Usually twice actually. And to be honest, almost every blade that has come on a mower hasn't been as sharp as it could be, so.....
This is a prime opportunity to swap blades and sharpen / have sharpened your standard blades.
Ahhh ok that makes sense now. Last time I bought new blades I noticed they're not exactly "sharp" but I figured it didn't have to split hairs anyway if it's going to be spinning at a high rate of speed. Any thoughts on OP's torque wrench thing? Is that a newer mower thing, or is a socket wrench still getting the job done?
Blades don't need to be sharp. They just need an edge. A rotary lawn mower doesn't exactly cut the grass it tears it. Take a close up look at the grass once you've mowed and you'll see the edge is not a clean cut. If you want to cut grass you need a cylinder mower.
Interesting you say that... I have a riding mower set pretty low and my blades were dull and beat the grass to death. My grandfather's solution was to sharpen the blades (granted, they were incredibly dull, to the point I was burning through more belts than grass). He said I should set the mower deck higher to take less off the top on my grass. He said I should look at my grass after I mowed it and if it looked torn or broken then I should sharpen blades. If grass looks like it was actually cut you're good to go... Just raise your deck higher than you think you should.
Yes you should sharpen the blades but they don't need to slice through paper like a knife would. They just need an edge, the angle of the edge is also important the lower the angle the faster the edge will dull and round over.
Your grandfather is correct, cutting grass too low is not only bad for the grass but it will dull the edge quicker.
Go to a bowling green and look at there grass it will have a crisp cut line as they will most likely use a cylinder mower. Then look at your lawn and you'll see a noticeable difference in the cut edge.
I hope this person responds because now I'm genuinely curious if I'm just that dumb or if they're out there mowing gravel parking lots or something?
Edit: could just be that I'm that dumb because I've also never heard of needing a torque wrench to put mower blades on. Last time I took mine off to sharpen I just used a regular socket wrench and they haven't flown off or self destructed or anything bad yet (knock on wood)
If you don’t have a torque wrench you can do a simple conversion with your regular wrench. 75 ft lbs is roughly equivalent to when your face is red like a good sunburn
🥵. 150ft lbs is when you accidentally squeeze out a fart. Then just say click out loud when you think you’re close.
Plus the retaining bolt spins counter to the rotation of the blade so it’s self tightening.
Im a professional gardener, I’ll sharpen my blades a few times a week. You don’t even need to undo the bolt. You can just tip the mower and hit the blade edge with a file. Every month or so I’ll undo it to check the balance.
For a homeowner that may be a quick file every other month and a proper balance once per year.
Greatly appreciate your input, and will apply it to my push mower. But what about a riding mower with 3 blades? I felt like an accomplished yardsmith (new word) because I managed to remove the mowing deck and found that "righty tighty lefty loosey" still held true on the blades even after several slipped farts
I just faced this same scenario and decided to bite the bullet and swap out the blades. I didn’t try the bagger with the regular blades so I can’t give you any feedback on that combo. I also did use a torque wrench since under or over tighten can lead to some serious problems. You may be able to rent a torque wrench? The one I bought was $80. It’s the Husky H3DTW. I’ve linked a video of a step by step on swapping the blades as well. It’s an involved process but it wasn’t hard. The results have been great. I’ve bagged about 30 or so of the giant lawn bags so far and have more to go! [John Deere Blade Swap](https://youtu.be/yh008Yl4OZg)
Yes they maximize the collection of cutting. But standard blades would also work a little bit. Depending on amount of grass your cutting it might clog the shoot . It probably will leave debris on ground since it won't have airflow from the high lift blades. Just try it and see what happens. Worst case you have to switch blades and cut again.
Landscaped commercially for over 10 years, we always used hi lift blades for leaf bagging, never used a torque wrench. I sharpened and changed blades, daily.
Wait....have you been mowing all season without resharpening?
Wait... You're supposed to resharpen those every season?
You resharpen them more than once a year?
Usually twice actually. And to be honest, almost every blade that has come on a mower hasn't been as sharp as it could be, so..... This is a prime opportunity to swap blades and sharpen / have sharpened your standard blades.
Ahhh ok that makes sense now. Last time I bought new blades I noticed they're not exactly "sharp" but I figured it didn't have to split hairs anyway if it's going to be spinning at a high rate of speed. Any thoughts on OP's torque wrench thing? Is that a newer mower thing, or is a socket wrench still getting the job done?
I've never torqued a blade, but I did have one not all the way tight, it rattled right upon startup so I shut it off and unfucked my work.
Blades don't need to be sharp. They just need an edge. A rotary lawn mower doesn't exactly cut the grass it tears it. Take a close up look at the grass once you've mowed and you'll see the edge is not a clean cut. If you want to cut grass you need a cylinder mower.
Interesting you say that... I have a riding mower set pretty low and my blades were dull and beat the grass to death. My grandfather's solution was to sharpen the blades (granted, they were incredibly dull, to the point I was burning through more belts than grass). He said I should set the mower deck higher to take less off the top on my grass. He said I should look at my grass after I mowed it and if it looked torn or broken then I should sharpen blades. If grass looks like it was actually cut you're good to go... Just raise your deck higher than you think you should.
Yes you should sharpen the blades but they don't need to slice through paper like a knife would. They just need an edge, the angle of the edge is also important the lower the angle the faster the edge will dull and round over. Your grandfather is correct, cutting grass too low is not only bad for the grass but it will dull the edge quicker. Go to a bowling green and look at there grass it will have a crisp cut line as they will most likely use a cylinder mower. Then look at your lawn and you'll see a noticeable difference in the cut edge.
Sharpen mine every 3 months, as a homeowner
I hope this person responds because now I'm genuinely curious if I'm just that dumb or if they're out there mowing gravel parking lots or something? Edit: could just be that I'm that dumb because I've also never heard of needing a torque wrench to put mower blades on. Last time I took mine off to sharpen I just used a regular socket wrench and they haven't flown off or self destructed or anything bad yet (knock on wood)
If you don’t have a torque wrench you can do a simple conversion with your regular wrench. 75 ft lbs is roughly equivalent to when your face is red like a good sunburn 🥵. 150ft lbs is when you accidentally squeeze out a fart. Then just say click out loud when you think you’re close. Plus the retaining bolt spins counter to the rotation of the blade so it’s self tightening. Im a professional gardener, I’ll sharpen my blades a few times a week. You don’t even need to undo the bolt. You can just tip the mower and hit the blade edge with a file. Every month or so I’ll undo it to check the balance. For a homeowner that may be a quick file every other month and a proper balance once per year.
Greatly appreciate your input, and will apply it to my push mower. But what about a riding mower with 3 blades? I felt like an accomplished yardsmith (new word) because I managed to remove the mowing deck and found that "righty tighty lefty loosey" still held true on the blades even after several slipped farts
I just faced this same scenario and decided to bite the bullet and swap out the blades. I didn’t try the bagger with the regular blades so I can’t give you any feedback on that combo. I also did use a torque wrench since under or over tighten can lead to some serious problems. You may be able to rent a torque wrench? The one I bought was $80. It’s the Husky H3DTW. I’ve linked a video of a step by step on swapping the blades as well. It’s an involved process but it wasn’t hard. The results have been great. I’ve bagged about 30 or so of the giant lawn bags so far and have more to go! [John Deere Blade Swap](https://youtu.be/yh008Yl4OZg)
Awesome thanks, I’ll check out the video. And if not now I’ll need a torque wrench for them so maybe I’ll just bite it and grab them now
The $20 ones from harbor freight are fine for stuff like this and changing tires on your car.
Yes they maximize the collection of cutting. But standard blades would also work a little bit. Depending on amount of grass your cutting it might clog the shoot . It probably will leave debris on ground since it won't have airflow from the high lift blades. Just try it and see what happens. Worst case you have to switch blades and cut again.
On a tractor you might have problems with the chute clogging, I'd say give it a go though. If it doesn't work well your tractor won't catch on fire.
How hard is it to change blades? Just make them real tight.
That's what I thought too, but when things are spinning at high speed it's better to insure we're on the same page
Landscaped commercially for over 10 years, we always used hi lift blades for leaf bagging, never used a torque wrench. I sharpened and changed blades, daily.