Battleangel

It’s that time of year again. For the purpose of mowing the lawn, winter never quite seems long enough, does it?

The reason I loathe it so much is probably because of crappy equipment anyway. I’m sick of working with crappy hardware yet for some reason nothing ever happens in this department and quite frankly I am as much to blame for this as anyone else.
Anyway, I have this old Klippo lawnmower. It’s a noisy, heavy, durable, polluting push mower, equipped with an old EKO type knife system. Also known as multi-clip with some manufacturers. And the result certainly doesn’t cut it (pun intended). For a long time now I’ve observed the lawn and witnessed the result of an awful grass sheering. Just pick up a single blade and see for yourself. A perfect cutting edge should be smooth, certainly not rough and torn and turning yellow-brownish.
So now I’m facing the prospect of either replacing the EKO system with a brand new EKO system or go for the traditional MULCHER system (i.e. just one big rotating knife).
Or getting a Cylinder mower of some sort. Either way you look at it, nothing can compare with the cylinder mowers. I would be very interested in trying out one of the modern hand mowers with cylinder sheers. I’m guessing that since I don’t have a self-propelled mower anyway, a hand mower can’t be that much more difficult to use. Probably on the contrary. The weight of those mowers is but a fraction of what an old 4 hp engine weighs. Saving my back, saving the environment, my hearing and getting a better result. But as I said, I would like to try one under realistic circumstances before I buy.

<Edit> Well, it looks like I’m gonna have to shell out the 180 SEK that 6 new cutting blades will cost. There is no way around it, and I’ve decided to stick with the EKO system so.
Something I also forgot to mention is why the knives broke in the first place. It is a fact that sharpening tools and weapons is a very difficult art. Any idiot can do it (including me) but the final result will vary. Plus people like myself always resort to the way of least resistance, i.e. the old angle grinder. Perhaps with a Dremel I would have had better luck, I don’t know. But the fact remains that my sort of clumsy approach heated the steel and wrecked the tempering. Or if someone had done that same very mistake long before I ever got my hands on the unit, which was after all second hand, I do not know.
The point is that tempering steel is not something I have the equipment to attempt in my basement. And after that kind of ill-treatment the blade will not stay sharp for very long. </edit>

You know what they say, the tallest blade of grass is the first to be cut by the lawnmower.