How To Sharpen Mower Blades

Maybe you have noticed as you cut your lawn, the blades of grass seem to be uneven or your lawn looks patchy after a cut. This could be a sign of unbalanced or dull blades. It may be time to sharpen and balance them. As a rule of thumb you should have your mower blades sharpened and balanced every 20-30 hours of use; depending on your frequency of mowing. If you cut a larger lot or mow more frequently you may need to sharpen more often. Always remove debris such as small limbs from a lawn before mowing. Mowing wet or damp grass may also have an effect on their sharpness.

Materials:

1. Safety equipment such as leather gloves, eye protection or a face shied (preferred) and hearing protection.

2. Grinding wheel. Note: If you have a drill you can get a sharpening kit for your blades on amazon or your local hardware store.

3. Blade balancer (a nail could work).

Step 1

After safety protection is on remove the blades from the mower deck.

Step 2

Once the mower blades have been removed, make sure to get all the grass buildup off the blade. You should be able to notice the sharp or slanted angle of the blade. Make sure to only sharpen the edge that is slanted down. Take the angled edge and lightly lay against the grinding wheel as you move the blade from the middle section to the outward position of the blade. Make a few passes removing dents and dings that may be in the sharp edge. Flip blade over and do the other side the same. Make sure to sharpen all blades of the mower at the same time for a consistent cut.

Step 3

After the blades are sharpened its time to balance them. Place the middle hole of the blade where the nut was removed from mower on a blade balancer or a nail and let the blade balance in place. Most likely one side will drop down lower than the other. This would obviously be the heavier side of the blade. If this happens you will need to take that particular side of the blade back to the grinding wheel and slightly remove a little more metal from that side making it lighter. Place back on the blade balancer until the blade is level on both sides. Once a sharpened blade is balanced its time to move onto the next blade.

After all the blades have been sharpened and balanced its time to place them back onto your mower deck. Job well done!

If you need a visual guide, check out our “Video” tab in the header and find the YouTube video we shared on how to sharpen your mower blades.