

Yes the limits.

And I have used the way you describe but had limited results as some blades have weird center holes. Even some of them can't be easily blade using either system. Especially those rectangle holes where you got the center and then balance by placing flat on the edge of edge edged metal piece.

StarTech said:

View attachment 64046

Click to expand...

If you have more than two types around here, I'm already satisfied... the market here is almost exclusive to two importers.
What do the numbers in columns 3 and 4 mean?

Well, for lack of experience with other machines and blades, I'm just talking about mine, but if it's not easy to discover the center of balance, the thing is impossible in my view.
In the past I had a small traction mower with a Teconseh engine (6HP), but I sold it in a short time and never sharpened its blade.

the thing that concerned me is that blade was probably straight when new. If so a lot of steel has already been worn away. I would replace it and start over. Also the before photo shows a really blunt blade. Mine gets sharpened 2 - 4 times a year. When maintaining a blade it doesn't take much to keep it sharp, only a pass or two with the mill file. When it gets to be blunt then a lot of material must come off to sharpen it. That blade screams to me that it is time to replace it, but maybe y'all who work on these mowers all the time just see that as par for the course.

I use an Oregon belt blade grinder aka Burrking 760 and a magnetic balancer. The Oregon blade sharpening recommendation is what is called the 30-30 rule which means sharpen at a 30 degree angle and leave a .030 blunt edge. All blades are wire brushed to remove all buildup and debris and for inspection. Worn or cracked air lifts get tossed and replaced with new blades.

sgkent said:

the thing that concerned me is that blade was probably straight when new. If so a lot of steel has already been worn away. I would replace it and start over. Also the before photo shows a really blunt blade. Mine gets sharpened 2 - 4 times a year. When maintaining a blade it doesn't take much to keep it sharp, only a pass or two with the mill file. When it gets to be blunt then a lot of material must come off to sharpen it. That blade screams to me that it is time to replace it, but maybe y'all who work on these mowers all the time just see that as par for the course.

Click to expand...

I believe that the use and quality of the grass and the ground determine the frequency of sharpening, as I said before, the previous sharpening was 50 hours of use (max 3 months passed)... in my space the lawn is still bad treated and the land is full of fruit trees such as coconut, mango, avocado, cashew... often the blade picks up something, in addition to the earth which is a real sandpaper.
Lower the deck less than 5cm... not a chance.
My space and mini tractor are old but I am new user without experience.

ILENGINE said:

I use an Oregon belt blade grinder aka Burrking 760 and a magnetic balancer. The Oregon blade sharpening recommendation is what is called the 30-30 rule which means sharpen at a 30 degree angle and leave a .030 blunt edge. All blades are wire brushed to remove all buildup and debris and for inspection. Worn or cracked air lifts get tossed and replaced with new blades.

Click to expand...

Dang! You got a $3k Burrking.
Totally jealous. I just have the All American sharpener with an angle grinder with 36 grit flap disks. I built a wire brush blade cleaner from a table saw motor but it makes such a mess I don't use it much. If my shop was bigger I would get something better but I am so crowded now no room for anything new.

ILENGINE said:

I use an Oregon belt blade grinder aka Burrking 760 and a magnetic balancer. The Oregon blade sharpening recommendation is what is called the 30-30 rule which means sharpen at a 30 degree angle and leave a .030 blunt edge. All blades are wire brushed to remove all buildup and debris and for inspection. Worn or cracked air lifts get tossed and replaced with new blades.

Click to expand...

Another sharpener... very good...
For mowing the grass itself, I see no difference between 45 and 30°, other than less material removal...
Of course, different damages that can't be resolved with sharpening, blade for the trash.
But what does "leave a .030 blunt edge" mean?

I freehand sharpen with a 4” angle grinder with a 40 grit flapper wheel. I have a cheap 2 piece Oregon balancer. It gets the job done. I have to put sharp blades on around every 12 hours. I cut 3 acres once a week.
By the way, the OP needs new blades.

You can sharpen to a razor edge but after just a few minutes of mowing the edge will round over to around ,030 so no need to sharpen to a razor edge. Look at the edge of most any new blade and it is not sharp like a knife.
There are some commercial guys that change blades every day and sharpen to knife edge so that when they cut rich people's yards the grass cuts ends stay green. Dull blades rip the grass and the ends turn greyish..

Bange said:

Another sharpener... very good...
For mowing the grass itself, I see no difference between 45 and 30°, other than less material removal...
Of course, different damages that can't be resolved with sharpening, blade for the trash.
But what does "leave a .030 blunt edge" mean?
View attachment 64049

Click to expand...

Well you are on the wrong train of thought here as the 30 degrees is right the opposite of your drawing. In your drawing the edge is too blunt and basically doesn't sharp very long.
Now the angle as shown below is a lot closer to factory edge. And of course you don't need a razor sharp edge as it dulls rather quickly anyway.

MParr and Hammermechanicman.

What is your sharpening angle?

Retired blades make good knives. Cut to rough shape, flatten, grind to shape, sharpen, drill and make handle.

Star tech

I understand your point now...
But which angle offers the greatest resistance of blade material to the material being cut, or something else?
I am convinced that the 45° is stronger and will suffer less damage...

I don’t follow a set angle. I follow the original blade angle. After a while, you just know.

But original from the factory or the way it comes to your hands to sharpen?

For cleaning blades, I simply put them in a old drain pan, & add some tap water to barely submerge them, & let soak 1/2 hour,
remove & simply wipe clean. The water does the work & makes cleaning so simple.. No grinding debris dust to breathe.

Sharpening, I use a mill file & finish with a flap wheel... The OE blades I have are Marbain Steel ( heat treated ) so they hold an edge very well..(30* x .030") I also use a set of Oregon blades, & really like them. I pivot balance, & works for my private use.

Very ecological... but water does not remove the rust crust and in these cases you must use something more aggressive...

One question...

A = dull blade that needs sharpening.
B = Use of an appropriate power tool for sharpening
C= Another form of sharpening with a specific tool.
Consider B and C after many sharpenings...

What is trend B or C?

Bange said:

Very ecological... but water does not remove the rust crust and in these cases you must use something more aggressive...

Click to expand...

Mine don't have rust on them..

Bange said:

MParr and Hammermechanicman.

What is your sharpening angle?

Click to expand...

I match the angle of whatever is on the blade. If the blade is so bad I can't tell I use 30 degrees. In the shop I see dozens of different blades

Hammermechanicman said:

Dang! You got a $3k Burrking.
Totally jealous. I just have the All American sharpener with an angle grinder with 36 grit flap disks. I built a wire brush blade cleaner from a table saw motor but it makes such a mess I don't use it much. If my shop was bigger I would get something better but I am so crowded now no room for anything new.

Click to expand...

Actually in my case I split the cost with my nephew who runs a stump removal business, and the same grinder uses the diamond belts so he can sharpen his carbide stump grinder teeth. Those belts are $134 each. but my 1-1/2x60 36 grit ceramic sharpening belts are $10.99 and will do about 80 blades before replacement.

Bange said:

Star tech

I understand your point now...
But which angle offers the greatest resistance of blade material to the material being cut, or something else?
I am convinced that the 45° is stronger and will suffer less damage...

View attachment 64051

Click to expand...

The 45 degree angle will be more resistance to damage and wear but will also be duller and be prone to tearing not cutting of the grass.

I would like to see a trial of a lawnmower with 3 blades... one at 30°, one at 40° and one at 45° and see the result of the cut immediately and after days of use.

You won't see much difference. A rotary mower doesn't really cut grass but rips it using Inertia. Talk to a pro golf course senior groundskeeper sometime if you want to know about reel vs rotary mowers and how they cut grass.
When a rotary mower blade is very sharp it will give a cut nearly equaling a reel mower but that will last a short time depending on factors like type of grass and moisture in the grass. Lush green grass is less abrasive than dry grass. Once the edge rounds over the angle doesn't matter. They will cut the same. There is a reason golf courses use gang reel mowers. As one guy put it. You "cut" the fairways and "chop" the rough. I have had customers bring in mowers with the blade on upside down and they didn't realize it. The biggest difference in the grass you will see is dull blades leave the ends of the grass ragged and those ragged ends turn yellowish or grayish a couple days after mowing. Especially if the grass is dry and needs water. A sharp or dull blade moving at 250mph will rip the grass in half and it will look the same that day but not in a couple days.

I am confused by the concept of harsh landscapes mean duller blades. In my world, harsh landscapes would mean sharpening more often. It is like saying if I cook a lot more the kitchen gets dirtier quicker. That means more effort goes into cleaning it, not we allow it to get dirtier because we cook more often.

As in a short time of use the blades lose their good edge, why not change them for nylon or steel wire?
Is there any experience with this?
What is your opinion?

I am pretty amazed at the gator blades with the fusion edge. Put a set on my ferris 3100 a couple years ago and haven't needed to sharpen them yet. I mow 4 acres. The original marbain blades would go a whole season between sharpenings.

Glades Cat said:

Retired blades make good knives. Cut to rough shape, flatten, grind to shape, sharpen, drill and make handle.

Click to expand...

I would disagree with that one. Usually mower blades, well, OEM mower blades are made of inferior steel. From what I've used Oregon has the best steel.

I would say used truck leaf springs would be a better choice.

Bange said:

I would like to see a trial of a lawnmower with 3 blades... one at 30°, one at 40° and one at 45° and see the result of the cut immediately and after days of use.

Click to expand...

More acute the angle, the sharper the blade CAN be. So at 30 and 45 degrees, both can be sharp. The 30 will be sharper but the 45 has more steel at the cutting edge and will last longer till the edge fades/disappears. Hatchets have say 30 degree bevels. Japanese straight razors can be in the low teens or less. Sharper but dulls faster.

Use the factory bevel angle and you will be fine.

My 4 cents on sharpening.

I use a hand file myself. Takes a few minutes to get a blade back to fighting weight. New files obviously work faster than older dull ones. I can pull a file from the tool box, few slaps on both sides and I'm done. Not looking for shaving sharp blades here. Just a good bevel clean up.

No reason to fire up some super expensive electric grinder. These are lawn mowers, not the space shuttle (Taryl). I can have a blade sharpened roughly in the same time as pulling a grinder out and plugging it in. Look at the bevel, set your sharpening angle and finally remve TOO MUCH material. Now you are into balancing for quite a while...... And your blades all have smiles to them now compared to simple hand files. More grinding to correct the smiles. Now you've just removed a bunch of life from that blade.

Summation, you burn through blades a lot faster with grinders than with hand files. Most people don't even check for sharpness when done. They see a shiny new bevel and think the blade is sharp.

slomo said:

My 4 cents on sharpening.

I use a hand file myself. Takes a few minutes to get a blade back to fighting weight. New files obviously work faster than older dull ones. I can pull a file from the tool box, few slaps on both sides and I'm done. Not looking for shaving sharp blades here. Just a good bevel clean up.

No reason to fire up some super expensive electric grinder. These are lawn mowers, not the space shuttle (Taryl). I can have a blade sharpened roughly in the same time as pulling a grinder out and plugging it in. Look at the bevel, set your sharpening angle and finally remve TOO MUCH material. Now you are into balancing for quite a while...... And your blades all have smiles to them now compared to simple hand files. More grinding to correct the smiles. Now you've just removed a bunch of life from that blade.

Summation, you burn through blades a lot faster with grinders than with hand files. Most people don't even check for sharpness when done. They see a shiny new bevel and think the blade is sharp.

Click to expand...

Do you run a mower shop?
Most folks on this forum fall into two categories. Homeowners and shop owners. Each will have their own way to do things. Sharpening 150 or so blades with most of them beat to hell with a file wouldn't be profitable. I need to be able to sharpen a 3 blade mower in 10 minutes or less.

LOL... the subject is controversial, but the 30° seem pacified...


At least you could see how the profile of the sharpening is, which depends on the damage.

My 4 cents on sharpening.

I use a hand file myself. Takes a few minutes to get a blade back to fighting weight. New files obviously work faster than older dull ones. I can pull a file from the tool box, few slaps on both sides and I'm done. Not looking for shaving sharp blades here. Just a good bevel clean up.

No reason to fire up some super expensive electric grinder. These are lawn mowers, not the space shuttle (Taryl). I can have a blade sharpened roughly in the same time as pulling a grinder out and plugging it in. Look at the bevel, set your sharpening angle and finally remve TOO MUCH material. Now you are into balancing for quite a while...... And your blades all have smiles to them now compared to simple hand files. More grinding to correct the smiles. Now you've just removed a bunch of life from that blade.

Summation, you burn through blades a lot faster with grinders than with hand files. Most people don't even check for sharpness when done. T

Hammermechanicman said:

Do you run a mower shop?
Most folks on this forum fall into two categories. Homeowners and shop owners. Each will have their own way to do things. Sharpening 150 or so blades with most of them beat to hell with a file wouldn't be profitable. I need to be able to sharpen a 3 blade mower in 10 minutes or less.

Click to expand...

So why even waste the 10 minutes sharpening with your grinder? Just throw on new blades. Much faster than grinding and balancing. If it's all about speed....

No I do not have a mower shop.


Best was to sharpen a blade is install a new one.

Bange said:

I don't know the correct way to sharpen a blade, but I'll describe mine... what's yours?

In fact, sharpening is not a very important item for many users, because even if the blade is not sharp, the cutter will shred the grass or any tree leaf... but the result is not satisfactory, in addition to causing greater consumption with more passes and even damage to the deck as a whole.
To those who don't sharpen, but change it after noticing an inefficiency, congratulations... it's the most correct way... but expensive.
Let's go...

With the blade off the deck, clamp it with a clamp on the workbench and clean (rust, glued and dry grass, animal manure, etc...), on all surfaces, using a grinder with flap disc, wire disc, etc.
After cleaning, I change the disk for an iron grinding disk (carburundum, diamond, aggressive flap, etc...) and grind at approximately 45° until I get a good edge.
After satisfactory sharpening, I move on to the balancing stage, an important procedure to keep the deck serene, without unnecessary vibrations that can cause loosening of screws, premature wear of pulley bearings, noise, etc.
To do this, just fix a rod with a rounded profile in a vise or workbench and hang the blade through its hole... the photos speak for themselves...

Cleaning the blade
View attachment 64029View attachment 64030
Cleaning up will make balancing easier at the end.

Sharpening...
View attachment 64031


Balancing

Blade one...
View attachment 64032
Very good...
View attachment 64033

Bade two...

Oops! Necessary adjustment...
Mark the side and remove material to make it lighter... preferably not on the sharp part.
View attachment 64036
View attachment 64036
View attachment 64038
View attachment 64039

Until equilibrium is achieved, several attempts can be made...

The end of the blade must be given special care, as it is the first to attack the grass... in any case, the edge is lost along the entire stretch due to stones, stumps, sand, sidewalks, hard fruit seeds and other objects. ..

Click to expand...

I too clean the blades as best I can with wire wheel / brush, then use a 4.5" grinder w/a 60 grit flapwheel. I THINK the correct cutting angle is 30`. I use my $150 MAGNA-MATIC to balance. It is unbelievably sensitive, which explains my frustration having to keep checking balance so often. Sure, paying that much to balance blades is arguably overkill, but the cost of replacing spindles is something I hope to not have to do any time soon.

Bange said:

I don't know the correct way to sharpen a blade, but I'll describe mine... what's yours?

In fact, sharpening is not a very important item for many users, because even if the blade is not sharp, the cutter will shred the grass or any tree leaf... but the result is not satisfactory, in addition to causing greater consumption with more passes and even damage to the deck as a whole.
To those who don't sharpen, but change it after noticing an inefficiency, congratulations... it's the most correct way... but expensive.
Let's go...

With the blade off the deck, clamp it with a clamp on the workbench and clean (rust, glued and dry grass, animal manure, etc...), on all surfaces, using a grinder with flap disc, wire disc, etc.
After cleaning, I change the disk for an iron grinding disk (carburundum, diamond, aggressive flap, etc...) and grind at approximately 45° until I get a good edge.
After satisfactory sharpening, I move on to the balancing stage, an important procedure to keep the deck serene, without unnecessary vibrations that can cause loosening of screws, premature wear of pulley bearings, noise, etc.
To do this, just fix a rod with a rounded profile in a vise or workbench and hang the blade through its hole... the photos speak for themselves...

Cleaning the blade
View attachment 64029View attachment 64030
Cleaning up will make balancing easier at the end.

Sharpening...
View attachment 64031


Balancing

Blade one...
View attachment 64032
Very good...
View attachment 64033

Bade two...

Oops! Necessary adjustment...
Mark the side and remove material to make it lighter... preferably not on the sharp part.
View attachment 64036
View attachment 64036
View attachment 64038
View attachment 64039

Until equilibrium is achieved, several attempts can be made...

The end of the blade must be given special care, as it is the first to attack the grass... in any case, the edge is lost along the entire stretch due to stones, stumps, sand, sidewalks, hard fruit seeds and other objects. ..

Click to expand...

Time to clean that work area, Dude. Safety first.

The goal when using a Magna-Matic balancer isn't to get the blade to be motionless, it's only to get it to move very slowly. If you get motionless then that's just a bonus. Their balancer is the equivalent of a calculator that goes out 100 decimal places, whereas a nail is like a calculator that does whole numbers only.

slomo said:

My 4 cents on sharpening.

I use a hand file myself. Takes a few minutes to get a blade back to fighting weight. New files obviously work faster than older dull ones. I can pull a file from the tool box, few slaps on both sides and I'm done. Not looking for shaving sharp blades here. Just a good bevel clean up.

No reason to fire up some super expensive electric grinder. These are lawn mowers, not the space shuttle (Taryl). I can have a blade sharpened roughly in the same time as pulling a grinder out and plugging it in. Look at the bevel, set your sharpening angle and finally remve TOO MUCH material. Now you are into balancing for quite a while...... And your blades all have smiles to them now compared to simple hand files. More grinding to correct the smiles. Now you've just removed a bunch of life from that blade.

Summation, you burn through blades a lot faster with grinders than with hand files. Most people don't even check for sharpness when done. T

So why even waste the 10 minutes sharpening with your grinder? Just throw on new blades. Much faster than grinding and balancing. If it's all about speed....

No I do not have a mower shop.


Best was to sharpen a blade is install a new one.

Click to expand...

Penny saved is a penny earned, especially if machine is at a shop.

*CPB* said:

The goal when using a Magna-Matic balancer isn't to get the blade to be motionless, it's only to get it to move very slowly. If you get motionless then that's just a bonus. Their balancer is the equivalent of a calculator that goes out 100 decimal places, whereas a nail is like a calculator that does whole numbers only.

Click to expand...

I agree it is very sensitive but with experience you can or at least I can get the blade near perfect balance fairly quickly. It is strange to new be so far out of balance which explains some of the problems I have encountered over the years. Just started using it this season after 13 yrs of using one of those cone balancers. Even the cone was better than the nail method.

Bange said:

I don't know the correct way to sharpen a blade, but I'll describe mine... what's yours?

In fact, sharpening is not a very important item for many users, because even if the blade is not sharp, the cutter will shred the grass or any tree leaf... but the result is not satisfactory, in addition to causing greater consumption with more passes and even damage to the deck as a whole.
To those who don't sharpen, but change it after noticing an inefficiency, congratulations... it's the most correct way... but expensive.
Let's go...

With the blade off the deck, clamp it with a clamp on the workbench and clean (rust, glued and dry grass, animal manure, etc...), on all surfaces, using a grinder with flap disc, wire disc, etc.
After cleaning, I change the disk for an iron grinding disk (carburundum, diamond, aggressive flap, etc...) and grind at approximately 45° until I get a good edge.
After satisfactory sharpening, I move on to the balancing stage, an important procedure to keep the deck serene, without unnecessary vibrations that can cause loosening of screws, premature wear of pulley bearings, noise, etc.
To do this, just fix a rod with a rounded profile in a vise or workbench and hang the blade through its hole... the photos speak for themselves...

Cleaning the blade
View attachment 64029View attachment 64030
Cleaning up will make balancing easier at the end.

Sharpening...
View attachment 64031


Balancing

Blade one...
View attachment 64032
Very good...
View attachment 64033

Bade two...

Oops! Necessary adjustment...
Mark the side and remove material to make it lighter... preferably not on the sharp part.
View attachment 64036
View attachment 64036
View attachment 64038
View attachment 64039

Until equilibrium is achieved, several attempts can be made...

The end of the blade must be given special care, as it is the first to attack the grass... in any case, the edge is lost along the entire stretch due to stones, stumps, sand, sidewalks, hard fruit seeds and other objects. ..

Click to expand...

Have seen new blades without the fine sharp edge, which does not last long at all. Maybe so the new owner does not cut hands when putting them on. Would you know the reason?

30deg edge will last longer, a 45deg. will slice better. Take an axe and try each angle see how each cuts. New blades come with a blunt edge I think for safety reasons.

I invented and patented a sharpening jig for mower blades in the 1990's.
Your Wife can sit down and sharpen one handed with this device.
Perfect blade every time.
I could not get the price down enough for everybody to afford one. Quit making them
but I have parts and know how if anyone cares to take over
Mini-Miller is what I called it...A Mini Milling Machine.
You want sharp blades...This is it!
Pic is of a yard I mowed with sharp blades and My 1951 Farmall Cub 14hp tractor.
regards gary

Bange said:

LOL... the subject is controversial, but the 30° seem pacified...

At least you could see how the profile of the sharpening is, which depends on the damage.

Click to expand...

Here is the way to sharpen:

A sharp lawnmower blade is vital to get the job done good an proper

Johner said:

Have seen new blades without the fine sharp edge, which does not last long at all. Maybe so the new owner does not cut hands when putting them on. Would you know the reason?

Click to expand...

Oregon blades which also make a lot of OEM blades sharpens them to a 30 degree angle leaving the recommended .030 blunt edge and then they are painted which makes them appear even duller.

slomo said:

I would disagree with that one. Usually mower blades, well, OEM mower blades are made of inferior steel. From what I've used Oregon has the best steel.

I would say used truck leaf springs would be a better choice.

Click to expand...

Good Point. Leaf springs are great source of tough, hard steel. We have made slap hammers for body work and they are very resistant to deformation and hold their shape.

I sharpen mine on a bench grinder and spray them with water from a squeeze bottle to keep them from over heating. I used to balance them on a nail but lately I’ve used one of those aluminum cones. Works for me.

Glades Cat said:

Retired blades make good knives. Cut to rough shape, flatten, grind to shape, sharpen, drill and make handle.

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Oh hell yeah!! The right combination of tensile strength, and metal composition.. They make a great bushwacker! For real fun, try a large file..

Really good post. I think the 45° is a little steep. I personally sharpen mine to 30°ish. All the new blades I've ever bought have an initial grind of about 30° so that's what I've stuck with, they seem to stay sharp quite long.

Before I even read the replies I'm going... Let's not! Let's don't even bother to talk about it because no one is ever going to agree on it and there no real consensus since brand new blade manufacturers will sell you a brand new blade in different types of sharpness, coated/dipped and paint, or not extremely sharp to begin with.
If there was one right or wrong way you would assume that by now the manufacturers would have all gotten on the same page and that's how they would come when you buy a replacement blade but it's not the case so everything else is simply going to be personal preference and then reality it makes little difference.
So much so that I get multiple mowers in every single year with the blades on upside down and the customers had no idea!

Now, I'm a lot more repair guy and not a landscaper so I fixed them but I don't use them but even I in my total disregard or care for lawns and grass can usually spot grass that's been ripped apart or roughly jaggedly chopped as opposed to cut with a somewhat sharper blade but the fact is most people can't tell the difference.
That thin piece of metal is spinning so quickly that whether you want to argue about 45, 33, flat spot on the very edge, or sharp as a razor, it's going to make very little difference and anyone who thinks they can tell the difference I could set up a demonstration and I guarantee I could fool you among 20 mowers.
So as I said, I guess it's fun for conversation but let's not worry too much about it.

Now after reading most of the replies I'm going to say I'm glad that most people realize it's not that big of a deal.
Those of you who are going to insist that some commercial blade bouncer is really necessary and it makes a real difference or any other thing like cleaning off the blades and bead blasting them painting them etc... I just want to know exactly how much time do you guys have??

Are you doing this professionally or just as a hobby and don't even do two or three a week?

It's pointless to clean up the blade because typically it has about the same amount of buildup on each side so the balance rains the same and it's just going to build up again.
I mean, you can knock the most of it off with one little push of a scraper putty knife or something on each side but going beyond anything past that it's just a waste of time.
It might make you feel better, or superior, but it's still a waste of time.

This is why I said my other post let's just not because it's just a contentious opinionated argument and we're never going to solve anything.

Now the more important thing is how many times you can sharpen a blade or when you need to replace one.
Generally you can sharpen a blade at least three or four times if not four or five times plus before you have to worry about it but that is entirely relative to how much knowing it's done between sharpening and how much each sharpening takes off.

These commercial shops with the high end grinders are kind of like production and they don't worry about whether the blade is pretty sharp to begin with OR beat the heck. They just swoop it across one to three times and eat off a lot of metal. The same reason lots of people don't want those shop shopping their chainsaw chains.

Anyways, eventually the blade will get cut back from its straight edge like in one of the pictures and while that is not the worst thing in the world it still can affect the quality of cut and the power in inertia some so when it gets cut back to where it's pretty noticeable like coming up on 3/8 to a half of an inch it's probably time to replace but fortunately it usually works out pretty well because the most important thing is when the back of the blade gets thin or it starts to crack on the little airfoil
bend.

The back non cutting Edge the blade is typically the thing that makes you have to replace the blade before the cutting edge! I know it makes no sense but that's just the way it is.
It will get razor blade thin and start to wear off the back edge and often crack with a little bend is which can allow pieces of metal to blow around which means the blade needs to be replaced.

There has been a general rule of thumb about the 30° versus 45 as in one gives a better quality of cut but doesn't stay sharp as long and the other one vice versa. I think the Honda twin cut system kind of goes for this effect. I just continue to sharpen the blades at the angle they come from the factory but I believe the Honda has one sharper angle and one lesser angle so they're trying to get the best of both worlds with their two blades.

However, oddly enough, I don't find that Honda's have the best quality of cut! They often leave stragglers and the overall quality isn't as good as some other mowers with simply one blade.
I think deck design has far more to do with it than blade and and blade design has more to do with it than sharpness.

I've been clamping my blades and using a side grinder and large file for years. I'll grind or file the cutting edge flat with the bottom of the blade, and grind an approximate angle of cut, close to the original angle.
This general method has allowed me to get a clean, smooth cut every time. IMO the slightly flat edge on the cutting tip allows for force dispersion on the blade allowing the

Ray52 said:

I've been clamping my blades and using a side grinder and large file for years. I'll grind or file the cutting edge flat with the bottom of the blade, and grind an approximate angle of cut, close to the original angle.
This general method has allowed me to get a clean, smooth cut every time. IMO the slightly flat edge on the cutting tip allows for force dispersion on the blade allowing the

Click to expand...

I sharpen a lot of mower blades, mostly on tune ups for customer mowers. Most of the time, these blades are beat to hell, nicks, very dull, and needed to be sharpened a long time ago. Often an edge needs to be reestablished and they have been sharpened incorrectly, or are bent. It takes a while to get a blade back in shape (just like a chainsaw chain), when it has been neglected. I personally run nothing but Gator G5 blades. I use a 4” angle grinder with a metal abrasive wheel to sharpen. The difference styles of blades dictate being able to effectively freehand and maintain the correct angle with a grinder by hand an eye.

FWIW I sand blast the blades to remove the build up of dirt & clippings
How I sharpen depnds upon the mower that the blades are going onto
Mowers with good overlap just get the edge touched up& nicks removed
Blade with little to no overlap are different as a tiny amount of rounding to the outer edge will leave a mowhalk between the blades
for them it is grind the strait line from he inner edge of the cutting edge to the outer edge of the blade just past where the rounding is
Then restore the edge & angle
I have been trying to justify the cost of an Oregan sharpening tool but in reality I usually replace worn blades .
The ood ones go into a bin and get sent to the local TAFE for students to practice on then go into the "poverty bin" of used but servicable parts used to repair pensioners mowers

garyoldfart said:

I invented and patented a sharpening jig for mower blades in the 1990's.
Your Wife can sit down and sharpen one handed with this device.
Perfect blade every time.
I could not get the price down enough for everybody to afford one. Quit making them
but I have parts and know how if anyone cares to take over
Mini-Miller is what I called it...A Mini Milling Machine.
You want sharp blades...This is it!
Pic is of a yard I mowed with sharp blades and My 1951 Farmall Cub 14hp tractor.
regards gary

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Nice idea for strait blades.
Age old story for inventors
Convincing customers it is worth the money and finding the time to make them yourselves.
or
Finding the money to have them made in mass then then marketing them yourself
I have dozens of special tools made for repairing motorcycles that are in this situation .

People never seem to understand that distribution , wholesale & retail profits is at least 75% of the price you pay for anything .

I clean off obvious dirt and make 2 or 3 passes against my coarse Grinding Wheel. Same # for other end and blades. It's not the Space Shuttle as Tarryl would say. A gram or 2 out of balance is no big deal.
Tighten carefully after engaging any drive teeth, sharp side Down. Done. Skip OCD.

Gord Baker said:

I clean off obvious dirt and make 2 or 3 passes against my coarse Grinding Wheel. Same # for other end and blades. It's not the Space Shuttle as Tarryl would say. A gram or 2 out of balance is no big deal.
Tighten carefully after engaging any drive teeth, sharp side Down. Done. Skip OCD.

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I'm a little confused by your statement sharp side down..
I get a lot of mowers in every year the blades are on upside down and I often tell people that since they usually understand that lawn mower blades are only sharpened on one side, to put the sharpened edge up towards the sky.

l bought a Magna-matic many years ago when l was starting out, its been gathering dust for 10 yrs or more......l buy Sten blades in bulk & swap em as needed, l'm right on the beach so all of my lawns are sandy and blades wear very quickly

Well, let’s summarize here…

End of blades:
So far there is no technical definition for the sharpening limit (apart from cracks, warping or significant material loss), they can be sharpened up to a very subjective evaluation limit.
I would like to see something like this: blades can be sharpen up to the limit of X% of their width and/or Y% of their radius, as they are also insecure or inefficient.

Pre-cleaning:
I think this activity is important, although I agree that dirt occurs equally on both sides of the blade… but in the case of stationary parts where uneven oxidation occurs… does it affect the balance?
I prefer to do the procedure regardless of the case, as I am not a sharpener, I am an enthusiast and time is not an issue for me.
I understand that anyone who works with sharpening should look for a procedure that takes as little time as possible, but without jeopardizing the final result.

Goals:
1 – just lower the height of the lawn (sharpening doesn’t matter)
2 – lower the height of the lawn and leave it healthy and always green (sharpening is important)

Those aiming for #1 can skip this topic, but those aiming for #2 want to know everything about how it's done in the best possible way at their fingertips. Not everyone is going to buy a specific machine to sharpen (for example, me), but knowing how the final result should be, they can do the same (or near) with some expense of time.

Balancing:
I cannot agree with those who ignore balancing, as a piece rotating at more than 3000 RPM, without balancing, contributes to noise and harmful vibrations to the set of pulleys, bearings, increased clearances and previous fatigue.

Bange said:

One question...

A = dull blade that needs sharpening.
B = Use of an appropriate power tool for sharpening
C= Another form of sharpening with a specific tool.
Consider B and C after many sharpenings...

What is trend B or C?
View attachment 64064

Click to expand...

Attention sharpeners...
No answers!?!?!

Saw this post in a daily email and intrigued me. Not a professional sharpener by any means, but I did invest in Magna Matic sharpener and balancer several years ago. If anyone desires to take a deep dive into the scholarly side of blade sharpening, take a look at the video below (be warned its almost an hour long, but very informative). Synopsis of video is keep a 30 degree angle and square end for best cutting.


I mow in rough conditions at industrial sites. Rocks, random pieces of metal that weren't there last time you mowed, and of course fields of bahia grass (which can be difficult to cut with new blades lol). I change blades everyday and keep around 8-10 sets of blades in a rotation for the season. Mow for a day, take them off and replace with newly sharpened set and sharpen the ones I took off. I can attest that keeping a square edge and balanced blade makes a lot of difference. Maybe I've just become in tune with my mower (turf tiger 2 61"), but I can tell by vibration/resonance if a blade is out of whack while I'm cutting. I'll enlist help occasionally when a site is overgrown or I'm running behind and they will ask almost immediately why my mower is cutting faster and better than their is (same mower). I'll look at there blades and they are essentially cutting with butter knives lol. It doesn't show up when they are cutting easy grass like centipede, but when asked to cut fields of bahia/weeds its a different story. Swap blades for them with extras I keep on hand and nothing but smiles lol. Yes, this is kind of an extreme example. Average Joe homeowner with average small/medium lot can probably get away with sharpening/buying new blades once a season depending on conditions. If you do it for a living or side hustle, need to keep those blades at 30 degrees, square end and balanced (your spindles will thank you). You don't have to invest in a expensive system as long as whatever method you use results in 30, square, and balanced.

My setup is below. Ignore the junk around it lol. Once I sharpen a blade, I also blunt it along the cutting edge. Razor sharp blades will dull in about 27 seconds in my opinion. I don't bother cleaning blades unless I can tell they have an uneven buildup on one side. Anyway here is my setup and a short video of me checking balance of a blade. On Magna balancer, once you put blade on horizontally (9/3 o'clock) and let go, if you can count four to eight seconds before it gets to 12/6 o'clock, it's considered balanced. If it barely even moves your really good, because that balancer is VERY sensitive. And no, I normally don't get the blades that balanced lol.

Eh, as I rarely post, I have no idea how to upload my own video. So, sorry about not having balancing video in there, but it does show several balancing methods in the original hour long sharpening video.

Bange said:

Attention sharpeners...
No answers!?!?!

Click to expand...

If you live in an area where the soil is sandy then to me that's a whole 'nother animal. Over the years I've seen pics of the effects sand has on blades and it's just crazy the way the metal gets eaten away. If that's your situation then I would just sharpen regularly and then recycle them long before they look anything like the ones in these pics....



If you don't have sandy soil and are only cutting grass and not hitting a bunch of foreign objects then your blades should last years with regular sharpening, IMO. I have blades I've sharpened dozens of times and there's still plenty of life left in them. The pic below is taken from the Magna-Matic sharpener manual, and shows their opinion on the right and wrong way to sharpen a blade over the course of its life. I sharpened a blade last year that was getting close to looking like the bottom one. I showed the guy the picture and told him to get another set of blades. Although they don't explicitly say it, I believe Magna-Matic believes that you can sharpen the edge of a blade almost back to where the sail of the blade starts to curve upward. You can see that in the pic below as well. That seems to make sense to me.

*CPB* said:

If you live in an area where the soil is sandy then to me that's a whole 'nother animal. Over the years I've seen pics of the effects sand has on blades and it's just crazy the way the metal gets eaten away. If that's your situation then I would just sharpen regularly and then recycle them long before they look anything like the ones in these pics....

View attachment 64171View attachment 64172

If you don't have sandy soil and are only cutting grass and not hitting a bunch of foreign objects then your blades should last years with regular sharpening, IMO. I have blades I've sharpened dozens of times and there's still plenty of life left in them. The pic below is taken from the Magna-Matic sharpener manual, and shows their opinion on the right and wrong way to sharpen a blade over the course of its life. I sharpened a blade last year that was getting close to looking like the bottom one. I showed the guy the picture and told him to get another set of blades. Although they don't explicitly say it, I believe Magna-Matic believes that you can sharpen the edge of a blade almost back to where the sail of the blade starts to curve upward. You can see that in the pic below as well. That seems to make sense to me.

View attachment 64176

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Had a customer years ago that lived on a river bluff area and over time the sandblasting cut the bottom inch of deck off his JD.

ILENGINE said:

Had a customer years ago that lived on a river bluff area and over time the sandblasting cut the bottom inch of deck off his JD.

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Yep. I've seen pics of decks with no rust, but had areas where the sand had worn them so thin you could see holes forming.

Bange said:

I don't know the correct way to sharpen a blade, but I'll describe mine... what's yours?

In fact, sharpening is not a very important item for many users, because even if the blade is not sharp, the cutter will shred the grass or any tree leaf... but the result is not satisfactory, in addition to causing greater consumption with more passes and even damage to the deck as a whole.
To those who don't sharpen, but change it after noticing an inefficiency, congratulations... it's the most correct way... but expensive.
Let's go...

With the blade off the deck, clamp it with a clamp on the workbench and clean (rust, glued and dry grass, animal manure, etc...), on all surfaces, using a grinder with flap disc, wire disc, etc.
After cleaning, I change the disk for an iron grinding disk (carburundum, diamond, aggressive flap, etc...) and grind at approximately 45° until I get a good edge.
After satisfactory sharpening, I move on to the balancing stage, an important procedure to keep the deck serene, without unnecessary vibrations that can cause loosening of screws, premature wear of pulley bearings, noise, etc.
To do this, just fix a rod with a rounded profile in a vise or workbench and hang the blade through its hole... the photos speak for themselves...

Cleaning the blade
View attachment 64029View attachment 64030
Cleaning up will make balancing easier at the end.

Sharpening...
View attachment 64031


Balancing

Blade one...
View attachment 64032
Very good...
View attachment 64033

Bade two...

Oops! Necessary adjustment...
Mark the side and remove material to make it lighter... preferably not on the sharp part.
View attachment 64036
View attachment 64036
View attachment 64038
View attachment 64039

Until equilibrium is achieved, several attempts can be made...

The end of the blade must be given special care, as it is the first to attack the grass... in any case, the edge is lost along the entire stretch due to stones, stumps, sand, sidewalks, hard fruit seeds and other objects. ..

Click to expand...

What mower is that from

Blade sharpening. What I do.

1. Clean the blade
2. Restore the edge with an axe file
3. Course first
4. Fine Next
5. Sharpening stone - Coarse
6. Sharpening stone - fine.
7. Neighbors like the way I do this!
8. Anyone want a shave?

Petriw said:

Blade sharpening. What I do.

1. Clean the blade
2. Restore the edge with an axe file
3. Course first
4. Fine Next
5. Sharpening stone - Coarse
6. Sharpening stone - fine.
7. Neighbors like the way I do this!
8. Anyone want a shave?

Click to expand...

But exactly how long does it take you to sharpen the average blade like this?
Obviously a very dull blade is going to take long and one that's not nicked or chewed up or even that dull won't take long at all but how long does the average blade take you?

It is worth noting how much certain conditions will chew up the blades.
Living near creeks I think is the worst and then woods is the second worst but I learned a long time ago how amazingly rough simply sticks and or pine cones were on a blade.
It makes sense that blades get chewed up if people have landscaping rocks etc and stones around that they will occasionally hit but you would not think small sticks the size of your pinky finger or pine cones would take big nicks out of blades but they do.

Bange said:

I don't know the correct way to sharpen a blade, but I'll describe mine... what's yours?

In fact, sharpening is not a very important item for many users, because even if the blade is not sharp, the cutter will shred the grass or any tree leaf... but the result is not satisfactory, in addition to causing greater consumption with more passes and even damage to the deck as a whole.
To those who don't sharpen, but change it after noticing an inefficiency, congratulations... it's the most correct way... but expensive.
Let's go...

With the blade off the deck, clamp it with a clamp on the workbench and clean (rust, glued and dry grass, animal manure, etc...), on all surfaces, using a grinder with flap disc, wire disc, etc.
After cleaning, I change the disk for an iron grinding disk (carburundum, diamond, aggressive flap, etc...) and grind at approximately 45° until I get a good edge.
After satisfactory sharpening, I move on to the balancing stage, an important procedure to keep the deck serene, without unnecessary vibrations that can cause loosening of screws, premature wear of pulley bearings, noise, etc.
To do this, just fix a rod with a rounded profile in a vise or workbench and hang the blade through its hole... the photos speak for themselves...

Cleaning the blade
View attachment 64029View attachment 64030
Cleaning up will make balancing easier at the end.

Sharpening...
View attachment 64031


Balancing

Blade one...
View attachment 64032
Very good...
View attachment 64033

Bade two...

Oops! Necessary adjustment...
Mark the side and remove material to make it lighter... preferably not on the sharp part.
View attachment 64036
View attachment 64036
View attachment 64038
View attachment 64039

Until equilibrium is achieved, several attempts can be made...

The end of the blade must be given special care, as it is the first to attack the grass... in any case, the edge is lost along the entire stretch due to stones, stumps, sand, sidewalks, hard fruit seeds and other objects. ..

Click to expand...

I agree with everything said here except I use a cone type balancer. I clean my blades by soaking them in warm water to loosen the material then take a wire wheel to them. It seems easer.

Steve Smith said:

I agree with everything said here except I use a cone type balancer. I clean my blades by soaking them in warm water to loosen the material then take a wire wheel to them. It seems easer.

Click to expand...

Again, I'll go back to how long does it take you from start to finish to remove sharpen a blade and put it back on?
All this soaking, cleaning, wire brushing, scraping, blasting, etc is fine if you are the homeowner and you're only doing your blades once or maybe twice a season but even for someone working on mowers out of their home on the side for just friends and neighbors...this it's just far too much time and effort put into something that makes little difference to the end result or to the result after the next 15 minutes of mowing.
Now for many of us commercial guys who do many mowers a day, this would just be a real waste of time and effort.

There is a happy medium though between using the commercial strong grinders that eat the blades up so much that's unnecessary and doing them with a file. LOL

woody70 said:

Saw this post in a daily email and intrigued me. Not a professional sharpener by any means, but I did invest in Magna Matic sharpener and balancer several years ago. If anyone desires to take a deep dive into the scholarly side of blade sharpening, take a look at the video below (be warned its almost an hour long, but very informative). Synopsis of video is keep a 30 degree angle...

Click to expand...

Excellent information material... unless the center of mass is different from the center of rotation in some blades (if I understand it that way), because if the compensation is not in the same part (blade), there must be a counterweight connected to it axis to compensate for dynamic balance.
Is there really a blade with a center of rotation different from the center of mass? Which? Can anyone post or tell us what make/model… if it's for a specific type of lawn mower?

I was glad to know about the analysis of the straightness of the blades (24:01), as it is something I didn't even think about and will now move on to the first procedure item, before removing the blades.

The material also answered my question about how to proceed with material removal when sharpening (post # 27), making it clear that option “B” is the most correct.

Another important point was information on the sharpening limit, which is at the beginning of the curvature (22:01)... but what has already been said about the effect of sand, which thins the blade... so, what is the limit of the thickness?

Roy405 said:

What mower is that from

Click to expand...

My mower is a Murray 18,5Hp - 42" (2010).

TobyU said:

Again, I'll go back to how long does it take you from start to finish to remove sharpen a blade and put it back on?
All this soaking, cleaning, wire brushing, scraping, blasting, etc is fine if you are the homeowner and you're only doing your blades once or maybe twice a season but even for someone working on mowers out of their home on the side for just friends and neighbors...this it's just far too much time and effort put into something that makes little difference to the end result or to the result after the next 15 minutes of mowing.
Now for many of us commercial guys who do many mowers a day, this would just be a real waste of time and effort.

There is a happy medium though between using the commercial strong grinders that eat the blades up so much that's unnecessary and doing them with a file. LOL

Click to expand...

TobyU, you must agree that a good cleaning facilitates the supervision of cracks in the blade, which may be hidden by dirt or oxidation, even more so if you use a special spray.

Bange said:

Excellent information material... unless the center of mass is different from the center of rotation in some blades (if I understand it that way), because if the compensation is not in the same part (blade), there must be a counterweight connected to it axis to compensate for dynamic balance.
Is there really a blade with a center of rotation different from the center of mass? Which? Can anyone post or tell us what make/model… if it's for a specific type of lawn mower?

I was glad to know about the analysis of the straightness of the blades (24:01), as it is something I didn't even think about and will now move on to the first procedure item, before removing the blades.

The material also answered my question about how to proceed with material removal when sharpening (post # 27), making it clear that option “B” is the most correct.

Another important point was information on the sharpening limit, which is at the beginning of the curvature (22:01)... but what has already been said about the effect of sand, which thins the blade... so, what is the limit of the thickness?

Click to expand...

Thank you - I mean no thank you.... for turning it into rocket science or brain surgery when it's just a simple old lawn mower blade spinning on the crankshaft.
Keep it centered on the blade adapter and keep it balanced enough so if you hold it up in the air by the center hole with your pinky neither end drops excessively towards the bottom and all will be fine.

Bange said:

TobyU, you must agree that a good cleaning facilitates the supervision of cracks in the blade, which may be hidden by dirt or oxidation, even more so if you use a special spray.

Click to expand...

No, I would not.
This is because the buildup is always from the halfway mark toward the middle of the blade and it's never on the end of the blade that does all the fast spinning.
The cracks and where are always on the rear edge of the outer end opposite from the sharpened edge where the air full sticks up and the little bend that's present on most blades.

In fact, most of these areas are build up, dirt, and even paint free and are polished to a nice shine so any cracks or damage are very apparent by simply looking on both sides.

I understand why some people make this a real hobby and fixate on things when it's their own equipment and if it's a new toy and the only one they're dealing with etc.
I don't understand why people that do this as a larger scale production with lots of volume has a commercial operation worry about it and would try to go above and beyond like some of them do touting their "superior quality" attention to detail, thoroughness, better than the other people or whatever else it is they call it.

Several of those traits are great for your repairs and services but blade sharpening and balancing is just a simple old mundane thing that needs to be done where one is basically as good as the next as long as it's simply done adequately and nobody is going to look at, appreciate, or admire your work.
If they are, I feel they, and you are focusing on the wrong things.

See, I have been doing this professionally for 12 years now with 1000s of customers.
I'm quite opinionated, setting my ways and only do things one way and one way only, have pretty strict requirements for you to be my customer, and can often be quite curt but I am the highest rated mower repair shop in 100 mi radius and I'm currently the second or third shop with the highest number of reviews simply because a few other shops have a lot of text working and do a lot more volume than I do.

I pride myself on being better and cheaper than everyone else... And often faster but not the customer would have any idea about that because they think everything only takes two or three days and that they are your only customer until a few of them actually call around and find out it's 5 weeks out to get anything looked at.
But I do the little extras for people.
The ones that you can notice and the ones that really matter.
That's certainly not wire brushing or cleaning up a blade to make it look like new.
It's things like tightening up many bolts and nuts on a machine that often loosen up even if the mower isn't in for that or for a general service.
Things like topping off the oil when it severely needs it or even knocking some of the massive chips out of the blade and smacking the massive dirt build up off of an air filter when it's only in to make it start and run and not in for an annual service.
Things like when it's in for an annual service cleaning the whole mower not the best I can or perfectly but cleaning it up a lot nicer and wiping it down with some rust preventative and then buffing it back off so it's not sticky and attracting dust so it looks a lot better than when they dropped it off.
I have at least a big handful of people every single year when I roll them all out to him they will look right at me and go "I don't think that's my mower"
because it's so much cleaner and shinier and brighter than when they dropped it off.
So if I'm going to put extra effort into something to make myself stand out from the competition or just to make myself feel good which is what a lot of this is all about for people... it's not going to be something that's underneath the mower getting coated with wet dirty grass and getting the heck beat out of it by sticks and rocks.
It's going to be me shining them up and making the handles nice and firm even though it wasn't here for that so they realize how much nicer it is when they mow with it after I've seen it, and going back down the stickers that are flipping off and trying to fall off and melting the rubber or gluing the foam back on the tops of the handles where it started to wear off.
It's not just cosmetic.. it's functional creature comforts that make the owner enjoy using their mower more than they did last time more like when it was new.
We all have our hang-ups though. Lol

All but one of my mower blades are heavy thick steel. Using a file is not an option and replacing with new blades is cost prohibitive. If I do find affordable blades, they are cheap junk that won’t hold an edge or bends with the slightest impact. After a good cleaning using a brass wire wheel in a smaller bench grinder, I clamp a piece of 2” angle iron with the point facing up to the tool rest of my 8” stand grinder that has both course and medium grit wheels. I make several light passes while allowing the air from the spinning wheel to help keep the blade cool in between passes until desired sharpness is achieved. I always back grind the freshly sharpened edge slightly using the finer grit wheel. I have found that this prevents the blade from completely gouging into a tree root until it suddenly locks the engine down. Since all my blades have round bolt holes in the center, I have never experienced an imbalance just using an old worn out #1 Phillips screwdriver shank to balance the blade. The only blades that I don’t sharpen this way are the 1/2” blades on my 3 point (Bush-hog type) rotary mower. Right or wrong …this works for me.

I sharpen my Blades with a 1" Belt Sander. I have to hold the Blade at the correct angle by hand. I used to sharpen my Blades to a razor edge but one Lawn Mowing, the Blade has lots of dings. So I file a flat edge like was recommended. I have an Oregon Blade Balancer that is imported. It was over $100.

JD14SB said:

I sharpen my Blades with a 1" Belt Sander. I have to hold the Blade at the correct angle by hand. I used to sharpen my Blades to a razor edge but one Lawn Mowing, the Blade has lots of dings. So I file a flat edge like was recommended. I have an Oregon Blade Balancer that is imported. It was over $100.

Click to expand...

My dad has always sharpened his mower blades with his belt sander. It runs slower than a grinder so there’s less heat buildup and better control.

TobyU said:

No, I would not.
This is because the buildup is always from the halfway mark toward the middle of the blade and it's never on the end of the blade that does all the fast spinning.
The cracks and where are always on the rear edge of the outer end opposite from the sharpened edge where the air full sticks up and the little bend that's present on most blades.

In fact, most of these areas are build up, dirt, and even paint free and are polished to a nice shine so any cracks or damage are very apparent by simply looking on both sides.

I understand why some people make this a real hobby and fixate on things when it's their own equipment and if it's a new toy and the only one they're dealing with etc.
I don't understand why people that do this as a larger scale production with lots of volume has a commercial operation worry about it and would try to go above and beyond like some of them do touting their "superior quality" attention to detail, thoroughness, better than the other people or whatever else it is they call it.

Several of those traits are great for your repairs and services but blade sharpening and balancing is just a simple old mundane thing that needs to be done where one is basically as good as the next as long as it's simply done adequately and nobody is going to look at, appreciate, or admire your work.
If they are, I feel they, and you are focusing on the wrong things.

See, I have been doing this professionally for 12 years now with 1000s of customers.
I'm quite opinionated, setting my ways and only do things one way and one way only, have pretty strict requirements for you to be my customer, and can often be quite curt but I am the highest rated mower repair shop in 100 mi radius and I'm currently the second or third shop with the highest number of reviews simply because a few other shops have a lot of text working and do a lot more volume than I do.

I pride myself on being better and cheaper than everyone else... And often faster but not the customer would have any idea about that because they think everything only takes two or three days and that they are your only customer until a few of them actually call around and find out it's 5 weeks out to get anything looked at.
But I do the little extras for people.
The ones that you can notice and the ones that really matter.
That's certainly not wire brushing or cleaning up a blade to make it look like new.
It's things like tightening up many bolts and nuts on a machine that often loosen up even if the mower isn't in for that or for a general service.
Things like topping off the oil when it severely needs it or even knocking some of the massive chips out of the blade and smacking the massive dirt build up off of an air filter when it's only in to make it start and run and not in for an annual service.
Things like when it's in for an annual service cleaning the whole mower not the best I can or perfectly but cleaning it up a lot nicer and wiping it down with some rust preventative and then buffing it back off so it's not sticky and attracting dust so it looks a lot better than when they dropped it off.
I have at least a big handful of people every single year when I roll them all out to him they will look right at me and go "I don't think that's my mower"
because it's so much cleaner and shinier and brighter than when they dropped it off.
So if I'm going to put extra effort into something to make myself stand out from the competition or just to make myself feel good which is what a lot of this is all about for people... it's not going to be something that's underneath the mower getting coated with wet dirty grass and getting the heck beat out of it by sticks and rocks.
It's going to be me shining them up and making the handles nice and firm even though it wasn't here for that so they realize how much nicer it is when they mow with it after I've seen it, and going back down the stickers that are flipping off and trying to fall off and melting the rubber or gluing the foam back on the tops of the handles where it started to wear off.
It's not just cosmetic.. it's functional creature comforts that make the owner enjoy using their mower more than they did last time more like when it was new.
We all have our hang-ups though. Lol

Click to expand...

Here's how things are... your customer gave you the machine for a repair, not to clean or wash... but you cleaned and washed... was it necessary to carry out the repair? Almost certainly not, you do it to add a differential to your work, but you spent time and at least water… congratulations, nothing against that.
But in the time spent for this “plus”, you could have sharpened a set or two of blades…
Yes, each one has its “hang-ups”…
I don't have your experience in sharpening to ensure that cracks only occur on the polished points in normal use... just like an automotive grinder shop, I prefer to use a chemical crack developer, as it doesn't hurt, it covers my lack of experience in the matter , in addition to my poor vision due to age.

*CPB* said:

If you live in an area where the soil is sandy then to me that's a whole 'nother animal. Over the years I've seen pics of the effects sand has on blades and it's just crazy the way the metal gets eaten away. If that's your situation then I would just sharpen regularly and then recycle them long before they look anything like the ones in these pics....

View attachment 64171View attachment 64172

If you don't have sandy soil and are only cutting grass and not hitting a bunch of foreign objects then your blades should last years with regular sharpening, IMO. I have blades I've sharpened dozens of times and there's still plenty of life left in them. The pic below is taken from the Magna-Matic sharpener manual, and shows their opinion on the right and wrong way to sharpen a blade over the course of its life. I sharpened a blade last year that was getting close to looking like the bottom one. I showed the guy the picture and told him to get another set of blades. Although they don't explicitly say it, I believe Magna-Matic believes that you can sharpen the edge of a blade almost back to where the sail of the blade starts to curve upward. You can see that in the pic below as well. That seems to make sense to me.

View attachment 64176

Click to expand...

It's not my case, but I understand perfectly what small grains in speed cause in metal...
The photos show the final result, but well before that the blades should be retired... horrible and dangerous thing.
Yes, the wood70 video, also based on the same source, showed the most correct sharpening evolution... "B" in my question.

Are all the mower shop guys enjoying this thread?

Must be the new oil thread.

My method.

Mer2112 said:

My method.

https://imgur.com/c4r3ca4

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Good job enjoying and creating with what's available... I like it!
I just don't think it's necessary to sharpen much beyond the original size.

Bange said:

Good job enjoying and creating with what's available... I like it!
I just don't think it's necessary to sharpen much beyond the original size.

Click to expand...

Thanks Bange,

That was the original edge length for the Honda HRX blade. I didn't add anything to it.

Mer2112 said:

That was the original edge length for the Honda HRX blade. I didn't add anything to it.

Click to expand...

I think we all know that the end of the blade does the majority of the cutting, but I'm curious as to how blade manufacturers decide what length to make the edge when the blade is made? I've read advertising BS regarding an "extended cutting length" on a blade that had an edge all the way to the center hole, which accomplishes nothing. I've even seen pics of blades where the cutting edge extended past the center hole, which I guess technically accomplishes less than nothing since anything on the other side of the center hole is moving AWAY from the grass as the blade spins.

Mer2112 said:

Thanks Bange,

That was the original edge length for the Honda HRX blade. I didn't add anything to it.

Click to expand...

Excuse my ignorance regarding your original blade... I've seen videos where people sharpen beyond what is necessary or efficient.

Bange said:

Excuse my ignorance regarding your original blade... I've seen videos where people sharpen beyond what is necessary or efficient.View attachment 64195

Click to expand...

No worries, I agree that anything beyond the few inches at the end of the blade probably isn't doing much.

yup..........

Bange said:

Here's how things are... your customer gave you the machine for a repair, not to clean or wash... but you cleaned and washed... was it necessary to carry out the repair? Almost certainly not, you do it to add a differential to your work, but you spent time and at least water… congratulations, nothing against that.
But in the time spent for this “plus”, you could have sharpened a set or two of blades…
Yes, each one has its “hang-ups”…
I don't have your experience in sharpening to ensure that cracks only occur on the polished points in normal use... just like an automotive grinder shop, I prefer to use a chemical crack developer, as it doesn't hurt, it covers my lack of experience in the matter , in addition to my poor vision due to age.

Click to expand...

I do not do the extra actually included things like cleaning even they are in for repair.
They only get the wipe down when they are in for a service.
The service includes blade sharpening along with the other typical general maintenance stuff but I want them to run like new (or often better) and look close to new also.

I do not wash them as I don't believe you should get water anywhere near s mower.
I wipe them down usually with WD-40 or silicon spray or a tire shine spray and then polish with a dry cloth so they are not sticky.
Typical time to do this is 70-95 seconds and it is last step after one is serviced and started back up etc.
I know the exact times it takes me to do all the typical things I do as it is very repetitious like an assembly line and I have time each action.

Again, I ask all those who clean, soak, wire brush, scrape, blades....how long does it take start to finish from the time the blade off the machine is placed in your hand to do a 21 inch walk behind mower blade???

Well, there are homeowners here & biz shop owners here as well. So the point is moot.

I don't see any problem...
That user who does it will continue to do it with more information and who knows with better quality.
That shopkeeper who provides the service too, because the reasons that lead a user to hire the sharpener are many... I, for example, will not drive 7km, wait +- 1:30h, pay USD 10 (for example) and return 7km. ..
I have the tools, time, skill and I like to do it, but if I don't have one of the 4 items at the time, I'll definitely go to the sharpener... as I already went to sharpen the chainsaw chain.
There will always be those who make it and those who pay to make it and still a few who buy another one.

7394 said:

Well, there are homeowners here & biz shop owners here as well. So the point is moot.

Click to expand...

Sometimes there isn't really a point, rather just conversation..
In many of my comments on certain aspects of sharpening there is a point, or two sides to a point, and that is the time availability difference, between a private individual only doing theirs or a shop owner doing hundreds with an extreme backlog.

I've asked at least two if not three people who have detailed their procedure for cleaning a blade as to how long it takes them start to finish to sharpen one standard 21 to 22 in walk behind mower blade.
As of yet, no one has given me any specific numbers as to how long they spend from the time the blade is off of the mower and placed into their hand since we have to be accurate about that because as a shop owner some blades are brought to you and handed to you for sharpening and you do not have to remove and reinstall them.

For me it's not about overall time as much as it is about efficiency but obviously for some people it's more about overall result and they somehow feel better if the blade is all clean and or shiny, repainted, etc.

It's the same for cleaning out carburetors in most situations. Most people prefer to take it off tomorrow which involves removing other things etc and place it on their workbench and they spend a good deal of time more doing it start to finish and they usually justify a rationalize this by talking about what a more thorough job they're doing but at the end of the day the results are the same with a running mower that didn't run before.
The same results I get a very high percentage of the time by simply removing the carb bowl and or jet or jets in the case of the Huayi style ones, cleaning those out and making sure everything in that bowl area and gasket area and float is clean when I put it back together.
II've always said the way I do it is a little bit harder but it's a lot faster.

In the case the blades there is no increased level of difficulty so it's not harder at all and it's simply quicker and it's beyond adequate, good enough, appropriate, quality.... whatever words you want to use because it's still an old blade that's going to be beat up, dulled, dirty, coated again in just a few minutes. Lol

Somewhat along these lines though or even plenty of customers who call thinking they need a new blade because there's probably dull.
They don't seem to have any idea that common practice is to sharpen a mower blade a decent handful of times if not more before it ever needs to be replaced.
It makes me wonder where they got that idea because the industry, internet, advertising pretty much completely avoids the whole issue.
It's not like there's ever been any advertisements or public service style announcements to replace your blade for the best cut and quality looking on etc LOL.
I guess I shouldn't give them any ideas!
I think the only way people even get the idea of replacing is when they see them in the packages at the store and some of them are somewhat attractively packaged in there blister packs hanging up on hooks etc but so many are just bear laying there in their bin without a whole lot of merchandising or appearance.

I'm sure the owners manuals say something about it but I think they mentioned sharpening first and foremost but how many people percentage wise really read the manual or ever get to that point of actually paying attention to what that part of the manual says?

TobyU said:

I've asked at least two if not three people who have detailed their procedure for cleaning a blade as to how long it takes them start to finish to sharpen one standard 21 to 22 in walk behind mower blade.
As of yet, no one has given me any specific numbers as to how long they spend from the time the blade is off of the mower and placed into their hand since we have to be accurate about that because as a shop owner some blades are brought to you and handed to you for sharpening and you do not have to remove and reinstall them.

Click to expand...

3 blade set off of a CC z turn. Clean inspect blades 5:38 sharpen and balance 2:32 Total time spent on set of blades just over 8 minutes.

ILENGINE said:

3 blade set off of a CC z turn. Clean inspect blades 5:38 sharpen and balance 2:32 Total time spent on set of blades just over 8 minutes.

Click to expand...

I don't remember if you're one of the ones who described your process or not but most people cannot sharpen three blades.
That's six cutting edges and people who do it freehand usually take much longer than that.
Now, the machines that are designed to sharpen blades will of course do a cutting surface even much quicker but they often take a good deal more off the blade than needs to be done and most people don't have those anyways.

I would wager that a lot of these people who take a lot of time on the blades to fully check them out and clean them and stuff like that would spend a good 10 to 12 minutes if not 10 to 15 from the time the blade comes off the machine to the time it is clean, sharpened and balanced and even one person said they hit them with a coat of paint
So I can easily see taking about 15 minutes until you go to put it back on the mower which is absolutely fine if this is something you only do you want or twice a season on your own mower and when you only have one simple push mower or self-propelled but as I said before it's relevant to what kind of volume you're doing.
At the end of the day it makes little difference because the end result is going to perform the same and for the same length of time plus or minus a very small difference.

But even your example, like I said before, I see no point to clean the blades because a quick visual inspection will tell you if there's any dangerous issues or if they're worn out and spending over twice as much time cleaning and expecting then it takes to sharpen and balance just seems like a waste of 2/3 of that time to me.
But again I have a lot more waiting for me.

21" push mower blade. Take off, quick scrape with putty knife, sharpen, put back on. About 4 minutes.
3 blade rider. About 8 or 9 minutes.

TobyU said:

IBut even your example, like I said before, I see no point to clean the blades because a quick visual inspection will tell you if there's any dangerous issues or if they're worn out and spending over twice as much time cleaning and expecting then it takes to sharpen and balance just seems like a waste of 2/3 of that time to me.
But again I have a lot more waiting for me.

Click to expand...

Most of the time yes, but I have found cracks in areas on blades that would of been hidden by buildup and wouldn't of been found if I had followed your no cleaning method prior to sharpening. That blade got replaced. But most of the time worn out and cracked/damaged blades can be found prior to even removing from the mower.

I think I can answer for my team (users)...
Time is not a very significant factor when you decide to do it yourself... it can take 30 minutes or 3 hours... often half is spent on preparing the tools.
But I understand that sharpeners consider it important, because if they spend a lot of time they will charge dearly, they will stop doing other more profitable things and they may even be beaten by market competition.

Bange said:

I don't know the correct way to sharpen a blade, but I'll describe mine... what's yours?

In fact, sharpening is not a very important item for many users, because even if the blade is not sharp, the cutter will shred the grass or any tree leaf... but the result is not satisfactory, in addition to causing greater consumption with more passes and even damage to the deck as a whole.
To those who don't sharpen, but change it after noticing an inefficiency, congratulations... it's the most correct way... but expensive.
Let's go...

With the blade off the deck, clamp it with a clamp on the workbench and clean (rust, glued and dry grass, animal manure, etc...), on all surfaces, using a grinder with flap disc, wire disc, etc.
After cleaning, I change the disk for an iron grinding disk (carburundum, diamond, aggressive flap, etc...) and grind at approximately 45° until I get a good edge.
After satisfactory sharpening, I move on to the balancing stage, an important procedure to keep the deck serene, without unnecessary vibrations that can cause loosening of screws, premature wear of pulley bearings, noise, etc.
To do this, just fix a rod with a rounded profile in a vise or workbench and hang the blade through its hole... the photos speak for themselves...

Cleaning the blade
View attachment 64029View attachment 64030
Cleaning up will make balancing easier at the end.

Sharpening...
View attachment 64031


Balancing

Blade one...
View attachment 64032
Very good...
View attachment 64033

Bade two...

Oops! Necessary adjustment...
Mark the side and remove material to make it lighter... preferably not on the sharp part.
View attachment 64036
View attachment 64036
View attachment 64038
View attachment 64039

Until equilibrium is achieved, several attempts can be made...

The end of the blade must be given special care, as it is the first to attack the grass... in any case, the edge is lost along the entire stretch due to stones, stumps, sand, sidewalks, hard fruit seeds and other objects. ..

Click to expand...

Bange said:

I don't know the correct way to sharpen a blade, but I'll describe mine... what's yours?

In fact, sharpening is not a very important item for many users, because even if the blade is not sharp, the cutter will shred the grass or any tree leaf... but the result is not satisfactory, in addition to causing greater consumption with more passes and even damage to the deck as a whole.
To those who don't sharpen, but change it after noticing an inefficiency, congratulations... it's the most correct way... but expensive.
Let's go...

With the blade off the deck, clamp it with a clamp on the workbench and clean (rust, glued and dry grass, animal manure, etc...), on all surfaces, using a grinder with flap disc, wire disc, etc.
After cleaning, I change the disk for an iron grinding disk (carburundum, diamond, aggressive flap, etc...) and grind at approximately 45° until I get a good edge.
After satisfactory sharpening, I move on to the balancing stage, an important procedure to keep the deck serene, without unnecessary vibrations that can cause loosening of screws, premature wear of pulley bearings, noise, etc.
To do this, just fix a rod with a rounded profile in a vise or workbench and hang the blade through its hole... the photos speak for themselves...

Cleaning the blade
View attachment 64029View attachment 64030
Cleaning up will make balancing easier at the end.

Sharpening...
View attachment 64031


Balancing

Blade one...
View attachment 64032
Very good...
View attachment 64033

Bade two...

Oops! Necessary adjustment...
Mark the side and remove material to make it lighter... preferably not on the sharp part.
View attachment 64036
View attachment 64036
View attachment 64038
View attachment 64039

Until equilibrium is achieved, several attempts can be made...

The end of the blade must be given special care, as it is the first to attack the grass... in any case, the edge is lost along the entire stretch due to stones, stumps, sand, sidewalks, hard fruit seeds and other objects. ..

Click to expand...

Lots on interesting perspectives to which I can't add much. however, how about a story from many decdes ago when I worked on a golf course, summers during school. One of the less desirable jobs was the greenskeeper would send out 2 or 3 guys with 2 wheel rotary mowers to trim around trees and such not into the rough but out of the fairways. There were rocks, stumps, all sorts of obstacles. In 4 or 5 years or watching morons intentionally hitting stuff to break the mowers, which took a lot of abuse, I saw only one issue that involved something flying out from under the mower and giving the operator a pretty good gash on his shin. Probably could have used medial attention but the greenskeeper I guess did not want a workplace accident reported so he did some first aid and let the kid sit out the rest of the afternoon. Anyway, with lots and lots of bent up blades cracked housings on the mowers, and frrequently resharpened blades I never say a blade break. Saw crankshaft seals destroyed and cranks bent but never saw a blade break.

I don't have an official business that sharpens mower blades, but I advertise that I do it and have had quite a few customers, although not enough to have anywhere near a constant flow of work. In my experience the blades that need the most cleaning are the ones that have come from homeowner mowers and haven't been off the mower in years.

Last year I had a guy that mows commercially drop off 15 blades. They only needed minimal cleaning (I use an angle grinder w/wire wheel). All of them were in good shape and only needed maintenance sharpening. That was the most I had ever done at one time, so I timed myself. It was somewhere between 67-70 minutes.

ILENGINE said:

Most of the time yes, but I have found cracks in areas on blades that would of been hidden by buildup and wouldn't of been found if I had followed your no cleaning method prior to sharpening. That blade got replaced. But most of the time worn out and cracked/damaged blades can be found prior to even removing from the mower.

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Yes, most damage blades can quickly be spotted by simply looking at both sides. Other than that a quick push with a putty knife or scraper will clean off enough to show you what you need to know so I just see no reason for spending a lot of extra time cleaning them, wire brushing them, soaking, painting etc.

Hammermechanicman said:

21" push mower blade. Take off, quick scrape with putty knife, sharpen, put back on. About 4 minutes.
3 blade rider. About 8 or 9 minutes.

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That's just about typical but obviously you're not soaking the blades for very long minutes in some sort of bath or taking them to the wire brush on the other end of a grinder to clean off every bit of buildup or try to make them like new or something like that that's just unimportant because it will all just be back in a mower two.
With most of the methods of sharpening a blade even freehand etc I guess everything except using a file, it only takes three or four minutes to sharpen a 21 inch mower blade and that's my point why spend another 4 minutes or even 8 or 12 minutes cleaning or soaking a blade when the vast majority of the time is totally unnecessary and the only thing you have to knock off is any massive amount of buildup so you can make sure there's no cracks in them..

TobyU said:

why spend another 4 minutes or even 8 or 12 minutes cleaning or soaking a blade when the vast majority of the time is totally unnecessary

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Removing the crud allows the for the best balancing, if you do that, I do..

Everybody needs one of these.
I do wish I had one but no place in the shop to put it.

Hammermechanicman said:

Everybody needs one of these.
I do wish I had one but no place in the shop to put it.

MAG-12008 Lawn Mower Blade Cleaner

MAG-12008 Lawn Mower Blade Cleaner

www.magna-matic-direct.com

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I agree but I just can't justify the cost. But then again I am using a $3K sharpener.

Hammermechanicman said:

Everybody needs one of these.
I do wish I had one but no place in the shop to put it.

MAG-12008 Lawn Mower Blade Cleaner

MAG-12008 Lawn Mower Blade Cleaner

www.magna-matic-direct.com

Click to expand...

If I owned a lawn mower shop, I'd prefer a sandblaster... it's good for other uses besides blades.

I think it's kind of pointless comparing someone who's doing full service on mowers to someone only sharpening blades. Someone having their mower serviced, including having the blade sharpened, has never even seen or held their blade before, and having it sharpened is just part of the complete service they're paying for. They don't even think about what it looks like and just trusts that it'll be sharpened.

Someone who removed their blade and sees what it looks like doesn't necessarily expect it to be cleaned, but I'm sure they appreciate it. It's customer service that encourages repeat business. Some car dealerships give people free car washes that buy their cars from them and/or bring their car in for service. Same thing.

Running a mower shop you see everthing from blades without a nick in them to ones that look like they mowed chain link fence to ones worn back past the bevel. Cleaning blades past knocking the big chunks off for me is a waste of time. Makes no difference how it cuts the grass. Everyone needs to do whatever makes them happy. I do what makes me money.

Still jealous about the Burr King.

Hammermechanicman said:

Everybody needs one of these.
I do wish I had one but no place in the shop to put it.

MAG-12008 Lawn Mower Blade Cleaner

MAG-12008 Lawn Mower Blade Cleaner

www.magna-matic-direct.com

Click to expand...

I feel it's absolutely ludicrous to have such a machine.
Not only is it ridiculously expensive, it only has a 2-year brush warranty so it has parts that are commonly going to wear out to cost you more money!
Offer something that's completely unnecessary.
Any shop owner because let's face it no residential person is going to want to own something like this, would be far better off just to replace the blades every so often or heck, replace them every time you sharpen them you'd be way ahead of the game versus paying for this for a long time.

I don't understand the feel-good nature for people wanting to make some blade look new.
Your mower doesn't cut a bit better when you put a brand new shiny painted blade on there that's painted pretty orange or pretty yellow like some of them are or even pretty red then it does with a black painter one or an old one that isn't shiny or nice and do any more at all or one that was brand new 3 days ago but now has been mowed with several times and is also dirty and not shiny anymore.
The end result is the same and they all cut the same quality.
I just don't get the desire.

*CPB* said:

I think it's kind of pointless comparing someone who's doing full service on mowers to someone only sharpening blades. Someone having their mower serviced, including having the blade sharpened, has never even seen or held their blade before, and having it sharpened is just part of the complete service they're paying for. They don't even think about what it looks like and just trusts that it'll be sharpened.

Someone who removed their blade and sees what it looks like doesn't necessarily expect it to be cleaned, but I'm sure they appreciate it. It's customer service that encourages repeat business. Some car dealerships give people free car washes that buy their cars from them and/or bring their car in for service. Same thing.

Click to expand...

There is something to be said about this thought process.
However, there are very few people that only sharpen blades.
For those people who do sharpening services they typically sharpen more edges of other items than they do mower blades.
Now I'm sure you could find someone who would be an outlier in the statistic but this is how it works out throughout the country for the most part.
Here's why:
The vast majority and I mean a very high percentage of homeowners and mower owners do not have the ability, tools or want to bother removing the blade themselves.
As we go further and further into time and when you start talking about younger people you'll even see this is more of the situation.
It's also even more prevalent with the battery powered mower owners not to mention that most of them are even harder to remove and reinstall without breaking stuff or the plastic spacer or blade adapter pieces etc.
So in generalizations let's just talk about round numbers.
For every 100 blades that get sharpened probably 90 to 95 of those are on the mower and the mower is dropped off or presented to the person doing the sharpening or servicing.
A very small percentage like this 10 or 5 or fewer or where a person removes the blade drives it to a shop and hands it to someone to get sharpened.
Lots of reasons for this but most of the ones I covered earlier.
It also is kind of time and effort prohibitive because most people can't sharpen a blade while you wait or won't and I don't blame them.... so normally you have to make a second trip or at least go have lunch or something while they sharpen your blade or blades.
So whatever the reasons and logistics, most mower owners don't take the blade off and do it that way.

For the few who do though I will agree with you some pay attention to it.
Some do not!!
It is amazing how people vary in this nature but some people will critique the edge and look at it and of course they don't necessarily know what they're looking for and this is until another discussion which I'll touch on in a minute, and other people just take them and go stick them back on and many times they put them on upside down!
Getting to my theory that people should leave their stuff alone because far too many people do more harm than good.

Now the ones that do inspect them, they're probably thinking sharper is better and we all know that technically speaking or at least for a lot of people that is not the ultimate desired blade geometry or method but try to tell them that.....
So if you're going to clean the blade nicely to make it more presentable to make it look like you spent more time, what you did, and did a better job for them for the money....then you probably should go ahead and make them razor sharp so they really feel like they're getting their money's worth. LOL
But I won't argue that point too much because there is no consensus and no guaranteed right or wrong way to sharpen a blade and it's mostly a matter of opinion and that's why they would this thread came up about let's discuss blades I said.. no please, let's not. Lol

Most people who have the sense that ability to take their own blade off aren't worried about the look of the cleanliness and if you start painting them to touch them up and they get paint on their hands or their car etc they'll probably quite irritated that you did that but somebody mentioned a quick coat of paint on blades.
Most people realize that the metal part is fairly unimportant or the part that gets dirty and that The cutting edge is what they're paying you to sharpen and I guess most of them just have to take your word for it that they're balanced if you even do that because most people don't know to ask because they don't know it's a thing.

But to sum it all up, I will say when someone brings me a blade and hands it to me to sharpen I typically do a little bit better job on it especially if it's all nicked up and dinged up to not only get all the nicks out of it but to kind of smooth it all out so it looks better and presentable and does it have a little waves in it and stuff.
This often means a little more time but it also means taking a little bit more metal off of the blade to get the shape more uniform.
I don't have her spend much more time cleaning them because the most I really ever do is run a putty knife across them to knock off any big chunks that are build up.

I still maintain that even that makes very little difference because once those chunks build up they pretty much stay there like they're welded to the blade and when you remove them they're just going to build back up again but luckily they usually build up on both sides symmetrically so it doesn't affect the balance and it's also so close to the center of the blade that it wouldn't affect the balance anyways.

It's all a lot of hoopla for no extra real benefit.

7394 said:

Removing the crud allows the for the best balancing, if you do that, I do..

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You are correct and not everyone does balancing and not every customer even knows it's a thing.
I do balance every blade that I sharpen but I find there's no point in worrying about much of the crud anything over the big pieces you can push off of your fingers or just run a putty knife down it to clean up the biggest part of it.
Must all of that build up is going to be closer to the middle of the blade or halfway out and that affects the balance so much less than if it was on the tips but nothing ever builds up to speak of on the outer five or six inches because the speed at which things are moving.

I'm going to equate this whole thing to the same reason some people put brand new blades on their machine instead of sharpening them.
Some, in fact many of my customers, don't know that you can sharpen a blade a good number of times before you even need to consider replacing it and they just think you're supposed to replace it but I'm not counting those people.
I'm talking about people who would rather buy a brand new pretty blade especially the yellow orange or red painted ones.
They would put this on their mower and feel 100% positively and be convinced that it would be better and the quality of cut would be better than with sharpening their old blade which oddly enough isn't always the case!

There are two or three different ways new blades are sold and presented to the customer and there's also the age-old argument on whether or not you sharpen new blades or not or touch them up a little bit and it's because of these ways they're sold.

In many cases a new blade won't cut as well as the old blade that was just sharpening balanced so while these people may feel better putting a brand new blade on their mower, they are not achieving the result they thought.

There's no question that there's a lot of "perceived" value/quality in all lines of business. As I mentioned in my last post... car dealers offering free car washes. There are people who fixate on that and insist on going to that dealer for a repair vs. saving $hundreds$ at a private mechanic and using the savings to get their car professionally detailed. Look at the $BILLIONS$ spent on TV advertising to convince people to buy stuff.

I haven't been sharpening blades long, but in that time out of a couple hundred people I've had maybe 8 bring me their mowers so I could remove the blade. The mowers have typically been pretty dirty. I try to remember to show them the blade before & after so they can see that they're actually getting something for their money and not just out $10 and taking the same dirty mower back home.

Many people who have brought me their blades have commented on how much different they look when I hand them back to them. Again, perceived value. I don't think the blades will cut any better being clean vs. dirty, but maybe that customer does or perceives some value by the blades being cleaned, and I'd like them to come back the next year for another sharpening. I have the time to do it, so I do. If I had 20 people a day dropping off blades that would be a different story.

Well, changing a little focus on the waste or not of time in cleaning, I've been observing the use of a MAG-1000 or referencing the height measurement in relation to the ground (MAG-0001...lol...)
It is obvious that in any case, if the measurements are identical, this does not guarantee the straightness of the blade, but rather that the tips are equidistant from the ground (or the MAG-1000 gauge) and in this case, even if they are like an arrow bow, they will not be unbalanced or straight, but perfect for use.


Case 1: Blade straight and balanced blade, good for use.
Case 2: Blade not straight, but balanced and good for use.
Case 3: Blade extremely not straight, but balanced and good for use.
Case 4: Blade not straight, not balanced and not good for use.
Case 5: Blade not straight, not balanced and not good for use.

Does anyone disagree?

*CPB* said:

There's no question that there's a lot of "perceived" value/quality in all lines of business. As I mentioned in my last post... car dealers offering free car washes. There are people who fixate on that and insist on going to that dealer for a repair vs. saving $hundreds$ at a private mechanic and using the savings to get their car professionally detailed. Look at the $BILLIONS$ spent on TV advertising to convince people to buy stuff.

I haven't been sharpening blades long, but in that time out of a couple hundred people I've had maybe 8 bring me their mowers so I could remove the blade. The mowers have typically been pretty dirty. I try to remember to show them the blade before & after so they can see that they're actually getting something for their money and not just out $10 and taking the same dirty mower back home.

Many people who have brought me their blades have commented on how much different they look when I hand them back to them. Again, perceived value. I don't think the blades will cut any better being clean vs. dirty, but maybe that customer does or perceives some value by the blades being cleaned, and I'd like them to come back the next year for another sharpening. I have the time to do it, so I do. If I had 20 people a day dropping off blades that would be a different story.

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That's so weird that you can have a majority of people who can and will remove the blade and bring them to you because most people who can do that will go ahead and sharpen it in themselves. In a large majority of areas in the country people are not going to remove them but they will certainly throw the mower in the back of their SUV and bring the whole thing out to get it done but they certainly aren't going to try to find a ranch to remove it or get their hands dirty.
Where is this area you are located that the vast majority of your customers like it seems 95% plus remove the blades and bring them to you??
I've been doing this professionally and commercially with a storefront location for almost 13 years and I don't even get 10 people a year that bring me a blade off of the mower but I will say I only specialize and mainly only do walk behind 20 to 22 in push as self-propelled mowers now as that keeps me plenty busy.
There is a larger percentage of people who want to bring you just the blades that are off of a riding mower or zero turn or the larger walk behind commercial style mowers 36 to 60 in.

I even offer two separate prices whether it's on the mower or off the mower and hardly anyone takes it off to bring it to me even though they would save $5.
It's not worth it to them and even though it is a little bit more of a headache to transport the whole mower, pretty much everyone in this area drives an SUV and they will fit in the vehicle or they just throw it in the trunk and leave the handle sticking out etc.

Bange said:

Well, changing a little focus on the waste or not of time in cleaning, I've been observing the use of a MAG-1000 or referencing the height measurement in relation to the ground (MAG-0001...lol...)
It is obvious that in any case, if the measurements are identical, this does not guarantee the straightness of the blade, but rather that the tips are equidistant from the ground (or the MAG-1000 gauge) and in this case, even if they are like an arrow bow, they will not be unbalanced or straight, but perfect for use.
View attachment 64250

Case 1: Blade straight and balanced blade, good for use.
Case 2: Blade not straight, but balanced and good for use.
Case 3: Blade extremely not straight, but balanced and good for use.
Case 4: Blade not straight, not balanced and not good for use.
Case 5: Blade not straight, not balanced and not good for use.

Does anyone disagree?

Click to expand...

Yes, I extremely disagree.
You could bring me multiple examples of all of those blades and I could take a push mower and I could put them on and clock them around in the two or more different positions depending on the blade design of the blade adapter until I found the smoothest most vibration free position after they were roughly balanced and then you can cut some test grass.
You can then try your best to find a difference on how the test grass lawn looks after you cut them and I can absolutely guarantee you that I will fool you time and time again and you will be unable to find any systematic pattern or to accurately determine which blades cut which path!

These are the simple facts that have been proven by actual real world results and seen with my own eyes time and time again.
People can believe whatever they want like this or that makes a major difference or whatever but in reality it typically doesn't and they usually won't believe it unless you prove it to them.
Then they will go back to tell you some story of one time when something different occurred for them and that's just how they've been doing it ever since and they still feel better doing it that way.

Now, to further humor people, in several of those situations with those blades I would gauge them where they match up on the side of the deck by rotating them around then I would bend that blade back into shape to where it's equal again whether or not the actual curve in the middle was straight or not the end tip and most of the last six to eight inches would be.
I have done this so many times I've lost track and it doesn't make a squat of difference in the quality of cut.

*CPB* said:

There's no question that there's a lot of "perceived" value/quality in all lines of business. As I mentioned in my last post... car dealers offering free car washes. There are people who fixate on that and insist on going to that dealer for a repair vs. saving $hundreds$ at a private mechanic and using the savings to get their car professionally detailed. Look at the $BILLIONS$ spent on TV advertising to convince people to buy stuff.

I haven't been sharpening blades long, but in that time out of a couple hundred people I've had maybe 8 bring me their mowers so I could remove the blade. The mowers have typically been pretty dirty. I try to remember to show them the blade before & after so they can see that they're actually getting something for their money and not just out $10 and taking the same dirty mower back home.

Many people who have brought me their blades have commented on how much different they look when I hand them back to them. Again, perceived value. I don't think the blades will cut any better being clean vs. dirty, but maybe that customer does or perceives some value by the blades being cleaned, and I'd like them to come back the next year for another sharpening. I have the time to do it, so I do. If I had 20 people a day dropping off blades that would be a different story.

Click to expand...

I would like another side discussion or at least comment on this perceived value.
I pretty much hate it because I feel that in most cases it's just a waste of money and a way to overpriced things and con people into spending money for them.
Multi-billion dollar industries have been created for crap that shouldn't even exist because they can convince someone of some value or some greater value than what the service they're actually providing is or product.
The latest one I've been complaining about for just about 10 days, because I'm just getting started, is trash can washing you have got to be kidding me!!
They're sending out full color postcard flyers and the large ones to get people to spend $30 to be set up on a every other week or whatever it is schedule to have this I'll admit, beautiful awesome hot water steam cleaning brush trash can washer truck show up and wash out your trash can.
The point is it's all ridiculous and most people don't care. It's a trash can. It smells! That's why you close the lid or, you leave the lid open for a couple days or when it rains after they empty it and let it air out or you stop way before this because these two sentences and the thought process involved is far more waste of time than anybody needs to worry about their stupid trash can.
Now they've created this Hughes industry but I guarantee you is up and coming for doing this.
Proceed value, I don't really think there is a value in it because I think it's unnecessary but I will admit if it were going to be done I would certainly want to make sure I was there every time to watch it because that's kind of the coolest thing involved because it is fairly high-tech and automated and not just some dude with a scrub brush and some soap and a water hose cleaning it out like I did one or two times in my early young days when I had first and recently bought a house and had a trash can.
I guess it's a ownership ego thing and maybe they're just catering to those people but I know a lot of old people will do it too because sometimes they are the ones with disposable income that don't miss frivolous things spent like this.
I just don't see this as a need and my personal opinion things that aren't needed shouldn't be done.
Things shouldn't cost more than what they accurately and fairly have to cost to simply maintain and make a decent but still small profit margin because and most things, money should be made on volume providing a good quality and low priced Fair service for people and not a high profit margin for the few people you can't sucker into doing something.
I guess I'm just old and bitter but I've been this way for a long time so it's certainly not old age that is done it.

TobyU said:

Yes, I extremely disagree.
You could bring me multiple examples of all of those blades and I could take a push mower and I could put them on and clock them around in the two or more different positions depending on the blade design of the blade adapter until I found the smoothest most vibration free position after they were roughly balanced and then you can cut some test grass.
You can then try your best to find a difference on how the test grass lawn looks after you cut them and I can absolutely guarantee you that I will fool you time and time again and you will be unable to find any systematic pattern or to accurately determine which blades cut which path!

These are the simple facts that have been proven by actual real world results and seen with my own eyes time and time again.
People can believe whatever they want like this or that makes a major difference or whatever but in reality it typically doesn't and they usually won't believe it unless you prove it to them.
Then they will go back to tell you some story of one time when something different occurred for them and that's just how they've been doing it ever since and they still feel better doing it that way.

Now, to further humor people, in several of those situations with those blades I would gauge them where they match up on the side of the deck by rotating them around then I would bend that blade back into shape to where it's equal again whether or not the actual curve in the middle was straight or not the end tip and most of the last six to eight inches would be.
I have done this so many times I've lost track and it doesn't make a squat of difference in the quality of cut.

Click to expand...

Wait a moment... I wasn't talking about sharpening, I was talking about vibration or (axial) imbalance.
For me cases 1, 2 and 3 are perfect for use... cases 4 and 5 are unusable.
How do you fix cases 4 and 5?

............................................

My blades are better than yours. I sharpen the best way on Earth. What up ya'll.

Bange said:

Wait a moment... I wasn't talking about sharpening, I was talking about vibration or (axial) imbalance.
For me cases 1, 2 and 3 are perfect for use... cases 4 and 5 are unusable.
How do you fix cases 4 and 5?

Click to expand...

Why do you determine that four and five are unusable?
I don't really care what goes on between the middle of the blade and the tip of the blade as long as the tip and most of the cutting surface is relatively flat and parallel to the ground and ends up being at the same height above the ground which is what I check when I see where each tip of the blade touches a spot in relation to the deck as I rotated around.
I don't care if there's a way or whatever in there and it very well may cause some imbalance well, let's just say it will cost some imbalance and some vibration but you already have a lot of vibration and harmonics going on in a mower anyways so it's just a matter of how much or how much extra or what is okay or what is tolerable or what is noticeable.
As I mentioned, I have tweaked many blades bending them etc and even twisting them back that had become twisted. It takes advice and a pretty sturdy work bench and a pipe wrench with a pretty long cheater bar on it so you can twist the end of the blade that has been twisted upward or downward because it hit something.
Then I have been plenty of them so the tip and the majority of the length of the blade from the center hole will be at the same height as the other side when you rotate it around.

Now here's the kicker on balance vibrations and all that.
If you have a mower that is hit something enough to bend the blade putting a new blade on or even putting a new blade on that's perfectly balanced, because not all are, isn't necessarily the fix.
Crankshafts really don't get bent as much as they get twisted even though we call it a bent crankshaft.
However, when you look at one and spend it or use a dial indicator mounted on a magnet etc and you see that it is wobbling in other words moving somewhere out of its small circle that it should rotate in then you know you have some damage to it.

Sometimes an old blade or an imbalanced blade can make up for vibrations like that and make a more smoother!
I know, we're talking Frankenstein at this point and it's probably nuts to even worry about that and I rarely do.
It's not like I keep old bent blades around just to try this however just because the crankshaft is bent or twisted does not mean the mower is unusable.
Let's don't even talk about trying to straighten the crank out but you should all know that at one time this was standard operating procedure and allowed an authorized by Major engine manufacturers like Briggs & stratton..
They made a machine specifically for it and other people have built their own. You were supposed to stamp an s on the crank in a certain spot once this has been done because it was never supposed to be done a second time.
Others have just used a huge hammer and a towel or a block of wood and beat the heck out of it trying to get it a little bit closer to spending in a solid circle instead of wobbly but the same people have also destroy the number of engines cracked mounting ears off the bottom of them and other things from doing this.

But the point is an engine can have only a very minor noticeable bend or twist or wobble in the crankshaft and can vibrate like MAD with any blade and be totally unusable whereas another engine can have a very good deal of bend and wobble to the crank and amazingly be so smooth you can't tell there's a problem!

This is why I always tell people you don't know it until you try it and you can't just make generalized comments about the way things are always going to be because there is a lot more going on in that blade spinning down there and that crankshaft at those RPMs then we can ever comprehend in real time.

So therefore sometimes just spinning a blade over 180° around makes a world of difference!!
What I started doing this in high numbers and found this out for myself I couldn't believe what a difference it made and I showed a bunch of people I work with.
I started up The Mower and have them put their hands on the handle and feel for it and they said yeah feels fine.
Then I let them watch me clock the blade around 180 and fire it back up and you could barely hold on to the handle and they were amazed too.
Then you have lights with five different ways to clock them on the star pattern so you have to try all of them.
Then with the Honda with the two blades you have four different ways you can install the blades so you have to try all of them too.

Anytime a mower has some vibration in it I will always try to find the smoothest sweet spot where it's it's absolute smoothest because often it makes the mower unnoticeable with any problem and makes it quite okay and safe to use whereas other installations might make it vibrate enough to make it annoying and buzzing your hands and excessive vibration of course can be dangerous.

So I would think the average person would say that any of the scenarios with event blade is unusable unless it's fixed whereas I don't see any reason for four and five to be any more unusable than the other ones..
I would tweak any of them and get them where they match up at the same point on the deck and look relatively straight and symmetrical and check for vibration and be totally happy with them.

TobyU said:

Why do you determine that four and five are unusable?

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Because vibration occurs and vibration is not good in mechanical parts rotating.
I don't know of any technique to untwist without causing breakage or change in hardness (by heat).
I saw now that it is possible with carbon steel, but if it were boron steel, it would be impossible.

slomo said:

My 4 cents on sharpening.

I use a hand file myself. Takes a few minutes to get a blade back to fighting weight. New files obviously work faster than older dull ones. I can pull a file from the tool box, few slaps on both sides and I'm done. Not looking for shaving sharp blades here. Just a good bevel clean up.

No reason to fire up some super expensive electric grinder. These are lawn mowers, not the space shuttle (Taryl). I can have a blade sharpened roughly in the same time as pulling a grinder out and plugging it in. Look at the bevel, set your sharpening angle and finally remve TOO MUCH material. Now you are into balancing for quite a while...... And your blades all have smiles to them now compared to simple hand files. More grinding to correct the smiles. Now you've just removed a bunch of life from that blade.

Summation, you burn through blades a lot faster with grinders than with hand files. Most people don't even check for sharpness when done. They see a shiny new bevel and think the blade is sharp.

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How many of us have machine shop training and file skills? I am with you on this. Only when the blade goes too long without filing do I need to pull out the ole grinding wheel and motor to true up that blunted edge. Then, a few strokes to smooth the cut and knock the burrs off. Yes, to a finely cut green lawn, and yes, I am a homeowner, not a business.

TobyU said:

That's so weird that you can have a majority of people who can and will remove the blade and bring them to you because most people who can do that will go ahead and sharpen it in themselves. In a large majority of areas in the country people are not going to remove them but they will certainly throw the mower in the back of their SUV and bring the whole thing out to get it done but they certainly aren't going to try to find a ranch to remove it or get their hands dirty.

Where is this area you are located that the vast majority of your customers like it seems 95% plus remove the blades and bring them to you??

Click to expand...

I'm in the NW Ohio / SE Michigan area. I've had people of all ages bring me their blades, and people of all ages bring me their mowers, so there's no pattern I can discern. For $5 more I offer to remove and reinstall the blade, but the overwhelming majority of people just bring their blades. Almost everyone has some kind of tool set, so getting the blade off isn't a big deal I guess. And maybe they would try to sharpen it themselves... if they had the right tools. I'm a handy guy and have tools, but I don't have any files suitable for sharpening a mower blade, and I didn't own an angle grinder until I was in my 40s. I'm guessing most people just don't have the means to sharpen their own blade. When I was younger I tried one of those grey spaceship-looking stones you put on the end of a drill, but what a joke that thing was. It slowly started making the face of the edge shinier, but I didn't have the entire weekend to spare waiting for it to sharpen the leading edge.

I've seen those garbage container cleaning trucks, and am surprised that something like that could be turned into a business. A cheap electric pressure washer is all you need to keep a container clean, and I guess you don't even need that if you're willing to crawl into it and scrub it out top to bottom. I do mine maybe twice a year, and it looks almost new. Is it "sanitized"? No. I wouldn't eat out of it, but it doesn't have a smell. I can't believe people are willing to pay for a service to have it done monthly. What are they doing, dumping table scraps and animal feces directly into it? All I put in mine are bags of garbage, sticks I find in the yard, etc. I've seen some of the containers in my neighborhood though, and they do look like crime scenes.

Back to mower blades. There's a guy on YouTube who runs a legit lawncare operation, but he's expanding to include mower blade sharpening... nationwide. You mail him your blades at your expense, they sharpen them and ship them back. 1 blade, $35, 2 for $45, 3 for $50, plus shipping. I don't know if the price continues to drop for more blades or not. To me the pricing seems ludicrous, but people are using the service.

*CPB* said:

I'm in the NW Ohio / SE Michigan area. I've had people of all ages bring me their blades, and people of all ages bring me their mowers, so there's no pattern I can discern. For $5 more I offer to remove and reinstall the blade, but the overwhelming majority of people just bring their blades. Almost everyone has some kind of tool set, so getting the blade off isn't a big deal I guess. And maybe they would try to sharpen it themselves... if they had the right tools. I'm a handy guy and have tools, but I don't have any files suitable for sharpening a mower blade, and I didn't own an angle grinder until I was in my 40s. I'm guessing most people just don't have the means to sharpen their own blade. When I was younger I tried one of those grey spaceship-looking stones you put on the end of a drill, but what a joke that thing was. It slowly started making the face of the edge shinier, but I didn't have the entire weekend to spare waiting for it to sharpen the leading edge.

I've seen those garbage container cleaning trucks, and am surprised that something like that could be turned into a business. A cheap electric pressure washer is all you need to keep a container clean, and I guess you don't even need that if you're willing to crawl into it and scrub it out top to bottom. I do mine maybe twice a year, and it looks almost new. Is it "sanitized"? No. I wouldn't eat out of it, but it doesn't have a smell. I can't believe people are willing to pay for a service to have it done monthly. What are they doing, dumping table scraps and animal feces directly into it? All I put in mine are bags of garbage, sticks I find in the yard, etc. I've seen some of the containers in my neighborhood though, and they do look like crime scenes.

Back to mower blades. There's a guy on YouTube who runs a legit lawncare operation, but he's expanding to include mower blade sharpening... nationwide. You mail him your blades at your expense, they sharpen them and ship them back. 1 blade, $35, 2 for $45, 3 for $50, plus shipping. I don't know if the price continues to drop for more blades or not. To me the pricing seems ludicrous, but people are using the service.

Re Edge It

Re Edge It

reedgeit.com

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Yes, the pricing for doing those blades is ridiculous and it's absurd to ship them around the country because they're too heavy and bulky and shipping is at all time record high prices.
The trash can thing is a joke too because it's just not something that's necessary to be done because trash cans are supposed to spell. The point I think is a lot of people would like it to be nicer or cleaner and they're far too lazy to do it themselves and this is why so many people are willing to pay for things that they shouldn't pay for and part of the problem in the world today I think.

I am in Southwest Ohio so it surprises me so much that the majority of people just bring you loose blades to sharpen. Maybe it's a northern thing or a Michigan thing because people in Michigan are completely different than people in southwest ohio.
For instance, pretty much no one in Southwest Ohio owns a snowmobile and very, very few on four wheelers but in Michigan it's like a requirement!
They ride them around on the streets even with no big deal like it's normal.
They even have special events and they call it something like that but around here if you touch one to the road you'll get pulled over in about 3 minutes tops.
You can't even ride one just around the corner or something to get somewhere to ride even though technically, at least the last time I was doing it it was legal to do that.
I had to print up the revised code so I can show The jerk cops because we had several that would pull you over for anything and carry it with me.
It's like I think if you were only going this far, only to the place to ride from the place you kept the vehicle or your home, stayed within this many feet of the side of the road, war and orange vest, a slow-movie vehicle sign in the back of it, curled your right toes and lifted your left hand in the air with a winky winky of your big finger every 12 seconds.. it technically made it legal. Lol

But it is very odd how different areas do different things. This also happens though just in neighborhoods and stuff because they might put One upscale neighborhood or one more affluent part of town will be totally different and their habits then another area just five or 10 miles away.

Like I said, pretty much no one brings loose blades to me but I have a constant supply of business with people wanting their mowers serviced. I call it annual service or general maintenance.
People all too often use the word tune up which I think is an evil word and I won't use.

I also have a constant supply of no starts and ones that don't run properly and then most of those people of course often say they want you to go ahead and do the blade while it's there BUT that's usually all they think about. They're totally forgetting about the fact that the thing has oil in it and it's probably dirty as to be and probably low and then some of them don't even know it has an air filter..
Most know about the spark plugs but unfortunately everybody that has a no start tries to go there and many of them put the wrong plugs in or damage the engine heads because they crossed through them and force them in with those tools you talk about them having...
Most people in this area should step away from the toolbox if they own one!!
When they do try to remove the blades they use an adjustable wrench or a 12-point socket that's not even the right size and they bugger up the head and then I have to either clean it up or replace it and it makes it a lot harder to remove. So again, most homeowners should leave their crap alone!!
Anything you need done that's a repair or even taking the blade off you should seek professional help or at least get someone who knows what they're doing because it just pains me to see how many of them they damage.
Most people are capable of changing the oil even though most of them don't know how because they don't realize there's not drain plugs anymore and even if they were they wouldn't have the tool to remove the drain plug and it would be too tight for them or they'd probably turn it the wrong way but once they figure out you just turn them over on excited to a pan or hold it just right and use a milk jug etc they can usually figure it out and do a decent oil change.
Most are capable of replacing their air filter too -if they know it has one and a few are confident enough to change the spark plug but it is a lot harder now since the overhead valve ones are buried in the head and at an odd angle versus the old ones on the flat heads we're right there sticking out easy to see, straight, and most you could actually use a pair of pliers on which is still terrible because people break this fins a lot on the heads doing that but that doesn't really cause any harm despite the fact it's careless, needless and shouldn't be done.

I also charge $5 more to take the blade off and put it back on during a sharpening but pretty much everyone when given the option will just bring me the bower because they don't want to bother taking it off or even having to look underneath the mower.
Oh yeah! That's another thing!!
Most people in my area and the 25 by radius or so never look underneath their bar! They mow wet grass and run over all kinds of things and never bothered to clean up that massive debris that gets down there.
I'm talking an entire Walmart bag full of grass underneath each mower. It's typically well over an inch thick and sometimes 2 in thick of an entire mat of grass that's pressed up against the deck and it comes off in giant chunks pretty much resembling a mold of the mower deck.
And it often does have real mold above it and rust on the deck from all the moisture being trapped there.
It's just neglect but they have no idea.

Well, I summarized what was said so far in a procedure chart that will be my bible for sharpening... I also included some examples...


Case 1)Case 4) Case 5)

Case 5) Case 5) Case 5)

Case 6) Case 6) Case6)

Continuing...

Case 6)

This last example is a masterpiece of cheap and functional engineering... I just invented it...

Case 6)

Considering how badly worn some blades are it is just best to replace them with new blades. And most blades here just get replaced

And someone paying $35 to have a 10-15 usd blade sharpen plus shipping is just plain stupid. Come on folks use your brain if you got a working one. If not your in trouble as replacement ones are way too expensive.

I had a guy sharpen mine at Ace Hardware years ago along with my chains for the chain saws that was very reasonable but now the price is about the same as new ones so I just buy new ones.

by and large the population is dumb , lazy & stupid
So they jump on anything they see on Face Book, You Tube & Instagram without a second of thought
If they want to buy something then Amazon, because it is easy and they are lazy. ( How many times have we seen a poster here with a dud new Amazon carb and they go back & buy another one.
FWIW I try to encourage my customers to buy several sets of blades and swap them over when they are dull.
Then they can sharpen them themselves or drop them in here for sharpening.
I charge $ 15 ( Aus ) for a sharpen + $ 5 for fitting , new blades are $ 35 and up .
Of course most walk behinds down here us swing back blades and I am converting a lot of US bar blade mowers to swing backs when customers realize just how bad a cut & catch you get from US blade systems
About 1/3 of them do this
I do about 40 pairs of blades a month as I have a couple of commercial customers who drop off blades Friday and pick them up next Friday during the busy season .
I do mine with a angle grinder to restore the strait edge then a belt sander to recreate the cutting angle .
Been toying with buying an Oregon blade sharpener but am loathed to do it as no sooner had I replaced my very worn chain grinder Aldi did a plastic piece of junk for $ 40 and I went from 300 chains a year to 60.
Now the Aldi tool is absolute junk but good enough for 3 or 4 chains a year which is what most customers used to bring in .

I have penny pinchers here that think they are saving a penny to do about anything and then end up having to more in the long run then if they just brought the correct parts. I just got through with a Hustler Super Z that the owner spent over $80 for a new voltage regulator just to keep bringing in his mower. He finally gave after buying a new battery he still had not resolve his battery discharging issue. Guess he thought it didn't need that little flat metal grounding strap so he threw it away. That was his whole problem.

But for blades most of the OEM blades here are somewhere between $12 and $20. I usually charge less $10 to sharpen a good blade that is simply dull and don't even charge for mounting them. With this in mind it simply doesn't makes sense to spend up to 1/2 hr sharpening a 1/4 thick blade that is only $15 retail new.

Now in your example Bert of costs in your area then it might make more sense to spend the time. For me I just spent $75 on two new grind stones here so Just break even doing the curiosity sharpening of mower blades.

Now chainsaw chains is a different story as the Oregon sharpener has really improve things especially since I started getting chains with extra hard cutters. It is the very reason why I brought it as one day I did eight chains and went through 7 files and had blisters for a week afterwards. Now if that ALDI sharpener is anything like HFT one here then I agree it is a complete piece of junk. So sloppy after a few chains it wasn't funny so I destroyed it and got the Oregon one here. I have been very happy with it other than having to change out discs during the process. Now if I more chains to do I would buy a couple extra one so I could dictate then to one job and not look back.

I would imagine it was the same from the same junk maker in China .

Likely.

It is a shame as they could just make them a little better and have a good working machine. They do have a very good grinding disc. Here once I sharpen a saw chain my customers will bring in their chains for me to do as they have tried sharpening themselves and just can't get the knack even with the file guides.

Yes I can for a few dollars more put a new after market chain. When the chains come in really screwed up I install a new chain and rework the old chain into what I call a dirt chain. Then I tell to put it on when they are cutting near the ground as it is now an expendable chain and keep their good chain for above ground work.

I kinda wish the brush cutter blade that I use had not stop making the sharpening guide for them but apparently no one was buying them. Kinda hard to hand file them accurately without it.

TobyU said:

But exactly how long does it take you to sharpen the average blade like this?
Obviously a very dull blade is going to take long and one that's not nicked or chewed up or even that dull won't take long at all but how long does the average blade take you?

Click to expand...

1/2 an hour. Do it enough and it gets easier. Axe files are quite aggressive.

Grum said:

I sharpen mine on a bench grinder and spray them with water from a squeeze bottle to keep them from over heating. I used to balance them on a nail but lately I’ve used one of those aluminum cones. Works for me.

Click to expand...

Exactly what I do, works perfectly. Toro Timemaster blades last an entire season, 20 hours/week usage. Sharpen them every month or so…

I sharpen with a bench grinder. Some might call it an antique, but I use it all the time. If the sharp edge is getting too hot you are moving the blade too slowly when making the last couple passes. I balance on a cone I picked up 30 or 40 years ago.

*CPB* said:

I'm in the NW Ohio / SE Michigan area. I've had people of all ages bring me their blades, and people of all ages bring me their mowers, so there's no pattern I can discern. For $5 more I offer to remove and reinstall the blade, but the overwhelming majority of people just bring their blades. Almost everyone has some kind of tool set, so getting the blade off isn't a big deal I guess. And maybe they would try to sharpen it themselves... if they had the right tools. I'm a handy guy and have tools, but I don't have any files suitable for sharpening a mower blade, and I didn't own an angle grinder until I was in my 40s. I'm guessing most people just don't have the means to sharpen their own blade. When I was younger I tried one of those grey spaceship-looking stones you put on the end of a drill, but what a joke that thing was. It slowly started making the face of the edge shinier, but I didn't have the entire weekend to spare waiting for it to sharpen the leading edge.

I've seen those garbage container cleaning trucks, and am surprised that something like that could be turned into a business. A cheap electric pressure washer is all you need to keep a container clean, and I guess you don't even need that if you're willing to crawl into it and scrub it out top to bottom. I do mine maybe twice a year, and it looks almost new. Is it "sanitized"? No. I wouldn't eat out of it, but it doesn't have a smell. I can't believe people are willing to pay for a service to have it done monthly. What are they doing, dumping table scraps and animal feces directly into it? All I put in mine are bags of garbage, sticks I find in the yard, etc. I've seen some of the containers in my neighborhood though, and they do look like crime scenes.

Back to mower blades. There's a guy on YouTube who runs a legit lawncare operation, but he's expanding to include mower blade sharpening... nationwide. You mail him your blades at your expense, they sharpen them and ship them back. 1 blade, $35, 2 for $45, 3 for $50, plus shipping. I don't know if the price continues to drop for more blades or not. To me the pricing seems ludicrous, but people are using the service.

Re Edge It

Re Edge It

reedgeit.com

Click to expand...

So who else thinks razor sharp is not the way to go ?

Well it will start dulling as soon it hit the grass. Actually dull quicker than a slightly dull edge.

On our 22" push mower, I sharpen to razor edge, that spins so slow it cuts good & the edge stays pretty good..

Way different than my Z blades.

RayMcD said:

So who else thinks razor sharp is not the way to go ?

Click to expand...

I don't waste time on sharpening. The blade only needs to be sharp enough to cut grass, not shave with. I will spend about 45 seconds on each blade (not each edge). When I'm done, every edge will have a few razor edge spots as well as still having a nick or two. I move the blade back and forth pretty fast across the stone to keep from overheating the edge. If you grind out every nick every time, you are drastically shortening blade life.