An essential garden tool for homeowners is a lawn edger, allowing you to create smooth and straight lines along the lawn edges.
Depending on how often you use the tool, most lawn edger blades will get dull as you cut through grass and weeds.
Do you know how to sharpen lawn edger blades? Fortunately, there are multiple ways to do it, depending on the type of tool you have.
A bench or angle grinder is one of the fastest ways to sharpen a dull lawn edger blade.
You can also use a sharpening file for quick tune-ups.
What Is a Lawn Edger?
A lawn edger or edge trimmer is a garden tool used to make clean and neat boundaries in the yard.
It helps keep the lawn edges tidy between grass and driveway or walkway around plant beds.
Traditionally, gardeners use the more affordable manual wheeled rotary edger or the semicircular turf variety for edging tasks.
In recent years, electric and gas-powered edgers became available and popular among home gardeners and landscapers.
They are more convenient and efficient, making it easier for anyone to maintain the uniform look of their gardens.
Before, you will only find specific tools for particular gardening tasks, unlike today, where one piece of equipment can perform several jobs like trimming and edging.
More and more users opt to invest in these outdoor power tools, choosing the type of equipment based on the task at hand.
Guidelines Before Sharpening a Lawn Edger
So, what should you do to sharpen a dull lawn edger blade?
Here are some simple guidelines to go about it safely.
Check User’s Manual
It’s vital to check your owner’s manual to determine if you can sharpen the blade at home or need the help of a professional.
Sometimes, you can remove the blades from gas and electric lawn edgers for sharpening.
However, some manufacturers recommend having it done by professionals.
If you have a manual lawn edger, it’s safe to assume that you can sharpen its blade using your preferred sharpening technique.
You can even sharpen your manual lawn edger blade after every use or as often as you feel like doing it.
A group of researchers provided some helpful tips when sharpening dull blades of lawn edgers.
- If you have a brand-new edger, ensure to angle the blade’s cutting edge before you start using it to improve its edging performance.
- Remember to clean the blade of your lawn edger after every use and also before sharpening. This process ensures the removal of rust and debris.
- It’s best to use an electric grinder if you need to repair a damaged or dull blade edge.
- If you don’t have an electric grinder and don’t mind intense labor, you can use a hand file.
Clean the Blade
Cleaning the blade after every use, even if you don’t have plans of sharpening it, is an excellent maintenance technique.
Please make it a habit to permanently remove dirt, debris, or rust from the blade using a scouring pad or a stiff brush.
How To Sharpen Lawn Edger Blades
Angling the blade’s front edge helps improve its performance.
Some users recommend a 20-degree edge angle for lighter-duty tools and higher for heavy-duty ones.
However, a sharp cutting edge is not always better for garden tools like a lawn edger.
It’s best to maintain the same blade angle when you first buy the device.
A sharp blade angle weakens the edge, wearing it out faster every time you use it.
That said, here are different sharpening options you can use for your garden equipment.
Use an Electric Grinder
The sharpening technique using an electric grinder is best applied to a manual edger and other landscaping tools like a shovel or a garden hoe.
Using the fine-tuning wheel of a bench grinder is one quick way of sharpening these landscaping and manual lawn edgers.
Take precautionary measures before you start by wearing work gloves and safety glasses.
Ensure that you have cleaned the blade’s surface.
Start by sharpening the blade’s inner edge while maintaining the edger’s factory angle.
Avoid overheating the edger blade immersing it in water occasionally.
A couple of quick passes should be enough. Use a sharpening stone to remove any burrs and get a clean edge.
Use an Angle Grinder
Some users find it easier to use the small and portable angle grinder with a grinding stone disk when sharpening various manual types of lawn edgers.
The grinding disk should be perpendicular to the blade’s thin edge.
You can level any chips or damages by running the edge from side to side to the angle grinder.
Since an angler grinder can remove metal faster, it should be in constant motion while taking a little blade off at a time.
Remember to keep the same blade angle used by the factory and wipe off metal filings on the blade with a soft cloth.
Use a Sharpening File
Using a sharpening file is another ideal option to smooth the blade of a manual lawn edger.
It’s an inexpensive and safe way to fix dull garden tools.
It’s also safer to use, providing the user better control of every sharpening movement than the fast-spinning wheels of grinders.
Start by securing it in a vise or workbench. Use the factory angle as your guide as you push the sharpening file forward in even and quick passes until there’s a burr on its cutting edge.
A few light strokes on the backside allow you to remove any burr, while similar passes on the beveled side will finish the job.
Sharpening Lawn Edgers Effectively
Knowing how to sharpen lawn edgers is vital to the tools’ performance. You can try any of the mentioned sharpening options to keep your equipment in top condition.
Choose the option that you feel most comfortable with, but always maintain safety by wearing the necessary protective gear before performing any of these sharpening tasks.
However, time will come when the lawn edger fails to do its job correctly, even after sharpening. When this happens, you may want to consider buying a new one.