Sharpening Blades

[Davenj4f]

I still think a hand file is the best way to sharpen. Once you cross over into grinders, one can remove too much material. Course a lot of blades you shop guys see need grinders. Home owners like me, my blades clean up in a few strokes. Too much metal removed gets into heavy balancing tricks.

For me, going over to the dark side, thinking about a 4" angle grinder with a say 220 grit flap wheel. Got 5 mowers to tend to.

For balancing I use one of those precision food grade scales. Weigh each blade end a couple times. Can balance a blade out to 0.0X of a gram per side. My blades run super smooth like a new one. I tried nails and those plastic and metal cone balancer deals. Food scale is in another league.

I use a 40 grit flapper disc on a Dewalt angle grinder. Makes for a very shiny look. I would think a 220 grit would take all day. Yes, very fast, but often I have to dress up the tip on a grinding wheel. Got to have the tip as close to a square angle as you can get it. The more rounded the tip is, the worse job of cutting occurs. I use a Magna Matic balancer. Love it, does an excellent job. I have used my shop press to straighten blades, but it's time consuming unless I'm doing it for myself. Only encountered that with the 21" blades, never on the 18" blades. When I was mowing more full time, I changed my blades every day, that way they dressed up very fast. I use two hoists in my shop to lift the whole mower, can change the blades out with a 3/8" impact wrench in less than 2 minutes.

 

[borisdmower]

Sharpen!!! My blades wear from the back. (Sandblasted) I’m lucky if I need to sharpen them once before they are flogged out, I reckon they last about 15 hours. Mower shop said that is normal for where I live.