A sharp blade on your mower will give you a healthier lawn. Learn how to sharpen a lawn mower blade on this weeks 5 Minute Friday gardening tip.
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How to Sharpen a Lawn Mower Blade
This week’s 5 Minute Friday Gardening tip is all about how to sharpen a lawn mower blade. It’s a pretty simple process if you have the right tools. Learn how to sharpen a lawn mower blade by watching this week’s video tip.
Why is it important to Sharpen your Mower Blade
A dull lawnmower blade leads to a really poor cut on your grass. If the blade is dull enough instead of cutting cleanly the blade will just tare and crush the grass plants. A good sharp blade will cut and slice the blades of grass, causing less damage to the plant and allowing for a healthier lawn, that will recover quicker from mowing. Learning how to sharpen a lawn mower blade is important and you should sharpen your mower blade every year. It’s also important to re-sharpen your blade if you happen to hit a hard object like a rock while you are mowing.
Tools Needed
You only need 2 tools to sharpen your lawnmower blade. First, you will need a properly sized socket wrench to remove the blade from the mower.
Second, you will need a good-quality metal file
to do the actual sharpening.
Removing the blade from your mower
It is easiest to sharpen your lawn mower blade if it has been removed from the mower. For most mowers, all this will require is removing one bolt using a wrench or socket set. Depending on how long it has been since the blade was last removed you may need to use some good force to get the bolt loose. Hold the blade from turning with one hand (keeping your hand off the sharp part of the blade) and loosen the bolt with the other hand.
Once the center bolt has been removed the blade should slide downwards off the blade shaft.
How to sharpen a lawn mower blade
Once the blade has been removed sharpen with the metal file. Use forward strokes only (don’t file back and forth) towards the factory edge. For most lawn mowers only the end 4 to 6 inches of the blade will need to be sharpened. Using the file remove any burs or dented spots on the blade and then file a nice sharp edge all along the cutting surface.
Once the blade is sharpened put it back on the mower and tighten the bolt to the manufacturer specifications in your owner’s manual.
Follow these links for other gardening tool maintenance articles with videos:
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You never mentioned the need for the blade to balanced when finished sharpening. An out of balance blade can cause excessive vibration along with other problems. Try to take off the same amount of metal on both ends of the blade & then set it on the edge of your finger to see if it is balanced.
If you have a flexible shaft grinder in your DIY workshop, you will be able to complete the work within 5 to 10 minutes per blade. Make a template of blade profile before you start your work and compare frequently. This is necessary to ensure that you do not over cut at a place.