Let's talk lawn mower blades!

[Rodvan]

I'm tired of sharpening the blades every time I mow the lawn! I replaced the blades on my 2004 Husqvarna lawn tractor with "commercial quality" blades, but after mowing about one acre they're dull... I tried replacement blades from the dealer but nothing lasts more than a couple of cuttings. A friend that has a John Deere said he only sharpens the blades once a year. He also said other higher end mowers have blades made from a different type of steel. He didn't know what type of steel to look for but thought I could get something for my Husqvarna. So, does anyone know what type of blade will last all season or half a season before it needs sharpening? I'm in Michigan so we're talking six months at the most.

[Garyshome]

Head on down to your local welder and have him braze on some Carbide on your blade. you should be good to go for a while.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I've got a Sears Craftsman 2003 rider mower which was made by Husqvarna, just red instead of orange. I'm thinking that you must mow much more than the half-acre I mow, because my last factory blades lasted for 3 years, and there isn't anything special about them. The mower guy was just here to get me going for this season. Oil change, lube, new blades, air cleaner service $307--but that also included ordering a new top belt to have on hand just in case, which ran $59. Two of the three old blades could be saved for hard times, so I put them in the shed.

[Plate plinker]

don't know about your mower but my three point finish cut mower has hardened steel cutting surfaces they last over a year with little wear while cutting 2.25 acres. look for something like that.

[aspangler]

Sharpen then heat with a torch until the cutting edge turns blue. Quench in COLD water. They will last a LOT longer unless you hit a lot of rocks etc.

[roysha]

Having been in the business for quite a number of years, I believe I can safely say that there is no practical difference in the material used in mower blades among the various brands.

My first thought is that you are using "recycler" blades and if you are mowing something other than urban lawn, which is usually quite clean, versus weeds, dirt, gravel and heaven knows what all else that is usual with rural mowing, your blade life will be substantially shorter since you are, in effect, cutting the same "stuff" multiple times. If that is the case, I would suggest a heavy duty high lift blade to blow the clippings clear.

In regard to the "hard facing" suggested in one of the responses I will say I tried something similar using stellite and it was an unmitigated disaster!!! The stellite was so hard it was extremely difficult to sharpen and chipped and broke at the thin cutting edge. Where it had substantial base metal it held up well but I might as well have had the blades on upside down for having a sharp cutting edge. Once again it was "sticks and stone" that were the culprit, not the grass.

[Lead Fred]

Sears, Husky,MTD, and several others all use the craftsman style deck.

A deere deck is like a battle axe compared to the others. the triple deck and heavy blades are at the top of the heap.

and lets not weld blades, the harmonics can shatter two piece blades. Some deere blades might handle it, but Ive seen decks they fly right through.

[country gent]

We hard surfaced some with hard surface welding rods ment for the teeth on back hoe buckets. DOne acording to instructions with the rods it held up better but the inital balanceing and sharpening was a pain in the bottom. We welde D-s tool steel to some at work for cutting edges and it to held up as long as hard things like stones werent hit or picked up. Another killer of lawn mower blades is the ground your in sand that blows makes mowing almost the same as grinding the blades with it in the grass. Im in yellow sand here and my lifts on the blades go before the cut edge is worn out. I use high lift gator blades on my grasshopper and the lifts last about 3-4 years. The sand just cuts them to pieces. mowing over a gravel drive way even not picking up stones that cloud of dust is abrasive and working on the blades. CArbide would shatter the first time it hits anything hard, stones, edge of concrete, possible sticks and cans. Most hardened steel is also brittler and harder to work with.

[country gent]

We hard surfaced some with hard surface welding rods ment for the teeth on back hoe buckets. DOne acording to instructions with the rods it held up better but the inital balanceing and sharpening was a pain in the bottom. We welde D-2 tool steel to some at work for cutting edges and it to held up as long as hard things like stones werent hit or picked up. Another killer of lawn mower blades is the ground your in sand that blows makes mowing almost the same as grinding the blades with it in the grass. Im in yellow sand here and my lifts on the blades go before the cut edge is worn out. I use high lift gator blades on my grasshopper and the lifts last about 3-4 years. The sand just cuts them to pieces. mowing over a gravel drive way even not picking up stones that cloud of dust is abrasive and working on the blades. CArbide would shatter the first time it hits anything hard, stones, edge of concrete, possible sticks and cans. Most hardened steel is also brittler and harder to work with.

[Mk42gunner]

Oregon usually makes a blade to fit most lawnmowers. They seem to last pretty well; I put a set on a Woods belly mower and used it for five or six years, sharpening once a year at most.

From what I've read, you don't really want a sharp edge on a mower blade, supposedly if you leave a flat (about 1/16") on the very edge it holds up better, and cuts just as well.

Robert

[RogerDat]

I'm mowing over an acre and using sears regular blades they are "ok" for a year, using the sears higher quality blades they stay nice and sharp for a year. I do cut my grass long to shade the roots so I am not picking up as much ground grit, and not cutting through as heavy of grass. Not all blades of grass will be tall enough to get cut.

I did take more wear to the corner formed by the cutting edge and end of blade when I lived on sand. Too sharp an angle will wear fast, so you don't want a razor sharp blade but a dull blade will bang through the grass rather than slicing it, and dull faster for the beating.

This is an odd one but I saw it before so I'll mention it. Check to make sure the mower deck is clean and clear all the way around. I had one that would build up dirt and clippings in the middle of the back and at one corner. Blade edge was literally getting ground to nothing by going through those two chunks of adobe brick. Had to drive up on car ramps to really see it. Now I spray under deck with the hose every time and about once a month hit it with a small pressure washer while up on the ramps.

[country gent]

Grass hoper recomends sharpening lawn mower blates with a 1/32"- 1/16" flat instead of a knife edge and sharpening every 8-10 hours of use. I mow 2 aceres in 45 mins that 10 hours is about the summer. I dont sharpen untill after the first 2 mowings in the spring snow plows kick stones and roll sod up, nighbors snow blower throws stones untill they are gone its no point sharpening blades.I sharpen my blades with a 14" double cut file rough and the 12" fine single cut to finish edge and the 1/32 flat. I also make sure they are well balanced as this helps keep spindles in good shape.

[lefty o]

if your blades are hitting dirt, that'll dull em very fast. raise the deck a notch or two, dont scalp the lawn.

[Col4570]

The manufacturers are right in not hardening blades since hard usually means brittle.Better to sharpen frequently than to have the edge shatter or worse the whole Blade might sepparate.I thought about riveting hard edges to the blades of my rotary Mower at one time but decided against it since the attachments could turn out to be a missiles if they broke loose.

[Mytmousemalibu]

Always wondered if a quick doping of Kasinite or Cherry Red would do any good? Put some surface hardness into the blade surface but leaves a ductile core. I would second trying to leave a thin flat edge to the blade.

[StrawHat]

As a sharpener, I get to sharpen and balance more than a few lawn mower blades each week. A belt sander with 60-80 grit paper makes quick work of it, BUT, you have to work in short spurts to avoid heating the blade. The flat edge is a good idea but accomplishing it is not often as easy as it sounds, it needs to be at right angle to the plane of the blade. What has been said about cutting soil and rocks is absolutely correct, they destroy an edge quickly. Better to cut at the top of the grass and leave more of the blade to grow.

You want the blade of grass to look like it was cut with a pair of scissors, not torn and jagged.

Kevin

[oldred]

As a metal worker I see two suggestions here that I must disagree with, first NEVER weld or braze anything on a lawn mower blade! Those blades are carbon hardened steel and as such tend to form microscopic cracks at the edge of the weld, this can easily lead to the weld breaking off especially if something hard is encountered and the parts can come off with enough force to actually penetrate the deck! Also the suggestion to heat the blade to blue color and then quench puzzles me, why would you do that? Heating until blue and then quenching is the tempering step of the hardening process and makes the metal softer not harder! The right way to do that would be to heat until bright red then quench, only after doing that would heating back to blue and quenching again temper the metal to the right balance of hardness and ductility, of course the blade is already hardened and tempered from the factory so any heating of it is simply a bad idea.

[Hamish]

I strongly suspect the OP is sharpening at way too steep an angle. As has been mentioned, are you scalping the grass (dirt)?

Try these, ESPECIALLY in the fall with leaves: http://www.gatorblade.com

[oldred]

Always wondered if a quick doping of Kasinite or Cherry Red would do any good? Put some surface hardness into the blade surface but leaves a ductile core. I would second trying to leave a thin flat edge to the blade.


Likely it would do more harm than good because the blades are high carbon steel and already hardened all the way through, adding more hardening chemicals to the outer surface is very likely to create an extremely brittle blade. Hardening products such as Cherry red are meant for steels that can not be hardened by heating and quenching such as mild steels and softer alloy steels and is used to add a hard "skin" over a soft inner core, steels with a high carbon content are simply heated to the critical temperature then quenched causing the carbon to make the steel extremely hard all the way through. This is then followed by the tempering process which has already been described, heat to the tempering temperature (usually just until turning blue) then quench again to soften the metal back to a more ductile state. The finishing temper step leaves the metal somewhat softer than the first higher heating stage but still much harder than in the normal state and makes the part more ductile and much stronger.

[Hamish]

All this talk of welding and hardening blades scares the living snot out of me. Do you folks realise how many thousand RPM these chunks of steel are spinning at?

You grenade a blade and there's no telling what kind of death and destruction you're looking at.

[country gent]

Another issue with the case hardening is how deep is it actually going a .060 case on a side and a 1/8" blades is completely hardening it..030 on a side only leaves .060 soft core.I sharpen at about 60* with the flat. I sharpen with files draw filing and hold the angle by eye. Field coppers and brush mowers have a full face 90* sharpened to 2 sharp conres top and bottom and really hold up to the rough stuff.

[Boaz]

I was in the small engine biz for a good while . There is a difference in blades . Thickness and temper are main determining factors in wear and holding an edge . Bought all my blades from Rotary Corporation in Dallas Tx . I understand they only wholesale now .

[kenyerian]

I've had good luck with the blades from ASC http://www.agrisupply.com/tractor-accessories-parts-supplies/c/4900000/.

[oldred]

All this talk of welding and hardening blades scares the living snot out of me. Do you folks realise how many thousand RPM these chunks of steel are spinning at?

You grenade a blade and there's no telling what kind of death and destruction you're looking at.


I couldn't agree with you more and that was my point also! Those blades are high carbon steel and could just as easily be hardened much harder than they are but they are not and for a darn good reason, they could shatter and kill or maim someone! Further hardening and/or welding on one of these blades is flirting with disaster, there are enough lawn mower accidents every year already without adding high speed projectiles to the list.

Of course there are those who will just poo-poo this warning just like my neighbor who insisted on using his idea of a better weed whacker string, a piece of music wire! He insisted that since this was spring wire it would not break off and just how much harm would a little piece of wire flying off do anyway? He got away with it for a couple of seasons until three years ago when a two inch piece of that wire embedded itself into the top of his foot! He was wearing soft street shoes so the wire went through the cloth type fabric of the shoe and completely disappeared under the skin, he later told me that at first he thought it had just nicked him and nothing was in the wound but it hurt so badly he had to go to the ER later that night to get it checked out, they had to cut the darn thing out and as already mentioned it was nearly two inches long!

I know that has little to do with mower blades but still it is an example of what people will do when they fail to appreciate until it's too late just how much damage even a small piece of rapidly spinning metal can and will do! Heating and welding on mower blades can be every bit as dangerous and if it fails the flying parts can do much more damage than that piece of wire from the weed whacker!

[DougGuy]

As a welder with decades in the trades, I would agree hardening, dipping, quenching, bleh.. A blade made from plain old 1018 or A56 carbon steel wouldn't last too long at all, so the mfgrs use better grades of steel.

Hardfacing with electrodes like the Stoody 287 will come off easily enough and forget welding and brazing carbide and all that nonsense.

What I COULD suggest is using some 309L stainless TiG wire on the cutting edge, this stuff has excellent abrasive and impact resistance, it is an excellent underlay for hardfacing as it makes the hardfacing stay on 5x longer, you could just clad weld right on the bevel that you sharpen, then sharpen this weld metal leaving a decent flat at a 90° angle to the bevel. I think this would extend the life of the cut edge considerably, won't weaken the blade, and won't fly off. I used it on crushers that made concrete into aggregate, used it on buckets and blades, it welds stainless to carbon flawlessly, clad welds to carbon flawlessly, and welds manganese to carbon flawlessly. Great stuff!

If someone wants to try this and is willing to ship both ways I am willing to weld pretty cheap and we have this filler wire on hand.

[oldred]

Stainless would be an option but personally I would stop there, even with stainless as an underlayment hardfacing weld still tends to come off under impact. Like you I have spent a great many hours trying to extend the life of bulldozer blades, loader buckets and cutting edges of most every kind used in ground contact equipment plus maintaining the linings of hoppers and chutes. 309L in either wire or stick is an excellent buffer between the hard wear alloys and base steel but while it greatly reduces the separation problem it does not eliminate it entirely, besides as you point out the stainless has good wear characteristics of it's own and after all we are talking grass abrasion here not sandstone!

Still these blades are high carbon steel and thin sections at that, welding on this stuff is tricky to say the least and the best we could do is going to leave a brittle area in the weld zone due to the very high carbon content. I agree it CAN be done but it's not going to be as simple as just welding a bead onto a cold blade then sharpening it, overall considering what's involved and the very real possibility of catastrophic consequences from a failure I just couldn't recommend doing it. While it can be done the real question is considering the cost of doing it and what's involved vs the cost of new blades does it really make sense to take the risk?

[DougGuy]

I don't know JUST how high carbon those things are either. I think people are giving them too much credit for being on a consumer machine and not a commercial machine.

Bobcat cut edge for instance is 1080 steel, that is very high carbon steel, but it can still be welded safely with 11018 stick rods observing good preheat, interpass and also postheat temps. I doubt any mfgr's lawnmower blades come anywhere close to cut edge material.

I put a bid in on repairing two 30" augers used for boring form holes and I quoted the bid instead of rebuilding them with carbon steel and then using the bolt on teeth as it came from the mfgr, I quoted the job using a piece of 1080 off a Bobcat bucket, cutting it and putting holes in it and using the same bolts that the individual teeth used to use, only now we got one solid piece of cut edge across the nose of the cutting flutes. Who says you can't teach an old dog a new trick?

[Storydude]

Stop overthinking this.
Grab a old blade.
Head to your local Scag dealer.
Drop on counter and say "I want this size blade"
They hand you a Marbin Steel Blade that will last forever in a consumer application.

Blade sizes are for the most part standardized.

[Mk42gunner]

Even if the Bobcat cutting edge is 1080 and can be welded vs whatever medium or high carbon steel mower blades are typically made from, there is one big difference: the Bobcat blade is not spinning at several hundred rpm's.

If welding a hard face on the edge of mower blades was a good idea, it would be in widespread use by now, with the blades costing five or ten times what they cost now.

Better to properly sharpen the edge and keep it out of the dirt. Replace when it needs it.

Robert

[cayton]

How sharp of an edge are you putting on and looking for on the blades? You do not want to make them like a razor knife edge, think more butter knife. We sharpen a couple hundred here a summer at work and unless the customer is mowing a rock field, they hold a decent edge for most of the summer.

[DougGuy]

Stop overthinking this.
Grab a old blade.
Head to your local Scag dealer.
Drop on counter and say "I want this size blade"
They hand you a Marbin Steel Blade that will last forever in a consumer application.

Blade sizes are for the most part standardized.

^^^^ THIS I will gladly go along with..

http://www.fbblades.com/marbain-mower-blades

http://www.france-metallurgie.com/index.php/2010/10/12/marbain%C2%AE-the-steel-heat-treatment-patented-by-fisher-barton-us/

[Tenbender]

I buy my John Deere blades off eBay. Last a summer before sharpening and I mow 2 1/2 acre's.

[Frank46]

I have a sears 24hp riding mower that I use around the house for cutting grass. What kills the blades are the ant mounds and snake holes which are tubes of mud that they hide in and the St Augustine grass is rough to cut. I keep a couple spare sets of blades and rotate them as needed. Sharpen with a dremel tool and balance them on a nail in a vise. My Kubota L3800 has a rough cut bushog and does a good job on the property out back of the house 4.5acres. Have many trees and always use the loader to push them out of the way then go back after all the grass is cut load them up and put them on the burn pile. Unless the blades on the riding mower are bent which I put in the garbage i just sharpen and only takes a few minutes to swap out. Even the self propelled mower blades keep a spare set ready to go. Frank

[Geezer in NH]

Rocks, sandy soil and mowing wet will dull blades. Cutting weeds that are big or 2 ft tall grass is not the same as cutting lawn grass. That wears a set of blades prematurely.

[Powder Burn]

Used the same blades on my small John Deere LA 115? for the past ten years. Never replaced them. Sharpen once per year with hand file/balance myself. 1 acre ground. Rarely hit anything substantial, but when/if I do, I just use grinding wheel to take out anything I can't fix with the hand file.

[HangFireW8]

Unless the OP ever comes back with details, this thread is pointless.

[xs11jack]

No I don't think so, I would be inclined to think maybe some one might have learned not to do something dangerous. Two years ago my wife, using a Craftsman mower hit a oak tree root. I heard a loud bang and some crashing noises. When the blade hit the root, it bent the last 2 inches up at a right angle. That bent up part went right through the mower deck. If I had done something crazy to the blade it may have exploded and hurt or killed my wife. End of story.
Ole Jack

[Rodvan]

Sorry it took so long to respond but work comes first! Lots of good info here. A little more about my lawn... not that great, but not many weeds, no gravel, a lot of dust but nothing to damage the blades. I was putting a sharp edge on the blades and now I know that's a bad thing.
What I find a little strange is, the blades I bought last year from the dealer were very sharp. Someone here said something about mulching blades (what I'm using) losing their edge much faster and that high lift blades were the best for mulching. I checked out some of the links here, thanks for that! I read on another forum about Oregon products blades were some of the best and Gator brand was another highly rated. I also like the Marbain blades that Storydude mentioned. Thanks again for all the info. I'll post an update when I get new blades.

[Mytmousemalibu]

Likely it would do more harm than good because the blades are high carbon steel and already hardened all the way through, adding more hardening chemicals to the outer surface is very likely to create an extremely brittle blade. Hardening products such as Cherry red are meant for steels that can not be hardened by heating and quenching such as mild steels and softer alloy steels and is used to add a hard "skin" over a soft inner core, steels with a high carbon content are simply heated to the critical temperature then quenched causing the carbon to make the steel extremely hard all the way through. This is then followed by the tempering process which has already been described, heat to the tempering temperature (usually just until turning blue) then quench again to soften the metal back to a more ductile state. The finishing temper step leaves the metal somewhat softer than the first higher heating stage but still much harder than in the normal state and makes the part more ductile and much stronger.

Yeah that is probably the case, oh well it was just a thought. I would kinda have my reservations with attempting that anyways.

Guess just sharpen/replace as normal and try to keep the cutting narrowed down to just grass, dodge the dirt, tree stumps, rocks, granite boulders, depleted uranium billets, etc.

The leaving a flat edge idea, I picked that up off of the latest and greatest Snap-On side cutters/alternative lifestyle cutters. They employ a very small flattened edge and cut well and for longer without getting chewed up like regular sharp edges. Probably easiest to add a flat with a little file.

[DougGuy]

I checked out some of the links here, thanks for that! I read on another forum about Oregon products blades were some of the best and Gator brand was another highly rated. I also like the Marbain blades that Storydude mentioned. Thanks again for all the info. I'll post an update when I get new blades.

Yeah post when they have some months use on them too so we can see what worked for you!

[Col4570]

All this talk of welding and hardening blades scares the living snot out of me. Do you folks realise how many thousand RPM these chunks of steel are spinning at?

You grenade a blade and there's no telling what kind of death and destruction you're looking at.

Well said Hamish,those Blades are made that way to be tough not Brittle.Immagine where the mounting holes are,that is where they would fail, making the halves into projectiles with a random trajectory.

[Rustyleee]

Only about the last 2" of a blade does the cutting no mater what else is going on.

[jonp]

I'm not sure what the op is mowing. I mow about 1 acre. I bought MTD blades at Lowes and sharpen them twice a year. They last 3yrs or so easy. Unless your hitting rocks grass will not wear them out or dull them as fast as the OP suggests.

[Rodvan]

I'm not sure what the op is mowing. I mow about 1 acre. I bought MTD blades at Lowes and sharpen them twice a year. They last 3yrs or so easy. Unless your hitting rocks grass will not wear them out or dull them as fast as the OP suggests.
I'm not saying the blades wear out-I'm saying the blades are so dull half way through the cutting that the grass is being ripped instead of cut! NO ROCKS!

[HangFireW8]

I'm not saying the blades wear out-I'm saying the blades are so dull half way through the cutting that the grass is being ripped instead of cut! NO ROCKS!

Can't you tell us how much area you are mowing?

[Rodvan]

Can't you tell us how much area you are mowing?
A little less than an acre.

[oldred]

If you are mowing less than acre and dulling the blades to the point they won't cut after mowing only half that you either have butter soft blades or you certainly are hitting something you don't know about! You mentioned dust, but how much dust? If you are making a lot of dust then the blades are sucking up sand or dirt, or both, and you will be literally grinding the edge off, however I have seen some really dusty areas mowed without encountering anywhere near that much wear. Good gosh less than half an acre of just grass could probably be mowed with plastic blades if there were such a thing!

[Rodvan]

I am not hitting anything but grass, a couple of dandelions, a bunch of grass hoppers and an occasional bee that's on a weed. No sticks, twigs, rocks, gravel, meteorites or other hard natural or man-made material. :-(

[CraigOK]

Oregon makes good quality replacement blades that a lot of.commercial mowing companies use.

[Rodvan]

Oregon makes good quality replacement blades that a lot of.commercial mowing companies use.
Yeah-they are the ones Iam going to try.

[white eagle]

not sure but I mow a 4 acre lot plus my home lot
nothing fancy just a 50"cub cadet with a 750 cc kawasaki engine
never had issue unless i sharpened them on a rock or two [smilie=w:

[Rodvan]

not sure but I mow a 4 acre lot plus my home lot
nothing fancy just a 50"cub cadet with a 750 cc kawasaki engine
never had issue unless i sharpened them on a rock or two [smilie=w:
I was looking at a Cub Cadet yesterday at the farm store-I may buy one of those instead of buying blades for the Husqvarna!

[TXGunNut]

I like my Cub Cadet. I've learned to use their blades and belts when things wear out.

[berksglh]

We mow about 4 of our 10 acres. First 9 years we used a sears GT5000 3 blade 48" deck. Total piece of garbage! I put a set of blades and belts on it every year. Blades went went dull and got sharpened often. Deck sucked, plugged easy, required pressure washing every use in the moist spring grass. Motor was rebuilt about year 5 and used so much it worn out again.

2 years ago we picked up a Cub cadet Z-force S 48". Have 140 hrs on it, blades sharpened once! There has to be a difference in material or deck design that affects blade life and wear.

[Storydude]

Blades should be sharpened every 10 hours of use in a residential setting.

I swap blades daily on my commercial mowers.

Dull blades are rough on belts, spindles, motors and lawns.

[KAF]

Most people set their mower height to low, this will pick up more dirt and whatever to dull the blades. Mower blades are sometimes sharpened to the incorrect angle also, which makes them easier to dull.

[woody1]

I run a Husky YTH22V42 mower. If your mower is like mine, it won't really lift high enough to keep the blade from lifting dirt in rough areas. Thus, your mention of dust. When I mow the rough areas including the roads on our mountain place, I replace the high lift blades with freshly sharpened standard blades. By the time I've mowed a couple miles of road, the blade edges are nicely rounded. This is pure and simple from abrasive dust. Oh, and I've modified my mower so the deck/blades are as high as they will go which really only gains an inch or two.

I buy my blades from Bailey's. http://www.baileysonline.com/Landscaping/Lawnmower-Blades/
No I don't have an interest in the company.

Regards, Woody

[jonp]

Most people set their mower height to low, this will pick up more dirt and whatever to dull the blades. Mower blades are sometimes sharpened to the incorrect angle also, which makes them easier to dull.

that's very true. you don't need a golf course, set the deck a couple of inches high and the grass will look nicer and resist drought better. The angle as you said needs to be paid attention to. I sharpen the blades on my cub cadet once a year and it does fine for 8 months of mowing about an acre. I am kinda mystified by the op's constant dulling of the blades. They should not be able to shave with. That makes the edge far too thing. As someone else said sharpen them like a kinda sharp butter knife and that's it.

[jonp]

I run a Husky YTH22V42 mower. If your mower is like mine, it won't really lift high enough to keep the blade from lifting dirt in rough areas. Thus, your mention of dust. When I mow the rough areas including the roads on our mountain place, I replace the high lift blades with freshly sharpened standard blades. By the time I've mowed a couple miles of road, the blade edges are nicely rounded. This is pure and simple from abrasive dust. Oh, and I've modified my mower so the deck/blades are as high as they will go which really only gains an inch or two.

I buy my blades from Bailey's. http://www.baileysonline.com/Landscaping/Lawnmower-Blades/
No I don't have an interest in the company.

Regards, Woody

Good place for chainsaw chain, too

[woody1]

Good place for chainsaw chain, too

Yes, I get my saw chain there also. Regards, Woody

[flyer1]

Lowes has a sale on them this weekend for 25% off. I got a set of 3 John Deere brand for $36.54 for a 48" deck.