Sharpening Blades

[Tiger Small Engine]

How many blades are you servicing each year? If it's under 20 then why even bother? Just sell them a new blade and show them their junk blade when they come to pick up the mower. If it's over 100 then buy a Magna-Matic sharpener and balancer. It sharpens all blade types including wavy edge mulching blades. I'm no businessman; I'm just a guy who sharpens on the side 7 months out of the year, and my sharpener has paid for itself several times over.

I sharpen well over 100 blades per year, not really sure. My main issue is the grinding wheels glazing up and becoming way less effective. I am going to try a grinding wheel dresser tool and see if that helps. I appreciate everyone’s input on this topic!

 

[*CPB*]

If you're doing that many blades then a dedicated sharpener should at least be a consideration. At the very least, I'd see if you could adapt a Magna-Matic grinding wheel to work on your bench grinder (their wheels have a 1-1/4" arbor hole). All grinding wheels feel hard if you bang your knuckles on them, but they're available in a a wide range of hardnesses. Bench grinder wheels are amongst the hardest, which is why they last a long time but also glaze up. The Magna-Matic wheels disintegrate, but as I mentioned earlier I got almost 250 blades out of my last wheel (yeah, I actually keep track), and that included plenty of blades that had never been sharpened and needed a lot of grinding to get back into shape. If I was only doing yearly maintenance sharpening I think I could get well over 500 blades out of a wheel.

Check your local Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for a used Magna-Matic and maybe you'll find a deal. There's always a lawn care company going out of business that's selling off all their equipment. And if you're curious, here's a video of the Magna-Matic belt grinder in action. He takes a brand new blade with a 30° angle and grinds a 45° angle on part of the edge. He takes off a crapload of material in 12-13 seconds.

 

[Skippydiesel]

Sorry if repeating another's earlier comment;

There can be no doubt that sharpening mower blades, will improve performance by reducing the hp required to do the job.

BUT THIS MUST BE BALANCED BY KNOWING THAT:

• Sharpening requires the removal of blade material, vastly reducing the life of the blade - they are not cheap. Add the time/cost to remove/install.
• Correctly sharpened blades must also be balanced, to reduce vibration. Vibration is not just annoying, it will accelerate wear on a range of components - more effort/cost
• Sharp blades go blunt quite quickly, depending on grass type, working in grass contaminated by soil/sand or if the occasional scalping down to soil surface occurs.
• Blunt blades cut almost as well as sharp. Why? because they principly cut by impact.

In my part of the World professional grass cutters never sharpen blades.

If you want your blades to remain relativly sharp, consider applying/welding, a hard facing material to the underside of the blade or if available,fitting blades with a bimetal cutting edge.

Note: The above comments do not apply to drum type mowers, which cut by shearing ie must be sharp to do the job

 

[*CPB*]

Blunt blades cut almost as well as sharp.

That's true, but when you cut with dull blades the grass gets torn instead of getting cut cleanly, and it's more open to disease and browning.

 

[Skippydiesel]

That's true, but when you cut with dull blades the grass gets torn instead of getting cut cleanly, and it's more open to disease and browning.

This is news to me.
Most grasses have evolved to tolerate considerable damage by grazing animals.
Lawn grasses in particular have been selected to tolerate frequent "damage" from mowing without undue stress.
As a retired farmer, I know that we depend on the condition of our grass to raise animals, make silage , etc, none of which involves the sort of nice neat cutting you allude to.

 

[*CPB*]

If I was cutting a pasture I wouldn't be too concerned about the finished look. If I was cutting heavily watered & fertilized lawns in upscale subdivisions, I would.

 

[Skippydiesel]

If I was cutting a pasture I wouldn't be too concerned about the finished look. If I was cutting heavily watered & fertilized lawns in upscale subdivisions, I would.

No probs mate - sharpen away. I hope the sharpening contributes to your income because I don't believe it does a thing for the lawn.

As I said earlier - I do not know of any professional gardeners/lawn mowing contractors that sharpen their mower blades and they seem to be able to deliver some pretty smick lawns.

 

[Tiger Small Engine]

No probs mate - sharpen away. I hope the sharpening contributes to your income because I don't believe it does a thing for the lawn.

As I said earlier - I do not know of any professional gardeners/lawn mowing contractors that sharpen their mower blades and they seem to be able to deliver some pretty smick lawns.

Lawn services that don’t sharpen the blades. I certainly hope they do sharpen the blades, and check the oil, and grease fittings, etc. Most of my customers are homeowners and they don’t sharpen blades nearly as much as they should. These blades are beat up and very dull. Cut quality goes down, harder on mower, more fuel used with dull blades. Crazy advice.

 

[Skippydiesel]

Lawn services that don’t sharpen the blades. I certainly hope they do sharpen the blades, and check the oil, and grease fittings, etc. Most of my customers are homeowners and they don’t sharpen blades nearly as much as they should. These blades are beat up and very dull. Cut quality goes down, harder on mower, more fuel used with dull blades. Crazy advice.

Good on ya! Your making a living out of what people want and I support you 100% in that.

Most dometic ride on users, would be hard put to see any difference in power required and quality of cut.
Quality of cut - sharp blade may cut a little cleaner at the magnifying glass inspection - who does that & if it doesn't make a difference on the macro view, who cares?
Harder on mower??? Mower runs at rated engine speed - this will only change if operator tries to load it up more than it can accommodate - general wear is pretty much constant, no matter blades sharp/dull.
Yes more fuel per unit area processed will be used - because a sharp blade will cut a little faster. Once again most owners unlikly to notice the small difference.

I say again - blade sharpening is a feel good exercise, with little actual benefit other than to the service provider$$$$$