If you want to cultivate a lush, green lawn, it’s important to maintain your mower blades by having them sharpened about once a year. Today we’ll address just a few of the reasons why you should never mow with dull blades.
A sharp mower blade produces a clean cut on your grass, like a pair of scissors tearing cleanly through a sheet of paper.
However, when the blade is dull, it produces a dull, frayed edge—kind of like what you’d get if you tore the paper with your hands. When you cut your grass with a dull blade, it can damage your lawn in the following ways:
- Brown, discolored grass: When grass is torn by a dull blade, it loses moisture through the torn, mangled ends, leaving you with unsightly brown patches on your lawn.
- Increased risk of lawn disease: Tearing your grass with a dull blade leaves it more vulnerable to fungal disease spores.
- Less resistant to heat, drought and pests: Grass that’s already dried-out from a dull blade will have trouble coping with extreme weather, and an unhealthy lawn will be more prone to damage from pests.
Using a dull blade is bad for your lawnmower, too. You’ll wind up with:
- More strain on lawnmower components: A sharp mower blade slices right through your grass, but when the blade is dull, shredded pieces of grass may wrap themselves around the blade. This can put an unnecessary strain on your lawnmower and reduce the lifespan of its moving parts.
- Extra energy use: Gas mowers with dull blades will use more gas, costing you more over time. Electric mowers, meanwhile, will have less run time between charges.
Don’t have the right equipment to sharpen your own mower blades? No need to worry. In addition to our high-quality tool and equipment rentals, Lawrence Tool Rental offers chainsaw and mower blade sharpening services as well. With winter just around the corner, this is the perfect time to get your mower blades sharpened so they’ll be in good shape for next year. Stop in today or give us a call today to learn more.
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