Soaking mower blades
 

Thinking of trying to soak my mower blades in a 5 gallon bucket of water and vinegar this year to loosen the real hard stuff instead of scrapping and grinding.

:bigthink:

Anyone ever try this?

Just use vinegar. Take a piece of 4" plastic pipe, cap one end, add blades then add the vinegar, you will use a lot less then.

May I ask why would you want to soak your mower blades? :Huh:
I mean they wear the paint off during the first mowing and wear completely out in a season, maybe a season and a half.

I found a tray that the blades will fit perfect and use a lot less vinegar. :ThumbsUp:

I thought about the plastic pipe option too. Good idea!

Soaking one now to see how it goes.

The blades on my 1864 get caked in a material harder than diamond.

Not sure what you are mowing but my blades have lasted 20+ yrs. I dress them several times a year.

I probably should have mentioned the blades are only used for lawn care, not something aggressive.

The reason for thinking about soaking is to work smarter, not harder.

I mow about 3 acres of my own and another acre of my neighbors.
some is sparse in places and it is sandy soil in places.
What really cleans them up is mulching leaves/ small sticks in the fall.
I do buy generic blades like Winsor or Oregon.
20 years?? interesting to say the least.:bigthink:
My wear mostly is when the "lift wing" wears off completely, and disappears,
then they vibrate excessively and no longer lift the grass to cut well.

I mow a maintained lawn, somewhat less than one acre about 40 times a season. No trees, leaves or sticks.

Maybe your sandy soil is eating away at the blades?

Attached is a picture of the blades I've been using since I got the tractor. It will be 24 years in February.

I've always just dressed the blades by hand with a file. I think there is a hardened area on the cutting edge and when the blades are sharpened past that point they are junk.

I looked into mulching blades at one time but it doesn't seem they are available for my deck.

I'm guessing I got my money's worth out of my blades. ;)

I think Rodster has it - its the sand - we had the same problem in central florida the blades and actually the deck was continually sand blasted until there were holes sandblasted through the deck and the blades wore out. I remember the blades almost splitting in half from the tip in towards the center by the end of the year - although I never had to scrape grass off the bottom of the deck ever!
My ohio SGT mower blades (though no where as pretty as rodsters) are over 20years old. its retired from mowing several years now but the ZTR's last about five seasons they need replaced due to the amount of sharpening's - mowing gravel dulls a blade quickly!

I could share similar stories about blade longevity on the 46, 48 and 54 inch Cyclops mower deck blades that I've used for years and years.

I can also vouch that I've seen mulching blades that came off these same decks that had split ends and/or the wing was almost completely worn off from abrasion. These same decks also had some of the wheels and/or mounts broken off, the wheels and bushings worn out and extreme abrasion wear inside the deck housing. Some to the point of perforation in several common areas.

My opinion, this wear is caused by running the deck too low and picking up sand/dirt and wearing things out and also knocking the wheels and mounts off.

A long time ago, I had 108's 10'4s, 1450's and such and never got the life out of the blades like the Cyclops decks with one exception. That was when I bought a set of hardened blades for a 42" deck. They were tough.

I'll also vouch for mulching leaves and small sticks will keep your blades clean. For whatever that does for you.

I'd say you are correct that the lower you mow, the more overall wear there will be. As I said, I mow as high as possible and am just mowing a maintained lawn so that explains how my blades and deck have lasted so long. It also explains why some people don't see as much caked on grass as I do since I don't have any helpful abrasives. ;)