Is it necessary for a lawn mower blade to be razor sharp in order to cut effectively?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “how to make a knife out of lawn mower blade“
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Is it necessary for a lawn mower blade to be razor sharp in order to cut effectively?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “how to make a knife out of lawn mower blade“
About Madeline
Having a super sharp lawnmower blade is a mistake. In order for a blade to be very sharp, it must be very thin. A very thin blade is very easily damaged. Lawnmower blades tend to hit all manner of stuff at high speed, so a razor edge is just the wrong way to go.
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Chad’s right. It will put less strain on the motor with a sharp blade since it will be cutting rather than beating the grass. I’m not sure if it needs to be razor sharp though; if you think about line trimmers (weed whackers that use nylon line as a blade) that line isn’t razor sharp. I usually use a coarse file to touch up the blade periodically & I know I’m not getting it razor sharp.
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A sharpened balanced blade is best. It’s less work for the mower. A dull blade rips the blades instead of cutting them.Typically a homeowner has their blade sharpened once a season.
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I’ve read quite a bit about the art of sharpening mower blades. The consensus is that the cutting edge should not be like a knife. Instead, think of that knife edge with a flattened vertical leading edge of about 1/64 inch (maybe .5mm). Don’t believe me? Take a look at your brand-new factory or aftermarket blades.
I use a hand-held angle-grinder from Harbor Freight, with a 30-grit “flapper” abrasive disk. They seem to give a little, and last for a whole commercial season.
I sharpen by 1) lightly grinding the bottom of the cutting edge FLAT first, only removing any dings that extend below the bottom cutting plane surface, NOT disturbing that flat bottom, then 2) grinding the 90-degree flat leading edge evenly from the inside out, continuing until all dings are removed from that leading edge (could be considerable material, go slow to avoid destroying the temper of the blade), and finally 3) grinding the 30-degree top slope, working from inside out again, removing whatever it takes to get that remaining 1/64 leading edge, again avoiding overheating the edge. I can do this on a single blade (both ends) in about 15 minutes.
Of course, I always check to be sure that the blade is flat, first. I do this by laying it on the table-saw surface. If it’s bent, it goes to the recycle pile. That pile MAY be accessed later if I am hard up, when I might be willing to attempt to flatten the blade. Working on that. It’s not easy, because, again, the blades are tempered, and hence are brittle.
I should also add that I depend on my eyeball to remove roughly the same amount of material from both cutting edges of the blade, thus rough-balancing it. I do not have a blade balancer, and my spindles and pulleys and whatever don’t seem worse for the “unbalanced” blades.
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Razor sharp is not necessary. A rounded, dinged up edge will shred the grass versus cutting it. So take some of the rounded edge off but don’t file it down to a razor sharpness.
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Not razor sharp as in sharp enough to shave with but I certainly prefer the blade to have a distinct edge rather than a rounded collection of dents.
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Think of it like this. Similar to shaving your skin, a razor sharp blade will cut, while a dull blade will tug/rip/cut. Take a look your individual blades of grass after you cut. It ideally should be a clean cut across. If it’s dull, it’ll kinda rip the blades of grass, which is an uneven cut.
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