Sharpen & Balance Your Mower Blades!

Support My Work on Patreon: / herschtoolroom
In this video tutorial I will demonstrate a simple and easy method to sharpen and balance your lawn mower blades.
This time of year a lot of folks are pulling their lawn care equipment out of winter storage, which means maintenance.
And sharp and balanced blades can make all the difference when it comes to a long summer of constant lawn care.
So, I will demonstrate here how you can sharpen and balance your mower blades using simple tools and easy techniques that anyone can master in a very short amount of time.
The blades I'll be sharpening belong to my Dad's John Deer tractor but these methods will work for any typical mower blade.
If you have any questions, criticisms, etc please leave a comment below.
Don't forget to subscribe for more DIY and hobby machining projects!
My Lathe: MSC / Prince 9517350 - 13x40 Manual Metal Lathe
My Milling Machine: Bridgeport Variable Speed Series 1 "J Head"
My other Milling Machine: Brown & Sharpe No. 2 Plain "light type" Universal Milling Machine
CREDITS:
Music and Sound Effects courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
/ @hersch_tool

[@Priority57]

This is the perfect balance technique out of all videos.

[@hersch_tool]

Thanks very much!

[@mikebroom1866]

I sharpen blades all the time. Still watched the video. Always worth the time.

[@hersch_tool]

Thanks very much!

[@robertharper8776]

Glad you had a good vacation! I enjoy anything you produce seeing you do this means you are a good person and a good neighbor.

[@hersch_tool]

Yeah it was great thanks. And thank you very much for the kind words and support! I really do appreciate you!

[@KarpucMotoring]

Tutorial on making a leveler would be good

[@ianday38]

A sanding disc on the angle grinder is really quick and easy to use without being as brutal as a grinding disc. For balancing you could have ground material from the back of the blade rather than having to resharpen each time 👍

[@hersch_tool]

Yeah, I wouldn't use a grinding disc for this sort of job. Thanks very much and thanks for watching.

[@1pcfred]

Just call me brutal then. Because I always use a grinding wheel. It's OK. Might want to dress the wheel if you just mounted it.

[@laurentcnc6662]

Great tips, Thanks !

[@hersch_tool]

Thanks for watching!

[@appalachianbushcraft3959]

You should make a video balancing a grinding wheel... I would really like to see that.

[@hersch_tool]

I can definitely do that, I'll add it to my video list. Thanks for watching btw!

[@MurrayC]

Good video, a much more professional job than my normal method of a file to sharpen and a nail to balance

[@hersch_tool]

Thanks very much. Whatever works though right? 👍

[@1pcfred]

I use a file on the flat side. I'd file the bevel too but I usually have to take too much material off to get some semblance of an edge there. So I use an angle grinder. To balance the blade I use a cut off piece of coat hanger. I could see a nail working there too though. The nails are on a cart halfway across my shop.

[@greglaroche1753]

Thanks for reminding me of what I have to 😢do. Sharpen the blades on my brush hog. I have three blades attached to a hub. They are not fixed solid, so they can move if they hit something too hard. Normally centrifugal force keeps them straight out. I was wondering how to balance them. The best thing I can come up is weighing them and remove material until they all weigh the same. Thanks for the video!

[@hersch_tool]

Yeah weighing them unfortunately won’t do anything for you. You want them balanced around the axis of rotation. And thank YOU very much for watching!

[@tobedetermined4180]

2:31 your brain still on vacation 😂

[@MarkATrombley]

I don't need a video on building a balancing jig but could use one on getting the two side perfectly parallel. I just can't get two things to line up perfectly no matter how hard I try.

[@gorak9000]

Easiest way is to machine the parts for the balancer on a mill that you know is setup correctly. It looks like he slotted the walls to the base, so the slots determine the parallelness of the walls. I'm sure he milled both walls together on the top and bottom to ensure they're exactly the same height. If you don't have a mill, you could probably do the same with wood on a table saw, but I'd be worried about the wood moving with temperature and humidity changes. The material of the walls don't matter so much as he's glued round rods to the ends anyway, and that's what the mandrel rolls on, not the walls directly.

[@howardosborne8647]

Get the first upright set square to the base then use parallel spacers to set the second upright parallel to the first upright abd check squareness to the base. If the top rails are half round or even knife edged profile the uprights being perfectly square to the base is not all that important . The top edges do however need to be parallel in the horizontal/level level plane to each other.

[@hersch_tool]

@@gorak9000 this exactly 👍👍

[@1pcfred]

@@gorak9000 Everyone talks about wood movement. I suppose it does. But it's rarely a major factor with anything I've ever made out of wood. Just make sure the wood you use is good and seasoned. Then it's pretty much moved to wherever it's ever going to move. You can also cut HDPE, UHMW, Micarta and even aluminum on a table saw too. Although aluminum is pretty crazy. It works for me but it might not for everyone? Micarta is pretty intense too. At least thicker sheets of it are. I've cut one inch thick Micarta on a table saw. Aluminum I've only cut up to a half an inch thick.

[@gorak9000]

@@1pcfred Of course it does. Even proper woodworking takes into account that wood moves with the seasons - like how you don't glue the panels into paneled doors, you only cut dados for the panel to fit into and leave it slightly loose so it has room to move, keeping grain direction the same for gluing, when installing real hardwood flooring, you have to leave some room around the perimeter for it to move, etc etc. Yes, you can cut aluminum with any woodworking blades or cutters that have carbide teeth. I've definitely cut aluminum extrusions on a table saw or chop saw. Half inch plate would be slightly pucker inducing on the table saw, but should work. I've never heard of Micarta - I'll have to check into what that is. I've also cut Delrin on a table saw - you have to be careful with that stuff - it has a lot of internal stress that can be released when it's cut - can lead to blade pinching, and it also has that really weird smell when you cut it too

[@joell439]

👍👍 smooth

[@hersch_tool]

Thanks!

[@copescale9599]

I was hoping you *made* the mower blades.

[@hersch_tool]

I mean, I *made* them sharp, so…. 😉

[@camillosteuss]

Damn it! First Matty and now you... Get off the lawnmowers, people, i was just about to start finishing my inox pulley for the mower, and now i get sabotaged from all around the world... Thank God i`m keeping quiet as the grave about one special project that is in the waiting stages... I know that if i even mention that shit, i risk being last to the plate with that one, and how things are now, it is an idea that has not yet been broached by anyone... I`ll just have to finish like 15 other projects first, including digging out my car engine and purging the bloody soot from the intake manifold - courtesy of the egr deviltry... Damn you spiritual ancestors of Greta! *snorts, curses, spits* Tho, speaking of mowers, i really should balance my mower blade... That tetanus handout has not seen a balancing jig since it left the factory, maybe not even then... I`ll also have to make a riding mower at some point - getting real sick of walking behind a mower at speeds of 2mph... I`ll just have to snag a decent hydraulic pump(have 4 already, i could just pick one, but that is not how i roll) and make 4 eccentric vane motors for the wheels, and then the whole rest of the damn thing... Oh Lord, i can already smell the grinding dust for the weld prep for the chassis... No, wait, that is just the grinding dust from today`s work... Best regards! Steuss

[@hersch_tool]

Lol, i wish. Unfortunately I’ll be on the lawnmower almost constantly for the next few months… 😂

[@bdove7939]

Looks like it

[@syldysnya]

Yay!

[@hersch_tool]

Thanks!

[@Warped65er]

Thx for the vid. anyway. LOL

[@hersch_tool]

Thanks for watching!

[@pikeyMcBarkin]

Nice simple video. Thanks HT

[@hersch_tool]

Thanks brother

[@tonyc.4528]

Sure beats a 16 penny across bench vice jaws!

[@hersch_tool]

Haha, hopefully a little more reliable at least, hopefully... 😂

[@1pcfred]

I just hold the blades on a piece of coat hanger wire I hold in my hand. Good enough.

[@hersch_tool]

@@1pcfred yeah that's kinda what I was getting at in the beginning of the vid. It's a mower blade lol, we're not dealing with critical tolerances here... 😂

[@1pcfred]

@@hersch_tool when I get a good edge on a blade for a few minutes I can hear it just slicing the grass. But it only lasts a few minutes. Makes kind of a wooshing sound.

[@hersch_tool]

@@1pcfred Yeah, they seem to use pretty cheap soft metal for the blades.

[@mike9500]

stupid easy!!!!

[@hersch_tool]

Yep 😉

[@mike9500]

we liv ein the country, everytime we use the riding mower i have to shapen the blades. all 3 of them. ugh! sucks!!!! wish they were harder metal!

[@hersch_tool]

Yeah, when a small stick takes a chunk out of a blade you almost feel like it’s intentional lol

[@1pcfred]

I should sharpen my blades after every mow but that don't happen. In the fall I'm like skip it entirely.

[@mike9500]

@@hersch_tool yep! i am thinking of making custom blades for it from tool steel and then hardening after getting how i want.

[@dave9766]

Am I the first again?

[@bdove7939]

Yep

[@hersch_tool]

Lol nice

[@danieloblinger1199]

Much sharp, many balance wow. You need to learn the English language.

[@freestyla101]

First time on the internet?

[@hersch_tool]

Lol, my thoughts exactly