Comments by "Paul Frederick" (@1pcfred) on "Best Lawn Mower Blade Sharpener? Oregon vs All American, Work Sharp, Smith's" video.

Just a file would work. But it's too much work for me. Plus I think grinding wheels are cheaper than files are. I do deburr the grass side with a file. Just takes a couple licks to do that. A file does a great job there too.
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If money isn't an issue you send your blades out to a Samurai sword polisher to sharpen your blades. Ha so!
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I use a combo method with a bench grinder as step two to even up the bevel. I rough with an angle grinder to take out the really big dings.
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Whatever snips you use put oil on them and they all work better. I've bought old used and beat to death tin snips and sharpened them back up again so they work. But doing that good is a bit of a trick.
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@FindLiberty yeah metal on metal is never a good thing. But you do have to wipe the metal you're working on up. Still my snips last a long time oiling them. Like basically forever. And it's easier to use them too. No one ever told me to oil snips but I work with metal a lot so it makes sense to me. You put oil on taps, use oil to drill so why not oil on snips? It's called cutting oil for a reason. Though on snips any kind of oil seems to work. I like bar oil. I have a brush that I paint oil on stuff with. So I just slap some oil on the blades of snips before I go cutting with them.
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@Taskarnin I mow thin branches myself. Can't stop for all of them. What wrecks my blades is my crushed stone driveway. Which could use more raking than it ever sees. I try to be careful but sometimes I'll clip the rocks a bit. There's high spots here and there. I never know if they're too high until it is too late.
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I'm sure his friends and relatives are more deserving.
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It depends on dings how much material I need to remove. I have a stone driveway and catch the edge of it. It's 340 feet long so it's going to happen. What's not going to happen is me weed wacking it all. Sometimes I do some of it. But all 680 feet of edge? Yeah not gonna happen.
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I get maybe 50 sharpenings on a blade. So that's like $1,100 of new blades. When I sharpen a blade it is sharper than they come new too. Plus I can sharpen a blade whenever I feel like it. Going out and buying a new blade isn't something I want to do all the time. Not that I'm ever too excited to sharpen blades. But I gotta do what I gotta do. Really what sucks is taking the blades off and putting them back on again. Sharpening is the easy part. I got to jack my tractor up to get the blades off and on. And drag out the impact gun. I have a dedicated gun for just removing the blades. I leave the socket on it.
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@mikemorgan5015 metallurgy is a hill that plenty have died on to get us to where we are today. There was a time when we were more disorganized. I frankly wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't just one manufacturer today making virtually every lawnmower blade in the world. They're supplying everyone. All these different brands we see are just packaging. Sure customers can spec stuff. We want it this shape. It has to look like this. But as far as what alloy is used the manufacturer probably says look, you're using what everyone else uses. Because we can't be bothered getting anything in special for you. They probably don't put it quite that way. They just make the price prohibitive to not go with the flow.
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I have to buy new blades every other year because you only get so many sharpenings on them. Plus they just wear through anyways. I have a lot of sand on my property. So the lifts on them get sandblasted clean through.
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Maybe the angle is more critical than I know? In any event I just freehand sharpen my tractor blades with an angle grinder to remove the bulk then finish with a bench grinder. I deburr with a file. So it is a 3 step process but I'm happy with how the blades come out. The worst part is pulling the blades off the tractor. Really sharpening them is nothing compared to that.
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@harryharry3193 new blades are sharper than dull blades tend to be. But they're not as sharp as what I consider sharp. They're somewhere in between.
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You could take a circle and divide it 12 times. Then cut out that pie shape and have your 30º I'm sure that's what someone had to do some time to figure out what 30º was. Or if you want to skip that then just get a protractor.
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An angle grinder makes shorter work out of removing damage from worn blades. Learned that on my own through decades of personal metalworking experience. I use a 7" grinder so it goes even faster!
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I grind my blades down to nothing being careful. But I get about two seasons of cutting out of a set. They're going to wear away to nothing whether I sharpen or not really. I do like lawn cut with sharp blades though.
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@OldsXCool if a blade has a big ding in it I have to let it come out over time. You only really use the first fraction of an inch of the blade to cut grass anyways. By the time any grass gets further along the blade it has already been cut. Unless you're going real fast with your mower.
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I just balance my blades on the corner of a file tang. Seems to work good enough to me. You can see if one side is heavier than the other. Then just take a bit more off that side to even it up.
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I use the tang of a file pitched on an angle to check balance. Close enough is close enough.
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@Marty's 4x4 I do a lot of metal working so I do use a fair amount of files. The problem here is the amount of property I mow and the composition of the soil. Combined that has the net effect of wearing mower blades down. It's just a lot easier to use power grinders to sharpen the tractor blades. I do use a file to deburr the bottoms of my blades though. That's just a pass or two. Which seems reasonable to me.
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I have a low tripod vise just for angle grinding things and I use it too. That was a piece of shop gear that once I made it I immediately pondered, why didn't I do this sooner?
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Axes ideally should have convex bevels. Axing wood isn't like other tasks sharpened implements are used for. So there's reasons for the special grind. Mostly due to bit sticking, chip ejection and durability. Unless you're carving with an ax. Which is a thing. But for the out in the woods chopping deal you want the convex edge. You know, the usual ax use.
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@letrainavapeur belt sanders are just not very economical. Belts are expensive for how much abrasive you're actually getting. Most of a belt is backing. Grinding wheels are solid abrasive. When it gets dull you can just dress it sharp again. It is remarkable how long grinding wheels can last. Although I've worn a mountain of angle grinding wheels away. But bench grinding wheels seem to last forever.
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You can get a lot of sharpenings with a single blade. I run a set of blades on my tractor for two years. I sharpen every other mow and mow about 6 months out of the year every week. So that's 24 sharpenings on a blade. At $11 a blade that's $264. My blades cost more like $30 a set. So $720. I just use what's in my shop to sharpen my blades. That amounts to an angle grinder and a bench grinder. I take the heavy damage out with an angle grinder then get a nice bevel on a bench grinder.
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@TheWilferch all of these tools seem to do a more accurate job easier than non-dedicated methods do. Now how important that is can be an issue itself. When I sharpen my blades I just want them sharper than the butter knives they've turned into.
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After a few cuts you're just beating your lawn into submission.
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If the blades are sharp you get a clean cut. I find that level of sharpness does not last very long though.
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Lawn mower blades are not hardened. So there's no temper to take out of them either. Lawn mower blades are soft malleable steel so they don't shatter if you strike something hard like a rock. Potentially then launching a steel projectile at victims at a high rate of speed. Which would be a very bad thing. The legal department frowns on scenarios like that.
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@Watchyn_Yarwood I got sand. I'd say my crushed stone driveway is the worst thing for my blades. But the sand does a number on them too. It basically frays the ends of the blades over time. These vees get worn into the ends. It's kind of shocking really. Eventually I get so concerned I just get new blades. I worry the ends are just going to break off. I get two years out of a set of blades. I let them get pretty bad. Probably worse than they should.
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@Watchyn_Yarwood I use high lift blades with this kick in the back of them and in that curve they wear there. So a vee gets worn out of the ends. Points would be better. I end up with two points. And they look like they could fly off.
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I use an angle grinder initially to remove the bulk of material. Then I finish off with a bench grinder and finally deburr with a file. I beat the crap out of my tractor blades so there's always big gouges in them. I don't always even remove all of them. Just getting the blades mostly sharp is good enough.
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New blades usually aren't that sharp. They're not dinged though. But they certainly could be sharper.
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An edge you can shave with would last about two seconds on a mower.
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@RL-RL what wrecks my blades is not what my yard has in it to cut but everything else. Like the sand in the soil, the stone in the driveway, roots in the ground and the sticks in the yard. Perhaps the grass plays a part too?
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@RL-RL let me know which blades hold up best to blue stone. They're the ones I need. Because I have to mow next to 1/8th of a mile of chipped blue stone. Also known as my driveway.
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Your best bet is probably kitty litter. Which is bentonite clay. Saw dust don't work bad either if it is really dry. I've had saw dust suck oil out of concrete if you leave it on there. Go back a couple times and move it with a broom.
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Really just the tips of the blades cut anyways. If you think about it. It's maybe the first half of an inch? That other few inches we sharpen for who knows what reason. I guess because it looks good?
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@danieljones317 I've heard of those blades. I've also heard they don't work as advertised. Last time I checked hardened steel can be abraded by sand. May be more wear resistant than mild steel is but it is hardly impervious. They may last twice as long? Really what the sand does to my blades is it literally frays the ends. These deep vee grooves get cut out of the blades. Hardening won't help that out any.
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@danieljones317 I'd sooner believe the idea was to come up with a clever marketing strategy to cash in on gullible people. Because sand is harder than all steel is, including hardened steel. We really should be making lawnmower blades out of sand! Trouble there is they just would not be durable enough. Lawnmower blades lead a tough life. Which is why they're made out of mild and ductile steel.
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@danieljones317 I cut my lawn with an obsidian sword!
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The concentration of CO2 in air is so low it would be difficult to measure it accurately without sophisticated equipment. As of now CO2 is typically about 400 parts per million. Which is 0.04% So a minute amount.
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@aperturist1019 I think you'd have to go back in time to find 200 ppm CO2 levels. Global concentration is 400 ppm now. That's what all the climate alarmists are up in arms about. If you're worried what are you planning on doing about it? Pumping oxygen in? Now CO monitors are another story. CO can actually kill you at low levels. There is something you can do about it too. CO and CO2 are two different things.
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@aperturist1019 I take no pleasure in correcting people. Things need to be done regardless. If you were at a party with me you wouldn't remember it. Because I know how to party. Now whether you'd have fun, or not, would depend on you. It is not my responsibility to make sure you have fun. Or even if you live through the experience.
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