Resharpen or Replace

[ulflyer]

I use a 4" belt sander to sharpen my blades. Eyeball the angle and have at it with 3 blades from 6' pull behind finish mower. Seems to work fine. I do this a couple times a year.

 

[SteveD55]

I will say that mowing the grass (and we have acres of it) ranks up with paying income tax for me. I really don't like mowing the patch and it shows. If I could get away with it ( and my wife allowed me to), I'd never mow it at all.

I don't enjoy mowing either but grass/weed fires made uncontrollable by wind can happen anywhere even here in one of the greenest rural areas of New York State. I keep a good buffer zone mowed around my house and other buildings.

 

[wrath]

I use Oregon Gator G5 blades and sharpen them every 6-8 hours on a low RPM bench grinder. The outer mulching tip is usually gone around hour 50 and I get a new set as once those wear out I have to slow down or the grass doesn't discharge fast enough. It takes me about 45 minutes to sharpen and hit all the zerks/do all the not-oil-change preventative maintenance.

 

[Duds13]

Recently purchase the All American Sharpener. Pretty nice, simple to use and puts you are the correct angle with every pass of the wheel. Sure, it's not cheap but I have 2 sets of blades for my Ferris and a set of bladed for a Scag walk behind. At $5 a pop a couple times a summer it adds up.

 

[JeepHead]

I use to love mowing until I bought a ZT. now it's more of a chore because I can't carry a beer with me.

 

[tjandrews]

I'm of the lawn care school that says "If it's green and the mower can cut it off, it's grass." Consequently, I have several different species of "grass" in my lawn, some even planted on purpose. When I mow, especially this time of year, it looks great when I'm done, but by the next day some species have grown faster than others, and it looks ragged.
I learned long ago that there are things that are a lot more important to me than a lawn that resembles artificial turf. So I sharpen my blades when I think they need it, or when I get the time, and do it with the bench grinder in my garage. I eyeball the angle, check the balance with a cheap balancer I bought 30 years ago.
It's lots easier than sharpening the sickle bar from my old hay mower was before I got an angle grinder. And the blades keep cutting the "grass" just fine.

 

[Duds13]

I love to mow and find it to be therapeutic. Also drives me nuts to see beautiful homes with sh*tty lawns full of weeds and a foot high. That's just me though!

 

[skipmarcy]

I use to love mowing until I bought a ZT. now it's more of a chore because I can't carry a beer with me.

Should have bought a joystick model, like my Country Clipper ! Operating arm on an armrest and using 2 fingers to mow. I can bend way over and operate around my fruit trees with those 2 fingers and not ever even need to weedeat there later. This my 11th season with it and wouldn't use anything else to mow the "yard" again.

 

[JeepHead]

My 13 year old twins currently do all the weed trimming, raking, picking up sticks and it's a huge help. Their last day of school is Friday. I just bought a 2nd riding mower, and surprise surprise, these two boys are getting ready to take on 100% of all yard duties. Now they will be fighting over who's using the 61" new ZT, and who is using the 80's model Forest Gump snapper.

 

[tjandrews]

I love to mow and find it to be therapeutic. Also drives me nuts to see beautiful homes with sh*tty lawns full of weeds and a foot high. That's just me though!

A "weed" is defined as any plant growing where you don't want it. So by definition, if I'm OK with the stuff that's growing in my lawn, it's weed-free!