Lawn Mower Blades

[blade runner]

I understand from my John Deere guy that lawn mower makers are equiping the new mowers with blades that have a Rockwell C hardness of roughly 40 to 45 or so.....to lessen the possibility of a blade breaking off and flying through the air somewhere and doing some damage with subsequent lawsuit.
My QUESTION is: would it be do-able to take the blade off, harden the cutting edge but leaving the spine soft (think of the great temper line ), and getting a lot more life out of the blade and more cutting between sharpening?
Any thoughts?

 

[Kiwi303]

Heck... why not forge your own custom blades?

Anyone want to make hay using a set of Katana blades in a hub?

 

[Matt Shade]

I didn't think mower blades were much harder than that to begin with. They are making them alot thinner (cheaper ) now though, so maybe they are changing things with the heat treat.
The question is what steel they are using and whether it can effectively be hardened beyond what they're shipping the blades at.
I don't think its worth the trouble though. Unless your mowing for a business, you probably won't notice the additional wear. Maybe have to sharpen the blades one extra time a season at most. If you are a pro and they wear out faster....just make the customers pay for them

 

[elvenbladesmith07]

that might not be the best idea. what if you hit a rock, or something hard? that hardened edge will chip, and send little bits of hardened steel, and rock flying at your shins.

 

[Dan Gray]

for a blade costing less than $3.00 imported then marked up 400-600 % you don't have much there to start with...

I think etching your name in gold on the rewind would be better spent time..