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Lawn Mower Blade Sharpening
How To Sharpen Lawn Mower Blade
Lawn mower blade sharpening is a key component to maintaining a healthy lawn. A dull lawn mower blade can rip and tear out new growth by the roots. These top, jagged edges of the grass will quickly turn brown because of moisture loss from the damaged blades. Damaged grass blades will weaken the plants, making them more susceptible to disease.
Cutting grass with a dull lawn mower blade also puts the mower itself under strain. The engine has to work much harder to push the dull edges of the blades through the lawn.
This increases gas consumption and shortens the life of the engine itself when it's not working at it's intended maximum efficiency.
Lawn Mower Maintenance And How To Tell If You Have Dull Blades
When you've finished cutting your grass, pull a few blades of grass out to have a closer look. If the cut edge of the grass looks evenly cut across the top, the lawn mower blade is sharp. In contrast, if the cut edge is jagged and looks uneven, the blade is not sharp enough and is tearing the tops off.
We would recommend that you sharpen the mower blade at least once a year, and twice if you are cutting a large area frequently throughout the growing season.
Mower Blade Sharpening How To
Safety first! Be sure to have on a pair of safety eye goggles and thick work gloves to protect your fingers from getting scraped or cut.
Disconnect the spark plug before you begin to ensure the mower doesn't accidentally start up during the maintenance work. You do this by pulling off the spark plug wire. Next, loosen the spark plug with a spark plug wrench, and then unscrew it the rest of the way by hand.
You'll be removing the mower blade from the lawnmower, sharpening the blade, and finally, securing it back onto the lawnmower. We've included details below, but do take a few minutes and view this excellent video on how to remove and then sharpen the mower blade. There are some really great tips about cleaning lawn mower decks as well.
You'll need a block of wood to wedge between the underside wall of the mower cutting deck and the end of the blade. This will keep the blade in one place while you loosen the bolt that holds the blade. Use a ratchet with the proper sized socket to loosen and re-tighten the bolt. If you don't have a ratchet and socket, you can use an adjustable wrench.
Tilt the mower deck of walk behind mowers up, by pushing the handlebar down to the ground and block it with concrete blocks. You can turn smaller mowers on their side, being careful not to spill gasoline from the top of the gas tank.
The recommended method to actually sharpen the blade is with a bench mounted electric grinder. Holding the blade with both hands, slowly move it along the spinning stone, being very careful to keep the original angle of the cutting edge of the blade.
If you don't have a bench grinder, consider taking the blade to a professional lawnmower shop and have them do it for you. For a small cost you get the best results for your mower blade sharpening.
While there are attachments for portable drills, they don't really do a good enough job for this application.
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