Scotts Classic Sharpening Kit - Reel Mower

This just arrived this afternoon and I have already cut my grass. I hadn't sharpened my mower since I purchased it about 7 years ago, because the thought of taking the mower apart and using a lapping compound was too daunting. This was much easier to instal, although it did take longer than the [...] video suggested. It is quite a finicky process getting the opening wide enough to slide in the sharpener, and then afterwards to get the blades to touch with the correct amount of resistance, but not too much ( walk along with your screw driver as you are cutting the grass for the first time so you can make mini-adjustments. Also, don't make the mistake I made, pushing it over the grass with the sharpener still attached. It will cut the grass and grind it into a paste on your abrasive strip, possibly ruining it. Walk your mower down the driver or sidewalk. It didn't take more than one pass in each direction to sharpen it.

Not being mechanically inclined, it took me awhile to figure out how to loosen everything up in order to attach the darn thing. It didn't help that I didn't know what all the parts of the mower are called. Wheels and blades are about it. I started late in the afternoon my first try, it started to get dark and I gave up in frustration. Tried again the next day, again in the afternoon, got attacked by mosquitoes, got frustrated and gave up again. Waited for the weekend so I'd have a whole day. My mower is old so the bolts were pretty tight, but a bit of "brute strength" got them loose! Once I got the kit attached, it was fairly easy to push the mower back and forth on concrete so the blades would sharpen. Of course, I had to tighten/loosen the bolts several times to get it just right. Thought I was doing a great job, but it turns out the blades sharpened only on the left and right sides, not in the middle. I discovered this after I took the kit off and got everything all tightened up just right, then tried it out. I don't know of any other way to find out if the blades were sharp enough, short of risking the loss of a finger or two. Being as my mower is so old, I'm pretty sure parts of it are bent or out of wack, and that's why it only got sharp on the sides and not in the middle. I haven't tried putting the kit back on again YET, to see if I can figure out how to get all of the blades, sides AND middle, sharpened, but I will, eventually. I have to wait until the mosquitoes go away for that. All in all, the concept of the sand paper sharpening the blades is good, but getting everything to line up just right (this sounds like Goldilocks & the Three Bears) was pretty tedious and a smidge frustrating for me. I think it might work well on a newer mower - mine is about 17 yrs old. The kit doesn't cost very much so you wouldn't be out a lot of money to try it.

I used this sharpener on my McLane 7 blade gas powered mover. Here are a few tips for using this product. Its similar to back lapping however you run the blades forward with this product.Make sure you clear the surface of the blade sharpener prior to attaching the abrasive strip. I used acetone.Use a cordless or corded drill to run you blade in the forward motion while slowly moving the blades in contact with the sharpener. Be patient, this will take a couple of hours to prep the mover, sharpen the blade and re-assemble the mover. I used all three abrasive strips due to the shape my blade was in. Now my mower blades are as sharp as a kitchen knife. The blades make great contact with the blade knife which is critical for these types of mowers. I used to back lap my mower but I will use this product instead due to being a lot less messy.

Great idea, and it was easy enough to do once I watched a YouTube video of the process.(The actual paper directions are not as understandable). There is quite a bit of trial and error adjusting of the screws to get the amount of contact just right. My major complaint is that I wasted two of the abrasive pads because they did not stay stuck on the bar. The blades caught on them and scraped them off. But the end result is a mower that cuts again, so that is good. If they improved the adhesive or just had a sharpening bar with built in abrasive, I would definitely rate it higher.

Easy install, but difficult to trim to size. Sand paper immediately ripped and came off, making it useless.

Although the instructions are fairly sparse, I didn't really have any trouble installing this kit on my old Scotts Classic 21" mower. The hardest part is getting the height adjusted so the blades make sufficient contact with the abrasive to get sharpened without making it impossible to push the mower. As others have mentioned, I think the sharpening should be done on a hard, flat surface (e.g. concrete). Once the blades are sharpened, it again takes some trial and error to get the height adjusted to the proper clearance for grass cutting. The first time I tried, the blades weren't close enough to the cutting bar so the grass was just getting folded over. A few turns of the adjusting screws fixed that. I knew that my mower blades were dull but was pleasantly surprised at how much easier it was to cut the grass after the sharpening. It looks like the abrasive strip should last for another sharpening or two. I'm pleased with the purchase.

Difficult to attach to 4 year old mower. Didn't sharpen blades. Impossible to adjust cutting blade back after removing sharpener. In fact, while trying to adjust two screws, another bolt broke so now mower doesn't even work!

I bought a push mower to run across the lawn in between mows beacuae our grass is a work in progress and quite uneven.The mower was used and needed a good sharpening. This was pretty easy to install, but does take some serious push and some time to sharpen. Also, if nails on the chalkboard is NOT your thing, this may drive you batty like me when you use it, but it's cheap and effective!

Great product but It’s not easy to adjust the blades once you place the papers. Some portions ripped off immediately. I ended up buying a new machine, exactly the same!