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
reedgeit.com
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.
