Sharpen Your Mower Blades Efficiently With A Handheld Tool From Amazon

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Regular sharpening of your mower blades is an essential task if you want to keep your lawn lush and well-manicured. Blunt blades tear the grass, leaving ragged ends that are an open invitation to diseases. Your lawn mower also has to work harder, using more fuel or draining the battery faster. There are many different ways to sharpen a lawn mower blade, but Smith's Edge Eater is an efficient and budget-friendly option, available from Amazon for just $9.99.

Generally speaking, experts advise removing mower blades for sharpening, but that can be inconvenient. You need to go fetch a wrench, take the blades to the shed or garage, sharpen, and bring them back. The Smith's Edge Eater is a palm-sized puck that slips into your jacket or coveralls pocket, so you can quickly resharpen your mower blades right there on the lawn. In fact, it can be a good option to have on hand when you notice warning signs that your lawn mower's blades need sharpening.

The Smith's Edge Eater has a cap and groove to help make it easy to get a firm grip. You just need to run it along the cutting edge a few times, following the existing blade angle. Before you start, there are some important lawn mower safety tips that you should be aware of. If you have a gas mower, be sure to keep the carburetor at the top when turning the machine on its side so fuel doesn't leak out. Wrap a rag around the central shaft bearing to prevent bits of metal from getting inside and causing damage. Finally this should be considered an occasional quick tune-up. At some point before the next mowing season, you will want to remove the lawnmower blade and ensure it is balanced and properly sharpened.

The Smith Edge Eater's coarse grit should make short work of sharpening your mower blades, and its compact size means you won't have problems bumping into the deck, which can happen with larger sharpening tools (when not removing the blades from the machine). Of course, the Smith's Edge Eater can also be used for a host of other sharpening tasks around the yard like touching up shovels, hoes, manual lawn edgers, and more. It can also quickly bring the blades of garden shears and axes back to their best.

As good as it is for general sharpening of garden tools, the Smith's Edge Eater should not normally be used on good-quality pocket knives, kitchen knives, or scissors. Unless it's being used to redefine a damaged edge, the grit is too coarse for fine blades and could do more harm than good. Otherwise, this hand-held sharpening stone from Smith's is an effective, affordable tool for quickly renewing the edge on pretty much any garden tool.