Lawn Mower Blade Sharpener

[nafterclifen]

https://www.allamericansharpener.com/


I never saw such a tool before. It appeared as an ad on a website. Looks legit and I'd like to know if anyone has one or has used something similar? I'm a sucker for private, independent tool makers.

Depending on how many blades you have, the ROI can be 5+ years. Maybe faster if you sharpen for friends/family. I currently pay $7/blade for sharpening and balancing.

And before you say that this tool is overkill and suggest that I buy the $8 blade sharpening and balancing kit from Home Depot, I've tried it and it *****. That little grinding stone barely touched the 17" blades on my commercial zero turn mower. Waste of time and money.

 

[RTM]

The only thing the HD kit is good for is the balancer you get with it.

I just use a file on mine and friends, unless they are really thrashed. Hand held Dremel for gross stuff.

I could never justify the cost, only sharpening mine once a year at most.

 

[kelpaso1]

I use a belt sander. I can get a consistent straight bevel a lot easier than holding an angle grinder.

 

[bwringer]

Looks nice, and I've often wondered whether there's some better way whilst freehanding this task.

Unless you're a commercial operator, ROI is WAAAAYYYYY out there.

Not that ROI has ever stopped anyone here from buying fresh tools, of course.

In this case, I'd say it's more about precision and a clean cut.

If you're the persnickety sort with a putting green for a lawn, then this tool could give you the razor precision to quiet your OCD temporarily.

 

[rlitman]

The only thing the HD kit is good for is the balancer you get with it...

Agreed. The balancer is quite usable. The stone is a paperweight. Save the money, forget the kit and just buy the balancer by itself.

I use my angle grinder with a Norton AVOS grinding disc like this:

You can see through the spinning disc right at what you're grinding. It allows me to match the factory bevel perfectly, even where it changes around the contours.

 

[Bigblockyeti]

+1 to the balancer, most kits are **** but the balanncer helps keep things smooth and lasting longer. I use an angle grinder with whatever I happen to have mounted on the spindle usually. When still on the mower deck and in between proper sharpening, I'll use a bandfile so I don't even have to take the blades off the spindle.

 

[zmotorsports]

Agreed. I've used a flap disk or AVOS for many years now and both have worked perfectly. If no dings or pieces missing usually just a few drags across the cutting edge with a file is all that is needed.

The most important thing it to keep the blade balanced to keep bearings lasting as well as for the user's comfort to avoid rattling one's fillings loose.

 

[American Locomotive]

I usually just freehand sharpen my blades. I just don't find the use in trying to get them perfect, since grass is so abrasive anyways and the first bit of sand I go over will wreck the cutting edge.

Is balancing your blade really that critical, either? After a few mows, my blades always have dings and chunks and clumps of grass stuck on them. I can't imagine a few grams of steel would make that kind of difference to the mower?

 

[James-W]

I built my own lawnmower blade sharpener. Here is a picture of it. You clamp the blade into the holder and you adjust the crank which moves the motor with the grinding wheel to get the correct angle. Then you gently move the blade back and forth across the grinding wheel.

 

[bobcatdan]

My bench grinder works good for my. I have my grandfather's wall mount blade balancer mounted above the grinder. Wire wheel the blade clean. Check the balance to see if a side is heavier. Take more off the heavy side while sharpening until balanced. From there a light touch up with a file and good to go.

 

[rlitman]

I usually just freehand sharpen my blades. I just don't find the use in trying to get them perfect, since grass is so abrasive anyways and the first bit of sand I go over will wreck the cutting edge.

Is balancing your blade really that critical, either? After a few mows, my blades always have dings and chunks and clumps of grass stuck on them. I can't imagine a few grams of steel would make that kind of difference to the mower?

When you say freehand, I'm assuming you're not using a file (which I've done; it's not as bad as it sounds).

I put my dull blades on the balancer before sharpening, and they always seem to start out balanced. Just a couple of passes with the grinder is enough to be seen on the balancer, so I'll say, yeah, balance matters.

Steel is a lot more dense than grass, and grass only builds up so much before it flies off.

 

[kelpaso1]

Never balanced a blade in my life. If a blade has a chunk out of it causing it to be out of balance then time for a new one. $10 for a new blade is peanuts.

 

[PMD1966]

I use a file most of the time. A bench grinder if the blades are really rough. Most important part is to balance the blade.

 

[Slednut]

Amazon has the 5000 for $138 and free shipping. I buy new blades every year and sharpen them mid way through summer.

 

[Copymutt]

X6 on the bench grinder and a water trough. The hang on a nail to balance. Not many things are this simple.

 

[xjfish]

Flap disk and a nail...

 

[Piggywutz]

I have the All American Sharpener. I love it. Easy to get a nice consistent edge. I highly recommend it!

 

[Piggywutz]

Here it is alongside my bench grinder.

 

[KenC]

Never balanced a blade in my life. If a blade has a chunk out of it causing it to be out of balance then time for a new one. $10 for a new blade is peanuts.

Yeah, but $14-20 each for a 60", 3 blade deck ain't peanuts. They are about a 1/4" thick, more in some brands. So grinding off 1/8"is a lot of weight to remove. And always nickin' them.

Nail in the wall works to balance for me.

 

[kelpaso1]

Any blade that is bent, cracked, or vibrating/unbalanced are junk. Cost of operating a mower is called maintenance. I tell all my customers with a ride on that a $100 service/year is cheaper than repairs 2-3 years down the road. Pay me now or pay me alot more later. But no body listens, which keeps me in business.

 

[kelpaso1]

And on that, I laugh inside when someone drops off a $3000 dollar CC or JD mower in the back of a $60,000 truck and complains about $250 of work and parts because it needs it.

 

[James-W]

Any blade that is bent, cracked, or vibrating/unbalanced are junk. Cost of operating a mower is called maintenance. I tell all my customers with a ride on that a $100 service/year is cheaper than repairs 2-3 years down the road. Pay me now or pay me alot more later. But no body listens, which keeps me in business.

I agree with you, people don't listen when it comes to spending money on maintenance. They prefer to wait until it breaks before spending any money on it. The old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" seems to be quite prevalent these days. I guess they don't realize that spending a few dollars today can save them a lot of dollars later on.

 

[kelpaso1]

James, yes I have many customers that bring me their blowers or mowers for yearly service and they have no problems during the season. But some of the **** I get needs hundreds to get them back in good working order because they haven't done a thing to it in 5 years. I guess people would rather spend $1500-3500 for a new blower or mower than pay me 2 or 3 hundos to fix their unmaintained equipment. People are stupid.

 

[signcrafter]

James, yes I have many customers that bring me their blowers or mowers for yearly service and they have no problems during the season. But some of the **** I get needs hundreds to get them back in good working order because they haven't done a thing to it in 5 years. I guess people would rather spend $1500-3500 for a new blower or mower than pay me 2 or 3 hundos to fix their unmaintained equipment. People are stupid.

Isnt it great when you recommend a service as maintenance to keep things running smooth and they think you're a crook trying to rip them off. Then when things do break because they didnt maintain their machine they start crying about it.

 

[kelpaso1]

^^^ Yep

 

[woody 73]

OP thank you for showing that tool...sigh another tool that I did not know I needed.

 

[American Locomotive]

Yeah, but $14-20 each for a 60", 3 blade deck ain't peanuts. They are about a 1/4" thick, more in some brands. So grinding off 1/8"is a lot of weight to remove. And always nickin' them.

Nail in the wall works to balance for me.

In that case I can see the value of balancing. The 42" deck on my mower uses these tiny little blades.

 

[Ton ton]

I spend a lot of time sharpening mower blades. I live in rock country.

 

[Fatboy148]

I spend a lot of time sharpening mower blades. I live in rock country.

Seems like after using those sharpening stones a few times, you would know where they are.

 

[lardy1]

I live in sand country. I buy cheap mower blades and replace what's left of them every year.

 

[Ton ton]

The grass gets tall and I forget where the rocks are. Plus I am watching airplanes. Airplanes fly really low overhead and I want to duck in time. You can always buy new blades but I don't think you can buy a new head.

 

[larry4406]

Dad taught me to use a bench grinder and free hand it. That was near 50 years ago. I still do it this way except I now use a belt grinder.

I have never balanced a blade nor checked it. I am a bad guy I guess.

 

[HenryAZ]

Dad taught me to use a bench grinder and free hand it. That was near 50 years ago.

This is how I do it, straight to the grinder. I don't use the rest, just freehand in the open against the wheel. It's pretty easy to eyeball the angle and hold it there.

 

[Tunar]

My family owns a landscaping business in which we do some mowing, but it's the smallest scope of our work. I maintain all our equipment. We currently have 3 36" commercial walk behind mowers and a Honda push mower.

I use and angle grinder to sharpen the blades. I do this once a year, but we have several extra blades that I can change out when needed.

In my experience, I think that if a blade is out of balance enough to cause damage to your mower it should be very apparent and you should replace your blades. I have used blade balencers in the past and for many years haven't. I've been balancing the blades the last two years just to see if I notice any difference. I don't. I haven't seen and damage caused by unbalanced blades in 25 years. Even with small dings and chips, the blades are never very out of balance,usually no more than 3-4 passes with the grinder corrects them.

 

[RTM]

. I live in rock country.

They grow, don’t they?

 

[Mechanical Noise]

A few fast passes on the bench grinder works well enough for me.

 

[Steve_P]

4-1/2" angle grinder with a flap wheel is much better than a grinder IMO as the blade doesn't get as hot. I use a cheap blade balancer from Ace Hardware. When I worked at a mower shop we had a giant horizontally mounted grinding wheel that was water cooled - old school.

 

[welder4956]

I've never had one or used one of the brackets posted by the OP. I sharpen mower blades either on my bench grinder or with a 4-1/2" disk grinder with a 60 grit sanding disk, and clean up the edge with a mill cut file. Once you have done a couple, it is not hard to put a clean, consistent edge on with the proper angle. I like the suggestion to use a belt sander and will have to try that one. Seems like it would work well. I think the biggest benefits is to get a good balance after sharpening. The grass doesn't know what tool I used to sharpen the blade. It just needs a nice clean cut that is not ragged.

 

[kelpaso1]

Another thing to keep in mind is don't sharpen to a sharp knife edge. If you look at new blades they have about a 1/32" edge and not sharp like a knife blade.

 

[HenryAZ]

better than a grinder IMO as the blade doesn't get as hot.

I keep a 5 gal bucket of water next to my grinder, always.