On 5/4/2014 3:24 PM, InTheSouth wrote:
On Tuesday, July 6, 2010 2:13:00 AM UTC-4, James H. wrote:
Does anyone bother sharpening their lawnmower blade?

According to the searspartsdirect web site, it costs about $15 for a new
lawn mower blade for my Craftsman 917.388853 6.5HP 21" push lawn mower
(Briggs & Stratton engine 123K02-0444-E1), plus 10% sales tax & 10 dollars
shipping. I'm sure it will cost double or triple that to have someone else
sharpen it, assuming standard labor rates of $100 to $200 an hour out here.

The owners manual (on page 12) recommends against sharpening the blade.
http://www.managemylife.com/mmh/lis_...M/L0505023.pdf

The blade seems to cut well no matter how many rocks I hit (I have other
problems like a sheared flywheel key, but the grass was getting cut even
with a five-year-old dinged up blade).

My question is:
Does anyone bother sharpening a blade?

The reason I ask is it will likely cost more to have someone sharpen the
blade than the blade costs and my blade seems to cut as well now as when
new five years ago, even after countless rocks and tree stumps have been
"mulched" by the blade. Those things are practically indestructible.

Do you bother to sharpen your blade? Why?



I take them off and sharpen on a bench grinder. With all the trees and
shrubs about my yard dropping twigs they get nicked and dull quickly.
Makes a noticible difference in performance and looks much neater, no
brown sheen on top from being ripped off rather than cleanly cut.

John