How to Change & Sharpen Your John Deere Mower Blades
Maintenance is a necessary part of owning a Change & Sharpen John Deere Mower Blades. It is critical that you remove the blade from your mower and sharpen it after a certain period of time. This is in order to ensure that it remains in working condition. In order to prevent expensive repairs and the need to replace parts, such as the blade, on your John Deere mower, it is wise to follow the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule. There are a few simple tools that can be used in order to remove the blade from the motor.
Keeping your lawn mower blade sharp is one of the most effective things you can do to keep it in the finest condition possible. This is for the long-term health of your grass. As a result of dull blades, grass is unable to be sliced by the blades, but is torn by them instead. As a result, the lawn becomes yellow, infected with disease, infested with pests, and is in a general state of poor health.
Before sharpening lawn mower blades, take them out of the mower and balance them while you sharpen. The blades can’t always be removed by property owners. Maybe you didn’t have time to fix your tools, or there was excess rust, or maybe you weren’t equipped with the necessary tools. I don’t understand why this might be the case. However, it certainly makes you wonder how to sharpen lawn mower blades without having to remove them from the mower. I would like to take a moment to explain how this could be achieved, and if it could, how it could be done in the most efficient possible way.
How Often Should You Sharpen Your John Deere Mower Blades?
After approximately 25 hours of use, you should sharpen your John Deere lawn mower blades to make sure they are as sharp as possible. In most cases, this amounts to about twice a year for the average homeowner. In dry or dusty environments, you may have to sharpen them more often than the average homeowner, or if you mow more often than the average homeowner.
Need to sharpen John Deere mower blades?
It is not necessary to sharpen new John Deere mower blades. A sharpening process and paint coating have been applied during manufacturing. Paint along the blade edge does not need to be removed. You can now install and use the upgraded blade on your mower.
John Deere Mower Blade Change & Sharpening
Maintain a green, healthy lawn by sharpening the blade twice each season. You can reduce the time you spend mowing your lawn if you use a sharp blade. This blade not only cuts grass blades clean, but also allows grass plants to recover quickly.
Make sure the power supply is disconnected
You should now disconnect the power source from your lawn mower before moving forward. The battery must be removed or the cord must be unplugged on electric mowers. The spark plug hood should be removed from your gas mower’s spark plug. You will be able to prevent unexpected starts of your mower by doing this.
The ride-on mower needs to be lifted
If you have an auto parts store nearby, you can pick up a floor jack (available in some stores). Make sure it makes contact at the appropriate lift points beneath the front of your riding mower. Using jack stands, secure your equipment with the jack as high as it will lift, and then raise the mower to its highest point.
There is now easy access to the bolt that secures the mower blade to the mower deck. You shouldn’t remove blades from a separate deck that’s not attached to your mower if you have a riding mower or tractor.
Mower that braces
You’ll want to keep your mower from falling over if you flip it on its side. As long as it can adequately support the machine, I use scrap 2 x 4 wood I have lying around. Once on their side, lawnmowers don’t usually move, but extra support is a smart idea.
Blades for John Deere mowers
Keep your mower blade from moving while you remove it by placing a block of wood between the blade and the mower deck edge. Use a socket and a ratchet to loosen the blade’s hardware. Make sure you remove the blade and hardware from the machine.
Blades and decks are clean
The underside of your mower should be scraped off as much debris as possible. Keeping your mower’s blade and deck clean is smart practice, but like flossing teeth, we don’t do it enough.
Scrape the dried dirt and grass from the deck and blade using a wire brush or whatever blunt object you have available. You can use a bit of water to get rid of stubborn patches of gunk. My first priority is to clean the deck, followed by the blade. Make sure you get it as clean as you can with the blade fastened.
John Deere lawn mower blades can be safely sharpened by following the following steps:
John Deere mower blades can be filed yourself so that you can save some time and money. You can sharpen your blades by using a variety of tools, such as a metal file, a drill-powered blade sharpener, or a disc grinder that is powered by a drill. Sharpening your blades can be done by following these steps:
Make sure you have the tools
- Blade sharpener equipped with drill or disc grinder
- Hold the blade in a vice
- Wall nail or blade balancer
- Shirts and rags
- Using a wire brush
- The use of safety glasses is highly recommended
- Gloves for the job
Safeguard your eyes and hands
Blades on John Deeres
Mower blades should be cleaned with a rag. The stubborn areas of buildup can be removed with the help of a wire brush.
Maintain the safety of your John Deere blades
When sharpening your blade, it is critical that you place it in a vice securely so that it does not shift during the process. When you have sharpened one side of the blade, you will flip it over and secure it in the vice. You will then work on the other side of the blade.
To sharpen the edge of the blade, file or grind it
A metal file can be used to sharpen the blades
- The file should be pushed along the blade at an angle.
- The filing motion should not be sawed.
- Turn the blade over and sharpen the other side after removing all rough spots and uneven edges.
Blade sharpeners powered by drills can be used to sharpen blades
- Attach the blade sharpener to the drill and power it up.
- With the cutting-edge slot into the bevel of the blade, place the flat guide of the sharpener on the flat portion.
- Sharpen the blade edge up and down as you move the sharpener.
- Using the same procedure, sharpen the blade on the other side after sharpening the first side without any rough spots or nicks.
Using a bench grinder or angle grinder, sharpen
- It is important tokeep the angle grinder in a position perpendicular to the blade edge. In order to smooth out any rough spots or nicks on the blade, run the grinder along the length of it. To achieve an even result, keep the grinder moving.
- The same procedure can be used to sharpen the other side once one side is sharpened without rough spots or nicks.
Keep it balanced
Once you have sharpened your blade(s), make sure they are balanced before reattaching them. When you mow with an unbalanced blade, you will experience vibrations as you cut along, which will make the experience uncomfortable for you. You may even experience stress cracks on the deck of your mower if the blades are severely unbalanced.
Mower blades need replacement
Get the bolt(s) after you sharpen and balance the blades. Place the blade back on your lawn equipment (look for that chalk on the bottom) while your lawn equipment is still raised on the floor jack. By inserting the bolt and then tightening the bolt with your six-point socket, you can tighten the bolt by turning your ratchet clockwise.
In order to ensure the blade of the saw stays in place while you tighten the bolt, you can use a wooden block. Make sure the bolt is not overtightened by overtightening the nuts. The process should be repeated for each blade as necessary.
When You Should Seek a Professional Sharpening Service for Your John Deere
Even though I have all the necessary tools to sharpen the blades of my lawn mower by myself, I still prefer to have my local lawn mower dealership sharpen the blades on my lawn mower instead of doing it myself. As far as I am concerned, the dealer does a much better job than I do, and it is also very convenient. It took me a couple of days to pick them up from the dealership after I dropped them off.
As far as the timeline is concerned, it doesn’t bother me. I always have a second set of sharpened blades on hand, so I don’t have to worry about the wait. There are many reasons why you may want to have your blades sharpened by a professional:
- A sharp blade is safer to sharpen yourself
- It’s often cheaper to sharpen a blade than to buy one
- Getting rid of large nicks and gouges in mower blades can be done by a professional
- Blade balance is correct. Your mower deck will be less likely to be damaged.
In Summary/Conclusion
Following that overview, I should mention two things to be aware of when changing and sharpening John Deere mower blades. While this is a straightforward project, there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind before you begin and after you complete it.
Is it better to sharpen or replace the blade?
There is no set lifespan for lawn mower blades, but they should generally be replaced every two or three seasons.
After emptying the gas tank, sharpen blades
Clearly, you may not have a lot of choice when it comes to doing this project. However, if you can, it would be wise to do it when you are out of gas. As a result, there will be no leaks of gas anywhere that it shouldn’t be. Although there is a slim chance of a leak occurring, if you can, try and prevent them as much as you can.
Be on the lookout for excessive vibrations
Whenever your Change & Sharpen John Deere Mower Blades has more vibration than you remember, it might be a sign that you have shaved it out of balance. This is because you have shaved it too close or too fast. It would be a wise idea to take the blade off your mower and check it to see if it is out of balance before you continue. In the long run, it could save you quite a bit of trouble if you were to balance lawn mower blades on your own.