​How often should you sharpen your lawn mower blades? Does it even matter?

It’s true, many homeowners love mowing their lawns... 

Yet, hardly anyone loves sharpening their lawn cutting blades! 

Here's the deal, sharpening your mower blades regularly is an essential part of maintaining a healthy lawn.

So what is the optimum frequency for sharpening your lawn mowing blades? 

How many times per grass-cutting season do you need to renew the cutting edge on your blades?

Let’s find out!

When should I sharpen my lawnmower blades?

While most homeowners may feel that sharpening their lawn mower blades is not that important, as it turns out, it really depends on what your goals are for your lawn.

For the "Just Knock it Down" Homeowner

Think about it… let’s say that all you care about is just knocking down the vegetation in your yard down once every couple of weeks to keep your neighbors at bay and the city from sending you a nasty letter in the mail. 

If that’s the case, and this describes how you feel about your lawn. You’re not concerned with having the best looking lawn on the block... 

Then you can probably get away with sharpening your lawn mower blades once every season.

“If you do not really care about what type of grass is growing in your yard or the overall health of your turfgrass. Then sharpening your lawn mower blades is not that important.” 

But, on the other hand...

For the "Need it Perfect" Homeowner

Let’s assume that you’re the type of homeowner who wants to improve the health of your lawn.  

You’re concerned about things like turf diseases that can damage the look of your lawn, unsightly weeds moving in, bare patches, or brown patches in your turf grass. 

Well then by all means sharpening your lawnmower blade is critical to the health of your turf grass. But how often should you sharpen them?

Let's see what our research found.

What Our Study of 1000 Professionals Discovered

So, how often do you really need to sharpen your lawn mower blades? 

After polling over 1000 professional lawn care services on how often they sharpen their blades, this is what we found. 

Our research indicates that over 75% of lawn care professionals sharpen their blades once a week. 

Now I know what you might be thinking. That sounds a bit excessive, and if you are a homeowner just mowing your own yard one time a week it probably is...

But think about it another way. 

Lawn care professionals sharpen their blades once a week or about every 25 hours of yard mowing. 

This means that you can follow the same advice and sharpen your blades every 25 hours of cutting your yard. 

So how you be sure that you are sharpening your blades just the right amount?

2 Steps to Calculate When to Sharpen Blades

So how exactly do you calculate the 25 hours in between sharpening blades? 

It's simple, let me break it down.

Step #1: Calculate How Long it Takes you to Mow the Lawn Once

First.. next time you cut your lawn simply set up a quick timer to find out how long it takes you to mow your yard.

This can be easily done with a smartphone these days.

Step #2: Calculate the Number of Cuts to Get to 25 Hours

Now that you know how long it takes to cut the lawn once, it's simple. 

Much like calculating the proper amount of mulch, you simply need to do the math!

For example: Let's say it takes you an hour to mow the lawn. Then you will need to sharpen your blades every 25 cuts. 

Simple enough, right?!

Now keep in mind, sharpening your blades more often is indeed better for your lawn, but only to a point. 

Get this, some lawn care professionals sharpen their blades as frequently as every day. 

So, How often should you sharpen your mower blade?

Long answer short, our research indicates that you should sharpen your blades every 25 hours of lawn mower running time. 

By sharpening your blades two or three times per lawn mowing season you will see a healthier lawn all year round.  

Optimal Lawn Mower Blade Sharpening Frequency

Why Sharp Lawn Mower Blades are Critical

Think of it this way, as your mower’s blades are spinning and cutting your lawn...

If your blades are dull they are not actually cutting the grass.

Dull blades actually tear the grass!

Have you ever seen frayed brown edges on the tips of your grass when you go to cut it on any given mowing?

No wonder… this is a good indicator that on the last mowing you did so with dull lawn mowing blades.

Simply stated the sharper the edge, the better quality of a cut and less damage that you’re causing to your turf every time you mow the yard.

Proper lawn care, means regularly sharpening your mower blades.

What are the signs that my lawn mower blades need sharpening?

Look for frayed, brown edges on the grass tips after mowing. Uneven cuts and missed patches are also indicators of dull blades.

Does the type of lawn I have affect how often I should sharpen my blades?

Yes, tougher grass types or lawns with a lot of debris might necessitate more frequent sharpening to maintain optimal cutting performance.

Is it better to sharpen or replace lawn mower blades?

This depends on the blade's condition. Blades can be sharpened multiple times, but if they are bent, cracked, or too worn, replacement is the safer option.

How should I sharpen my mower blades?

There are several ways to sharpen your mower blades, and much of it comes down to preference. 

A few tools you could use are:

• Angle grinder, 
• Bench grinder, 
• Grinder on a drill,
• Tigers paw,
• or take the blades to your lawn mower shop.

Get this, the technique and method with how you sharpen your blades is just as important as how often you sharpen them.

So you want to make sure that you’re using the proper procedure and putting the correct sharpening angle on the blade every time you sharpen them.

TLDR:

The Bottom Line on Sharpening Your Mower Blades

So in conclusion you don’t need to sharpen your blades every time you cut your grass, however you probably need to do it more often than you were initially thinking. 

A good rule of thumb is every 25 hours of grass cutting time.  

Go ahead and invest in putting a nice clean sharp mowing edge on your blade... 

Your lawn will thank you for it!

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