How often do you sharpen or replace mower blades?

[k0ua]

Scags Turf Tiger, I quit sharpening a few years back and started putting on new blades each year. I mow once or twice per week, 3 acres, 7 months per year. I buy the factory hardened marbain blades, I have on occasion used them into the second year before changing. They last 3 or 4 times as long as the aftermarket inexpensive blades; they run about 10 bucks a piece vs 6 for the cheapo's, my mower is pretty tough to change them on so when I take them off they don't go back on; hate to be wasteful, but...



Nope. I'd link a pic but not sure of all the forums TOS yet, probably better to Google "crawfish mounds". They're around farm fields and ditch banks, some people call them "crawdads", look like miniture lobsters. As for the moles, my bird dog keeps the our yard a mess digging them up in their runs.

Well, I never...Never ever have I heard of crayfish burrowing into peoples yards. I have heard a lot about snipe hunts, Sasquatches, and yes even the elusive goat sucker... but crayfish? You have got to be kidding I thought.. BUT there are lots of images on the web, and articles on how to get rid of them... If it is just pulling our collective legs, they are doing a darn good job of it.

To me, all of my life, a crayfish/crawfish/crawday/mudbug/fresh water lobster is a little crustacean that lives in fresh water streams.. they sure as heck do NOT invade your yard..and they do NOT make little mud volcanoes.. sheesh. If you had told me the sun comes up in the west and sets in the east, I would have come closer to believing it. The things you learn here on TNB

 

[duke7595]

The main reason to leave them semi dull is, if you cut any brush it will not leave a sharp point edge that in turn will spear your tractors tires

 

[SPIKER]

This weekend I was mowing and passed by the ROCK from a page ago that I hit and took some pics this was the offending blade bender/damage doer.









I wear a 9~10 glove size for ref... The part that is still baffles me is how the BIG part spit out of the mower, passed (over/under) my trailer and thunder bird ending up 40+ yards away...

Mark

 

[SPIKER]

Hi Guys:

Thought I would revive and repost the results of my "WELD UP" repair on my Mower Blades.

after ~20hrs mowing time the blades were getting dull & had clipped a few rocks along the way & moles are having a hay-day too so trimmed a lot of ground piles. The seem to have held up pretty well for the abuse I put on them & mower went from 135 to 165 hrs on the oil change so made assumption it was 30 hrs worth of mowing since the repairs back in May/June.

some pics of the wear











All & all the wire weld seems to have held up well enough & next time I stop out to TSC or HF I may pick up some hard surfacing rod for the stick welder for the other new set.

Mark

 

[LD1]

So you have mole problems too:mur:

Seeing how they hold up, I may try that next time I need a set

 

[SPIKER]

The mower now has 165hrs and 80% of that time was the set of blades shown A new set was started in late 13 to rotate in. The Moles are bad & have always been bad here, the rocks too as I mow along the creek and mow the drive (it is topped w 100ton of creek run with clinkers in it.)


The couple posts above was a fist sized rock picked from the creek bed for saving to build a Stone BBQ someday.
M

 

[Gary Fowler]

Well, I never...Never ever have I heard of crayfish burrowing into peoples yards. I have heard a lot about snipe hunts, Sasquatches, and yes even the elusive goat sucker... but crayfish? You have got to be kidding I thought.. BUT there are lots of images on the web, and articles on how to get rid of them... If it is just pulling our collective legs, they are doing a darn good job of it.

To me, all of my life, a crayfish/crawfish/crawday/mudbug/fresh water lobster is a little crustacean that lives in fresh water streams.. they sure as heck do NOT invade your yard..and they do NOT make little mud volcanoes.. sheesh. If you had told me the sun comes up in the west and sets in the east, I would have come closer to believing it. The things you learn here on TNB

Any low lying area around my place has crawfish mounds and they do work on my mower blades. I probably have more than 100 mounds in my yard. I think the little devils migrate out of my pond. They don't move up the hill but stay down in the flatland where the ground stays moist. I cant believe that you have no crawfish in Missouri but if you have no close by water supply that could be the reason.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Now for some words on mower blade repair. Due to crawfish mounds and the occasional rock , my mower blades wear pretty quickly. I have to weld up the wear which is very bad where the bend for the lift wing is located. That area wears really fast and soon wears thru the blade to where it looks like a V on the end. I find that 6010 or 7018 both work pretty good at putting some metal buildup in the wear spots, 6010 seems to be a bit harder and wears less than 7018. By building up the worn areas I can get a full season of mowing out of a set of blades but I do have to sharpen them about every 20 hours of use. I may try the hard surface rod on the next set of blades I buy before putting them on. That should help a bunch in prolonging the lifespan. My OEM blades for my Ferris are over $20 each but they are much thicker than aftermarket blades which are around $13-15 each. Any thing to make them last longer is good.

 

[charlz]

20-30 mowing hours between sharpening.... your wives must not mow With a freshly sharpened set of blades my wife can locate every rock on the place!

 

[Got2BTru]

20-30 mowing hours between sharpening.... your wives must not mow With a freshly sharpened set of blades my wife can locate every rock on the place!

Now THAT was funny! When I bought my Mahindra tractor, my wife said we should get the HST model so she can drive it "if needed". My question back to her was that if she couldn't use the push mower in a straight line, how could she possible use the tractor with a 6' bush hog!

I was only in the dog house for a couple of days... :laughing: