The Old Lawnmower Club
Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers
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cutter conundrum

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techkidmr Tue, 20/09/2016

Dear Wristpin

You said a while back to forget about diy sharpening kits.On the other hand Ivor Gregory says no need to regrind cylinder unless damaged as repeated sharpening shortens blade life.Have to agree on that but who's correct & is there anything the diyer can do about situation?

Not many servicing places left round here now,regretably.

Regards

 

Forums

wristpin Tue, 20/09/2016

If, at some point the cylinder has been correctly sharpened, has been kept in set and not left to rust , one of the kits that you mention may keep an edge on it  but it won't sharpen your average blunt cylinder. In the past month I have sharpened half a dozen cylinders and not one could have been recovered with one of those kits.

Bear in mind that some of the people recommending such kits are also selling them.

Then there is the question of the bottom blade. Even genuine OEM bottom blades are not always flat when fitted to a sole plate that's been around for a while. Fiddling around and shimming with bits of paper etc is a pretty futile past time. Screwing it to the sole plate and skimming under the grinder is a guarantee of a flat blade that matches a properly ground cylinder and will cut paper all along with the lightest of touch.

hortimech Tue, 20/09/2016

everything Wristpin said is true, but I would go further, as most of the sharpening kits I have seen just fix to the bottom blade, you will only 'sharpen' the cylinder, would you sharpen just one blade of a pair of scissors ?

I have never seen a new bottom blade that didn't need facing (and I have seen a lot), so I would recommend grinding if your cylinder and bottom blade are blunt and light backlapping as a maintenance procedure on a regular basis, just how regular will depend on how often you use your mower. Golf clubs (who mow the greens every day) will backlap their greens units every week, the trick is to take a sharp cylinder and block and make them sharper ;-)