Simple Steps For How to Sharpen a Lawn Mower Blade

Simple Steps for How to Sharpen a

Lawn Mower Blade

You take a great deal of pride in your lawn, and keeping it looking healthy and beautiful is important to you. To give your lawn a nice clean edge and to prevent the grass from being damaged or falling prey to disease you need to ensure your lawn mower blade is kept sharp. There are some simple steps for how to sharpen your lawn mower blade, that you can do yourself.

These are the following items that you will need to sharpen your lawn mower blade:

* Safety glasses, a sturdy set of gloves, WD-40, a grinder (also a vice grip if you are using a file or angle grinder instead of a bench grinder), a ratchet and socket set, a spark plug wrench, a scraper, a vice grip or C-clamp to hold the blade while the bolts are taken off.

The first thing you want to do is to take out your lawn mower's spark plug to ensure your engine doesn't accidentally start while you're taking off the blade. Since you're going to be tipping your lawn mower, you should also take off the air filter and remove the fuel cap. With the fuel cap off, place a plastic lining over the fuel hole, then replace the cap and make sure it's tight. This way your fuel won't leak out of the tank. Don't forget to get rid of the plastic when you're finished.
The next step in how to sharpen a lawn mower blade is to turn your lawn mower over. Make sure you don't turn the lawn mower upside down or even more than 90¡. That will keep oil from getting into your cylinder. Next, you'll be removing the lawn mower blade bolts. The number and placement of your bolts will vary based on the type of lot more you have. The bolts are likely stuck in there pretty good, so use a little WD-40 to make them easier to remove. Like any type of maintenance job, always pay careful attention to how things were initially placed, so that you can put them back the same way.

Before sharpening your lawn mower blade, give it a bit of a clean first. This not only helps with the sharpening, but it will prolong the life of your blade by helping to prevent rust from forming.
Now you're ready to start sharpening. By far, the best and safest way to sharpen your lawn mower blade is to use a grinder that is bench mounted. If you don't have one of those, you can easily make do by placing the blade in a clamp or vise on a table to stabilize it. Then you can use a file, the grinding attachment for a drill motor, or an angle grinder. It is extremely important that you only grind the engine side of your lawn mower blade. You must not sharpen the other side - the grass side - of the blade. You can tell the difference between the two because the engine side of the blade has a bevel - that's the portion of your lawn mower blade that you will be sharpening.

By following these simple steps for how to sharpen a lawn mower blade, you can easily and safely perform this task yourself. This will help to keep your lawn healthy and beautiful.

About the Author:
Blake Bahrns is a lawn mower parts and small engine parts expert with over 20 years of experience working on lawn and garden equipment. For additional lawn mower tips, lawn care tips, and more free lawn mower articles visit http://www.lawneq.com/.