Does anyone rotate their mower blades?

I was just wondering if anyone rotates their mower blades from one side of the deck to the other when sharpening them on multi-blade mowers? I've noticed that the right side and center blade always have more wear than the left one when I pull them off for sharpening, presumably because they process more grass as it moves towards the discharge. I've never worried about it and just keep them in sets when I sharpen and reinstall them and put them on randomly. I'm thinking that I could get more use out of a set if I put them in rotation but I'm not sure it's worth it.

Yes, you can rotate and interchange various blade types, but preferably when the blade is sharp and balanced. The video at this link (https://magna-matic.com/index.html) explains blade sharpening and balancing, but you can skip to 46 min - 30 secs for the answer to your question.

Thanks. I run the same blade type on all spindles and have sharpening and balancing down. Just wondering if anyone bothers to track which blade was on which spindle and rotates them. My question was inspired by my blade change this morning when I noticed the difference in how dull each of the blades were depending on where they were. The edges were noticeably thicker moving from left to right. They were on for longer than normal this time so it was definitely noticeable. So in theory if I put the blade that was on the right on the left next time I can get them to wear together as a set more evenly.

The discharge blade wears faster than the other blades due to the higher volume of materials flowing across it.
It will errode and split where the flute starts more so swapping them left right should increase the service life in theory.
In practice you will probably wear the cutting edge back past its limit before both of the blade start to crack.
Most decks do not have enough blade overlap to get good life out of the blades.

Thanks Bert. Yeah the airfoils or flutes as you call them are usually what goes on my blades before the edges wear back too far, especially on the Gator G5 blades that I run most of the time. I still prefer them over any other blade that I have tried though. Once one of them gets thin and/or starts loosing pieces I scrap the whole set. I have ground them down to competent metal in a pinch if I don't have another set in stock. I don't like the idea of my blades spitting out pieces of metal!

Yes I rotate mine, only 2, but the chute side blade gets the most action.

Darryl G said:

Thanks. I run the same blade type on all spindles and have sharpening and balancing down. Just wondering if anyone bothers to track which blade was on which spindle and rotates them. My question was inspired by my blade change this morning when I noticed the difference in how dull each of the blades were depending on where they were. The edges were noticeably thicker moving from left to right. They were on for longer than normal this time so it was definitely noticeable. So in theory if I put the blade that was on the right on the left next time I can get them to wear together as a set more evenly.

Click to expand...

Have noticed similar wear patterns. You can also use an old standard (sharpened and balanced) blade on the left hand side and the more aggressive and durable G5 blade on the right hand side. This way you can use up older standard blades without sacrificing too much performance (never buying standard blades again). You should also carry a spare set for changing "on site" if required.

I used to carry spare blades and both my cordless and corded impact wrenches with me (I have a power inverter for the corded one) but between tightening up my route so that most accounts are within a mile of my house and both my truck cab and my truck bed toolbox filling up I don't bother anymore. I suppose I could clean out my toolbox. There's probably a pile of blades in there somewhere, lol. I have high lift, low lift, wavy mulcher, Gator G3, Gator G5 and Gator G6 blades for my Exmarks but have settled on just high lifts and G5s for my new Bob-Cat and decided that the G6 blades are just too much for my mowers to spin. The G5s strike a good balance between weight, durability, mulching ability, lift and discharge velocity. They just fail in lush spring growth and when the crabgrass goes crazy here in August. Crabgrass is really juicy and the Gators turn it to mush. For those conditions I go with the high lifts. I could probably go through my old blades for my Exmarks and never have to buy another blade again but I figure I pulled them off and put them in a pile for a reason.