Hello Everyone!
A friend knowing I own & operate a professional lawn mower blade sharpening business referred me to this site and after reading a number of posts I knew I had to lend my 50 plus years experience and try to answer questions as well as provide members with "real" information.
I am still in business and have tried just about every form of blade sharpening techniques through the years - both because they were state of the art at the time as well as I wanted to give them a go out of shear curiosity.
Let me start with the ABSOLUTE basics before we go into the details.
First, a blade MUST BE BOTH SHARPENED AND BALANCED. To do one without the other is akin to trying to balance bogus tires or buying new tires without balancing. Later we will get into the techniques of both. But for now, RULE #1 is you MUST both sharpen and balance your blades.
Blades MUST be spotlessly cleaned prior to sharpening AND BALANCING. You would not let your tires be balanced with mud clinging to them, right? So this is RULE #2.
Understanding these two rules takes us to RULE #3: to perform rule # 1 & # 2, your blades MUST BE OFF OF YOUR MOWER. Therefore this is RULE #4.
OK - back to the tire analogy ... and those who feel balancing a blade on a nail is OK. You CANNOT accurately balance a rotating object from anything but it's precise center ... your tires are balanced from their center of rotation and that is how your blades MUST be balanced.
Hanging a blade on a nail or a screwdriver held in a vise is a joke. Rule #5 - balancing on a nail is a wive's tail.
Some will argue "it works" but you need to experience the difference in using a precision balancer. Why? Simple. Offset rotation, meaning an imbalance, translates into vibrational energry. Think about a tire causing a vibration. Will it wear out far more expensive steering components than the cost of the weights and the balancing? Yes it will. So will blades out of balance. The cost appears as replacement crankshaft bearings, spindle assemblies, labor, etc.
There are so many You-Tube videos showing how to sharpen how to balance, etc. which have been put together and placed "on-air" for you to view that it is ever so hard to discern the truth from the BS.
Here's some info from our OWN WEB SITE ... HOWEVER, ONE RULE HERE IS NO ADVERTISING and I will abide by this. But this does not mean I cannot copy the facts here for you provided I do not advertise (disclose) our web site and violate the trust this forum requires.
..................................................................................
MYTHS, SNAKE OIL, and "EXPERTS"
On this page we would like to help you learn about the "smoke and mirrors' regarding blade sharpening, and the like.
The internet provides a wealth of information - mostly good, but some bad. Unfortunately there are several You-Tube videos by "Experts" instructing viewers how to sharpen and balance their lawn mower blades, and most don't even mention how important balancing is. And we have yet to view an "Expert" showing you how extremely important it is to check your blades for straightness and clean them.
You are NO "expert" unless you include ALL of the process steps shown HERE.
This is the difference between a non-professional (sometimes a "hack" masquerading as a PRO) and a true Professional who actually performs ALL of the mandatory steps shown HERE to properly, safely, and completely process a lawn mower blade.
After you read the following, you too should be able to spot the bogus information rampant on the internet.
Debunk the Junk!
The Science, Mechanics, and Logic Involved
A friend knowing I own & operate a professional lawn mower blade sharpening business referred me to this site and after reading a number of posts I knew I had to lend my 50 plus years experience and try to answer questions as well as provide members with "real" information.
I am still in business and have tried just about every form of blade sharpening techniques through the years - both because they were state of the art at the time as well as I wanted to give them a go out of shear curiosity.
Let me start with the ABSOLUTE basics before we go into the details.
First, a blade MUST BE BOTH SHARPENED AND BALANCED. To do one without the other is akin to trying to balance bogus tires or buying new tires without balancing. Later we will get into the techniques of both. But for now, RULE #1 is you MUST both sharpen and balance your blades.
Blades MUST be spotlessly cleaned prior to sharpening AND BALANCING. You would not let your tires be balanced with mud clinging to them, right? So this is RULE #2.
Understanding these two rules takes us to RULE #3: to perform rule # 1 & # 2, your blades MUST BE OFF OF YOUR MOWER. Therefore this is RULE #4.
OK - back to the tire analogy ... and those who feel balancing a blade on a nail is OK. You CANNOT accurately balance a rotating object from anything but it's precise center ... your tires are balanced from their center of rotation and that is how your blades MUST be balanced.
Hanging a blade on a nail or a screwdriver held in a vise is a joke. Rule #5 - balancing on a nail is a wive's tail.
Some will argue "it works" but you need to experience the difference in using a precision balancer. Why? Simple. Offset rotation, meaning an imbalance, translates into vibrational energry. Think about a tire causing a vibration. Will it wear out far more expensive steering components than the cost of the weights and the balancing? Yes it will. So will blades out of balance. The cost appears as replacement crankshaft bearings, spindle assemblies, labor, etc.
There are so many You-Tube videos showing how to sharpen how to balance, etc. which have been put together and placed "on-air" for you to view that it is ever so hard to discern the truth from the BS.
Here's some info from our OWN WEB SITE ... HOWEVER, ONE RULE HERE IS NO ADVERTISING and I will abide by this. But this does not mean I cannot copy the facts here for you provided I do not advertise (disclose) our web site and violate the trust this forum requires.
..................................................................................
MYTHS, SNAKE OIL, and "EXPERTS"
On this page we would like to help you learn about the "smoke and mirrors' regarding blade sharpening, and the like.
The internet provides a wealth of information - mostly good, but some bad. Unfortunately there are several You-Tube videos by "Experts" instructing viewers how to sharpen and balance their lawn mower blades, and most don't even mention how important balancing is. And we have yet to view an "Expert" showing you how extremely important it is to check your blades for straightness and clean them.
You are NO "expert" unless you include ALL of the process steps shown HERE.
This is the difference between a non-professional (sometimes a "hack" masquerading as a PRO) and a true Professional who actually performs ALL of the mandatory steps shown HERE to properly, safely, and completely process a lawn mower blade.
After you read the following, you too should be able to spot the bogus information rampant on the internet.
Debunk the Junk!
The Science, Mechanics, and Logic Involved