Blade Sharpening - I am not satisfied with how I have done it

Has anyone out there found a sharpening shop that has one of those special sharpening machines, designed just for sharpening and balancing of mower blades? I found a firm online that manufactures such machines. It really, I am sure does a fine job for which it is especially designed.
There web site is at:
Magna-Matic Lawn Mower Blade Sharpeners and Balancers - Home
Does anyone know of other, similar sharpening machines to the one above?
For just a little guy like me, mowing a few acres, it is way too expensive to purchase one. However I have been searching for a shop having one within driving distance. Not being successful, I am even thinking if I could find a shop I would try sending the blades.
In that I have tried doing my own sharpening over the years with either a bench or 4 portable grinder, as well as having a local saw and blade sharpening shop do them. I am not satisfied with the results of either.
The cost of a new set of (3) blades from Kubota are nearing 60.00 . I am wanting to rejuvenate some of my old blades, I have stored in boxes.
I appreciate knowing if anyone out there has used a shop having this type of machine for sharpening their mower blades ?
Appreciate your thoughts and experiences
Jamesemu (Jim)

I'm with you on this subject. I can't afford one of the commercial sharpeners as I don't want that expense for no more blades than I need sharpened but there is no one around here that has one of the commercial devices. Everyone that sharpens blades around here that I know uses grinders and their old trusty eye. Not really what I want to pay for! I keep thinking someone will devise something that will hold the correct blade angle so a regular bench grinder will do a better than average job.

He is a link to setting up and using a Oregon brand Grinder and it's somewhat cheaper then the brands you were looking at. don't know if it's as good?
OREGON® Lawn Mower Blade Grinder Instructional Video - YouTube

Don't understand why you are having such a hard time finding someone who does a good job. Even though blade sharpening is an art, I would think that there would be someone in your area who does a quality job. I use both a hand grinder and a blade sharpening machine and both work well, because of practice. At home I balance the blades with an old fashion cone balancer, which I mount in my vice. Instead of using the pivot point supplied with it, I use a sharp 16 penny nail to hold the cone. At work we sharpen with a large hand grinder and the a vertical Magna-Matic balancer. In the peak of our season we will sharpen 50-75 blades a week. You also might want to talk to your local landscapers and find out who they use.

Bones66 and Rivets
thanks much for your responses and thoughts. Thus far you are the only two. Firstly I noted MagnaMatic machine as it was the most costly out there, and was disappointed on contacting their head person that he could not, or was not able to list any sharpening shop in all Northern CA, using their machine.

Thanks to Bones66, I looked at the Oregon Sharpener Video, and I will see if the can direct me to a shop with their machine, although I am realizing that:

1. They are probably either not in business of selling sharpeners or neither firms have not sold many?
2. The best machine for the money spent appears to be a Bradley made by Havener?

3. In getting an accurate measurement of blade length, to be certain that I get the correct length new replacement blade, I get people that say you measure diagonally (like a TV Screen) from cut tip to cut tip; then others say blade length is measured straight not diagonally?
Now I am not sure which is correct?
jamesemu

Thanks again

jamesemu said:

Bones66 and Rivets

3. In getting an accurate measurement of blade length, to be certain that I get the correct length new replacement blade, I get people that say you measure diagonally (like a TV Screen) from cut tip to cut tip; then others say blade length is measured straight not diagonally?
Now I am not sure which is correct?
jamesemu

Thanks again

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Sorry for slow responses as I'm having problems with my Internet Service Provider. Been out for over a week now and finally last night they got it going again. jamesemu I often joke about the info posted by some of the self proclaimed experts on the many forums. Most of it you just have to sort through and glean what you can. Sort of like Olympic judging where you throw out the highs and the lows and somewhere in the middle is where the truth lie's. It's a shame you have to sort through so much garbage from the keyboard experts to get the correct info. The forums seem to be the modern version of the old country stores pot bellied stove. Where everyone who come in set down and joins in on the story telling, whether they know anything about the subject matter or not!:biggrin:

I bought a new bench grinder and got the matching pedestal from a well known and popular catalog equipment company about 6 years ago. It's a two stage motor and is powerful. I use it to sharpen the blades on my grooming deck as well a brush hog - and the brush hog blades are very heavy and large. No problem it chews right through them efficiently and has a small quench tank though I use a bucket of water at my feet as the blades are way too big to fit in the little quench tank on the pedestal.

Using a new set of blades as a guide, I cut a piece of 1 1/2" wide piece of wood on my table saw to deliver that exact angle at the grinder's wheel face at the tool rest. I use a C-clamp to mount the worn blade to the wood and then the wood keeps the angle perfectly as I sharpen the blade on the tool rest as you would normally. Works like a charm.

I have a 12p finish nail in the wall behind the grinder and i place the blade on the nail so that the ends are at 9 and 3 o'clock. if the blade tips down way or the other, it indicates a slightly heavy balance on the end that is low. I work on grinding that end until the blade is balanced.

We're not talking about balancing wheels for an Indy 500 race here; these are large steel masses that will tolerate a fair amount of imperfect balance. It's not rocket science and balance does not need to be perfect. The smaller the nail you use to check balance, the more sensitive it is. You simply place the blade's center hole on the nail and let it balance either evenly or it will sink to the heavy end.

Happy to take a video of how I'm doing it if necessary, but the bottom line is that this method has worked for me for over 25 years (the new grinder is far more effective than the small bench grinder I used for the previous 19 years) and I keep grinding these blades down until the angle of the cutting edge on the end of the blade is almost a knife point and at that point, the blades go in the scrap steel box for welding projects.

Hi Gentleman fahmah

Just wondering if you could post some pictures on how you hold that board up to the grinder to sharpen blades? I like that idea and sound like it works very good to, so if you have some pictures to show how you did it that would be great. I just use a angle grinder put blade in vise and grind it that way but doesn't work to good .And your idea sound so much better and i have a bench grinder on a petal stall:smile: to.And what is a two stage motor i haven't heard of that before? What make and model of grinder do you use?

Noma: Two stage may not be the correct nomenclature. The grinder has two "gears" to reach full operating speed and you can hear a clutch shift as it spins up to 3k rpm. I'll try to take a couple photos and/or video over the weekend and post. This thing works great and makes sharpening flat blades cinchy. The mulching blades with the "wave" shaped cutting edge won't work on the jig and I just sharpen them free hand.

I have this grinder FREE SHIPPING JET Bench Grinder 1 HP, 3450 RPM | Grinders Stands| Northern Tool + Equipment with this pedestal Northern Industrial Grinder Stand With Drip Pan | Grinders Stands| Northern Tool + Equipment and it works just great. The pedestal allows you to use the grinder for a variety of jobs as no workbench is "in the way". I've used a sharpening jig (the board) for as long as I can remember and only to make sure I got the angle right. When I do them by hand, I get the angle inconsistent and they wear too quickly if the angle is too sharp, or it's too shallow and it doesn't cut nicely.

Here's the jig I cut and use to sharpen blades. Makes life easy.

GentlemanFahmah said:

Here's the jig I cut and use to sharpen blades. Makes life easy.

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That's a cool little jig.