In order to have a great lawn, it’s important to sharpen your mower blade periodically.
Why?
When you cut your grass regularly with a mower, the blade gets dull. When the blade gets dull, the mower shreds the ends of the grass blades rather than making a clean cut. If the tips of the grass blades are shredded, your lawn will have a grayish brown, dull appearance. Sometimes people think they have a lawn disease simply because their mower blade isn’t sharp.
I suggest getting your mower blade sharpened by someone who sharpens blades professionally. You can do it yourself with a hand file or a grinder if you’re pretty handy, but getting it sharpened at a shop is pretty cheap, usually around $10-20. Why not let someone else so the dirty work?
Businesses that sharpen mower blades usually fall into one of two categories: lawn mower repairers or blade sharpeners. I’ve had good results using both types.
- Businesses that repair lawn mowers are great for sharpening blades. They obviously know exactly what to do since they are experts in mowers.
- Companies that sharpen blades of all types: saws, tools, knives, etc., will also sharpen a lawn mower blade. You can also bring in other garden tools for them to sharpen as well.
The trick is to do this in the off-season so that you have plenty of time to do it, so you’re doing it when the shop is not busy.
The first thing you need to do is remove the blade. Here are the steps:
- Remove the spark plug wire so the mower doesn’t start on you when you’re removing the blade.
- Apply some oil to the bolt that holds the blade then wait a few minutes for it to work.
- Loosen the bolt with a socket wrench by turning it counterclockwise
- Pull the blade off. You may want to mark the bottom of the blade so you make sure you get it on the right way after it is sharpened.
- Screw the nut back on so you don’t lose it.
- Take blade to shop to be sharpened. Leave your mower at home.
Once your blade is sharpened, just reverse the steps to put it back on the mower.
If you have a reel mower instead of a rotary mower, you can’t take off the blades. You have to bring the whole mower to the lawn mower repair shop to have them sharpen each blade on the reel. This service is more expensive because it takes more time. Expect to pay $50 or more.
To recap, sharpening your mower blade is very important to ensuring your grass has a beautiful green color. Simply remove the blade, get it professionally sharpened, and put it back on. You’ll be ready to go when your grass gets growing.