A decent and adorable outdoor environment looks great with neatly cut lawn. The lawn needs to be constantly and meticulously maintained with a grass cutting tool such as a lawn mower. To produce neat appearance and the right height without cutting the lawn too deep, will require both the expertise of the human hand and the right mower blade. Below are types of lawn mower blades that are efficient for producing different types of cuts. These blades cut grass through high speed rotation and are all located at the lower end of lawn mowers somewhere at the center of the machine.
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Standard or Medium-Lift Blade Straight blades
This type of blades is probably the most common among many lawn mower users. They are also known as the Medium-Lift Blades or the Straight mower blades. They are basic and rotate horizontally when cutting grass. The design of the blades is such that they are tilted slightly upwards at the edges. This design facilitates a continuous flow of air which when combined with sucking and electric energy generated, is responsible for the cutting of grass as the blades rotate.
The standard blades which are also called the deck blades because of their straightness condition are suitable for cutting well-kept lawns. They don’t normally do well with either wet grass or tall grass. Another short coming is that they don’t fare well with regards to either lifting capabilities or mulching. This means for a lawn mower to always use this type of blades grass height has to be maintained relatively short. In this way the trimming becomes effective.
The reason why this type of blades is also sometimes referred to as 2-in-1 blades is because of the aerodynamic design they often have apart from the obvious suck and cut action. This is quite handy because it doesn’t strain much the engine of the lawn mower as it runs during use as the front cutting ends constantly remain in a flat positon. It’s no surprise that because of the nature of these blades an impressive side discharge and bagging result when they are in use.
Low lift blades
The curvature of low lift blades is generally no more than inches. It is behind the cutting edge of the blade that the lift is located. This type of blade is hugely for the purposes of side discharge cutting of lawn. This is because the blades are usually small and as such their rotation maintains low airflow and suction. Low lift blades are best used for mowing lawns that are found in sandy soils. The reason being that they don’t raise too much dust in comparison to standard blades. They are also best suited for cutting short and dry grass lawns.
Low lift blades do not only cut grass efficiently but also tend to keep the amount of debris, and noise at a relatively low level. They also tend to save fuel or need less electrical energy to operate since they produce less drag at any given time. However, they tend to perform very low when cutting beefier grasses as compared to the 2-in-1 blades.
High lift blades
The high lift blades possess a more dramatic steeper blade curvature. This means they have a more pronounced upturn at the back of the blade as compared to the low lift blade. As a result, they produce a high lift action responsible for a stronger suction. This points to the fact that they need a reasonably powerful engine with more horse power to sustain their movement. Since they are high lift, they are ideal and more suited for the collection of grass clippings. What is responsible for bagging when dealing with high lift blades is the fan-like suction.
Although high lift blades are not ideal for mulching they are the right tool for cutting tall grass. They also work well in cutting compact and thicker grass although this requires more energy and can translate to a higher cost. The production of a much cleaner job as compared to other types of blades like the standard blades or low lift blades is one of the many attributes of high lift blades. It should be realised that the major function of these blades is to trim lawn and discharge it off quickly. This efficiently produces larger lawn clippings which readily fill up the bag though with several spaces in between.
Should there be sandy terrains, this is the type of blades discouraged from using. This is because they lift up dust and sand easily. The sand and other hard materials lifted up can easily damage the blades faster than their normal intended life span. The material can also escape the deck and be a danger to nearby environs as they are usually released with great force and speed. An advantage though, of using the high lift blades is that they reduce the chance of grass clog in the mower’s cutting area.
Mulching blades
Mulching blades are unique in design as they possess a very distinct curved surface which allows them to work in different ways. Characteristic of them also is a wider and straight cutting edge with a raised wing towards the back. Through this type of design, the lawn mower is able to suck the grass upward to be cut. Once the grass clippings have been lifted they are kept in the deck so that more cutting continues until they are much smaller in size. Once they become much smaller in size, the lawn mower system will deposit them to the soil and they feed it as manure.
One of the weaknesses of mulching blades is that they don’t perform well when mowing overgrown lawn. This is because under such conditions the cut lawn can clog the lawn mower. Also, they are not very ideal for side discharge or bagging. However, they perform much better when used for maintenance cuts of lawns as compared to overgrown grass.
Gator blades
The gator blades are also known as toothed blades or 3-in-1 blades. This is because they combine a low and high blade with a mulching feature. This brings into one, three grass cutting techniques. The blades have a unique design and are easy to identify since they consist of a bigger curved part which is cut into several teeth. This means at either end of the blades are serrated sections. This type of blade allows for an improved suction and lifting of cut grass. The use of the teeth is for directing grass clippings to the middle part of the blade and are not used for cutting. Once there, the clippings will then be cut into much smaller pieces again.
If one needs to obtain finely-cut mulch then the gator blades are definitely to consider using. Two advantages come with the ability of the blades to cut fine clippings. The first one is that the lawn that’s cut will definitely have a more clean looking appearance while the second is that one will have a better bagging capacity. Apart from mowing the lawn this type of blade can also shred leaves needed for mulching. The cut leaves can be down-sized to very fine leaf powder which in turn becomes easy to deal with as manure. When the lawn clippings are discharged sideways they will cover a small area because of their small size. Depending on the needs of individuals this can be an advantage or disadvantage.
The gator blades seem to be more popular when used for short grass. However, they can still be used to mow tall grass although with usually not as good results as with the short grass. This is because since they encompass qualities of high lift, mulching and low lift blades they fall short in each of these to reach that compromise. Some users of these blades admit that they tend to produce more noise. Be that as it may, this type of blades remains very popular amongst many lawn mower users because of its all-round abilities.
