How often should you sharpen your mower blade for the extended life of your mower? Does it have to be every month or every year? Let’s figure out what experts have to say about this. If you don’t want to have a ‘ragged’ experience, you should sharpen the blades of your lawn mower? Like any machines that become useless if you stop using it, the same goes with the lawn mower blades or the mower itself. If you wish to keep the blades of your mower shining like a diamond, you’ll have to stop them from growing dull in a gradual manner.
How to Sharpen Lawn Mower Blades?
What will happen if you don’t sharpen your blade? Well, this is straightforward – if you don’t sharpen lawn mower blade, this will cause the blades to tear the grass, instead of cutting them smoothly. Therefore, it is required that you should sharpen lawn mower blade if you are sure that it doesn’t need a replacement – i.e. it is not damaged (because we don’t recommend replacing a blade that is highly damaged).
Lawn Mower Blade sharpener
Before you begin sharpening the blade of your lawn mower (no matter the company), you will first need to remove it from the lawn mower. While you do this, extra special needs to be taken because you might get hurt if you don’t do it properly. That’s why we suggest you follow the experts’ advice on this page and get the best of the sharpening your lawn mower blades like a pro (professional). Also, check How to Mow a Lawn Professionally
1. Unplug Power Source
First things first. Unplug the power source because if you don’t do that your lawn mower start while you’re trying to remove the blade out of it. We also recommend that you disconnect the spark plug, along with the power source. To know how to do this, you can read the user manual that came along with the mower.
2. Turn Mower on its Side
This doesn’t mean that you can turn the mower upside down – also, don’t try to turn it in a slapdash manner because doing so will cause the oil to flow right into the air filter and carburetor. You should do it in a way that the carburetor faces up. If you are not sure about where any part of your mower is located, contact the manufacturer. For supplementary protection, you can use the mower so it runs out of gas or you can also try pouring the oil into a separate container.
3. Mark the Blade
Before removing the blade, marking the blade with a pen or spray is suggestion because, at the time of putting it back, you may not know which side is up or which one is down. To avoid this dilemma, you should mark the blade. If you don’t have a spray and the pen doesn’t work on the surface of the blade (because it is made of steel), perhaps, you would want to try putting some tape on it. Best Rear Engine Riding Mowers
4. Open the Fastening Bolt
Warning! Before you open the fastening bolt, you will need to block the blade so as to make it steady because if you don’t block it, it will move along with the wrench or ratchet. We suggest that you either use a sturdy block of wood between the deck of the mower and the blade. But if you already have a vise or clamp, it is going to do wonders – I don’t think you will need anything else to do this.
5. Clean Grass Clippings & Rust
If you have been taking the best use of the mower in a frequent manner, it is possible that it will be dirty with the grass clippings, dust, and so forth. Once the blade has been taken out, you can clean the area behind where the blade was attached. This is necessary to have a longer life for your mower and to keep it run as smoothly as possible – i.e. without any problem at all.
Sharpening the Lawn Mower Blade (by Hand)
Can you sharpen lawn mower blade without removing it? Whether you own a push mower or a riding (ride-on) mower, we never recommend sharpening the mower blades without removing them because this can cause injuries to your hands or the body. See what you can do to sharpen the lawn mower blade:
1. Clamp Blade
In addition to using a sturdy clamp, you can also make use of a vise. We recommend using a robust vise to keep the blade steady. Do this in a way that makes it convenient for you to handle the end-to-end process. Also, for ease cleanups, you can use a newspaper or any other paper so that stray metal filings fall on it and you don’t have to do any hard work to clean the mess after you’re done with cleaning your station.
2. Sharpen Blade with File
Next thing you have to do is sharpen your lawn mower blade. You will be using a file to do this task. Run the file on the edge of the blade. This has to be done from the inside edge to the outside edge because that will help the blade to be as sharper as needed and in a required manner. You may also want to cover your face like mouth and nose to stop the inhaling the dust and metal particles coming from the blade.
3. Keep up with the Factory Bevel
Keeping up with the factory bevel as you begin the process of sharpening your blade is needed. The blade angle could be about 40 or 45 degrees, however, that’s not always the case, therefore, reading the vital guidelines instructed by the manufacturer is also required.
4. Re-install the Blade
When you have sharpened your blade, it is time to mount it. The orientation is to be taken into account because you don’t have to put it back to the mower with the wrong side inside. That’s why we recommended you to put a mark or some tape (probably a red tape) so that you can remember which side of the blade it is when mounting it.
How to sharpen Lawn mower Blades
Sharpening the blade of your mower requires detailed knowledge and a little mistake can hurt your hand or entire body or it could lead to an explosion due to the gas or oil that is still retaining in the mower tank. When you’re done with everything we have discussed, the blade should be as sharp as a butter knife and it will give you a smooth cut – increasing the life of your mower and blade as well.
If you think that the blade is damaged, you should replace it instead of sharpening it. Hope this guide has helped you “how to sharpen lawn mower blades”. If you still have anything in mind that you would like to share with us, please put them in the comment section and we will let you know for sure.