Maintenance and replacement of brush cutter blades

While its motor keeps it going, its blades do all the heavy lifting. Without them, you'd just roll on the grass instead of taking them off. If the blade is not properly shaped, you will end up with a messy, tattered lawn that will crumble and shred more than it can cut. While you can take your brushcutter to a local repairman, there's no reason you can't fix it yourself.

1. Worksheet Status

Before sharpening or balancing a used blade, you want to make sure it's worth the effort. Warped, wrinkled or badly damaged blades are junk and should be replaced. Depending on what you might find in your garden, you might even need to replace the blades once a year. Most last for several years before needing to be replaced.

2. Sharpen your blades

You can use a grinder or file to sharpen brush cutter blades. Bench grinders are the best option, but they're also a luxury for most people who don't work with metal very often. You will most likely use a hand grinder. When sharpening the blade, be sure to only sharpen the side that faces up and toward the brushcutter motor. Sharpening the sides of the blade will result in a poor cut. There should be a slope on the side facing the engine. Just run a file or grinder through it until it's sharp enough. Don't over-sharpen - a blade that's too sharp will dull quickly.

3. Balance your blades

One of the consequences of sharpening a blade is that you are removing material from the blade. The blade itself is not a particularly heavy piece of material, so removing too much material from one end and the other can cause an imbalance. Use an inexpensive balance cone and check that the blade is stable. If one side falls, that side needs to be flattened further until the paper remains flat.

4. Install the new blade

Every now and then someone says there's something wrong with their brush cutter, they just take the blade off and sharpen it themselves, they're sure it's sharp enough. However, brush cutters don't cut well. What happened?

In 95% of cases, they reinstalled the reverse blade. This is an easy mistake to make because you often reinstall the brush cutter on its side or upside down. So if you mount the blade in a way that seems reasonable, you're actually turning it upside down so that the blunt back of the blade becomes the leading edge. Just remove it and reinstall it face up.