Remove Lawn Mower Blades Safely And Easily With A Durable Solution

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Ouch! That's what you'll be saying (among other things) if you try to take off your lawn mower blade with just a wrench, and nothing else. Even a dull blade is sharp enough to cut you, so gripping it with your bare hand is always risky. You have to do more than just grip it, though; you have to hold it tightly to counteract the torque needed to loosen the nut. If you forget to take out the spark plug, you're working against engine compression, which can make the blade spring forward suddenly when you pull it too far. You don't want your hand there when that happens.  

Fortunately, there's a tool for this job that's much better than your hand, and it's much more durable than a spare piece of wood that can suddenly pop out of position. The Kintle Universal Mower Blade Removal Tool//Lawn Mower Blade Clamp, available on Amazon for $13.59, locks the blade securely, so you can devote all your energy to working on getting that nut loose. This durable universal blade holder is designed for riding and walk-behind mowers, and people like it, as evidenced by its 4.6-star rating from over 600 Amazon users. 

One Amazon reviewer explains that they had been using scrap wood to stabilize lawnmower blades for decades, but they made one mistake that required 10 stitches in their finger: "Local ER did a great sewing job," they write. "Bought this (the Kintle tool) after that."

You can sharpen a lawn mower blade while it's still on the mower, so it may have been a while since you actually removed the blade. If so, chances are the nut holding it is rusted and stuck and is going to require considerable force to turn it, even after a shot of WD-40. This is the type of situation for which the Kintle blade removal tool was made.

The tool has two U-shaped slots arranged perpendicular to each other. The wider slot fits over the end of the blade while the narrower one fits over the edge of the mower deck and has a threaded L-bolt that allows you to secure it tightly to the deck without tools. Once the tool is in place, and you've tightened it to immobilize the blade, you can bear down on the nut that holds it with all the force you need. You can even use an impact wrench, which would be foolhardy if you were using a piece of wood to prevent the blade from spinning. 

The manufacturer specifies that this tool is designed for single- or double-blade mowers with a 42-inch or smaller deck, but one reviewer managed to remove all three blades from a zero-turn mower in seven minutes. Their 5-star recommendation says: "Stop wasting your time with a block of wood to stop the blades from turning on you, which is dangerous ... I'm very pleased how safe [this tool] is and [how it makes] removal safe and easy."