Sharp lawn mower blades are the secret ingredient of good lawn mowing. This is because instead of ripping and weakening the grass, they cut grass blades cleanly and quickly. This means that your mowing time is reduced and your end result is more neat and consistent.
Lawn mowing professionals would know this and sharpen their blades regularly. But if you’re only mowing your own lawn at home, it’s an easy thing to forget because they’re under the mower and you never even see them!
Thankfully, there are some awesome tutorials online to help you sharpen your lawn mower blades if you’d prefer to DIY rather than take your machine in to a lawnmower repair shop.
There are however some differences in the advice and techniques offered, so we’ve put together some of the most popular tutorials for you to decide what works best for you.
WikiHow – How To Sharpen Lawn Mower Blades
My favourite online tutorial for sharpening lawn mower blades is this one on WikiHow. It combines very simple diagrams with very easy to follow instructions.
Two important instructions in the WikiHow tutorial, which we’ve included diagrams for here, are to: (1) disconnect the spark plug before starting; and (2) manually mark the downward-facing side of the blade (eg. with a pen or spray paint), so you remember how to reattach it your mower afterwards.
Infographic – How To Sharpen A Lawn Mower Blade
With the help of tips on LifeHacker’s How to Sharpen A Lawn Mower Blade page, Kelvin Roger put together this infographic which explains how to sharpen a lawn mower blade in eight simple steps.
How to Sharpen a Lawn Mower Blade (Image credit: Home Improvement)
Video 1 – How to Sharpen a Lawn Mower Blade – by David Sloan
This method uses a file to sharpen the blades. However, I’m not sure why he used a sharp, metal putty knife to scrape the caked up grass from the underneath of the lawn mower. Hosing the mower down with water and then using his hands or a non-metal brush should have worked just as well – without risking mower damage.
Video 2 – My DIY Sharpening Lawnmowing Blades – by Mannic Horizons
This method uses a Dremel power tool to sharpen the blades. The video is very easy to follow. But he doesn’t balance the blades. Unbalanced mower blades can cause vibration and possibly ruin the blade shaft or bearings. So most mower experts would suggest you balance your mower blades before you reattach them.
Have your own tips?
Feel free to leave them in the comments below!
Trackbacks/Pingbacks