mower blade repair questions

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Someone commented in a thread somewhere about welding nicks in lawnmower blades(can't find it now of course).  It never really occurred to me to weld them but I have a few blades that are nicked pretty deeply( I used to mow some really rocky areas before I got a rotary cutter for the tractor) and it got me thinking that I could maybe repair these blades.Is it advisable to do this?  What will it do to the hardness of the blade?Whats the best process?  I have mig, tig, stick, and O/A,  Although I would prefer to tig it to have more control on the fill to save some grinding. Would a stainless filler be tougher?How about hardfacing rod?
Reply:hardfacing rod would be ideal.  you should make sure you cool them slowly to preserve the hardness of the blade.make sure you get them pretty clean before you start.The Welder Shop has great deals and reviews on Hobart, Miller and Lincoln Welders.
Reply:you could weld with stalite rod.Or any hardfaceing type rod.Check with your welding supply store.
Reply:I use A2 tig welding rod on everything i want to stay sharp.
Reply:Thanks for the suggestionsI have a praxair delaer on my route that I deliver to once in a while and I like to buy things from him if possible.  He said he can no longer break up boxes of welding rods so I have to buy 10 pounds of hard facing rods if I want some. That is more than I will use in 10 lifetimes.I hope this is not an industry wide thing, he said it was because of having to provide msds for each sale.  There is also an Inweld dealer and a Indiana Oxygen dealer on my route so I will check with them next week. But they Don't seem to have the selection that the Praxair dealer does.
Reply:I think you may be referring to a post that I submitted a few months ago.  I was asking about whether or not it would be beneficial to hardface a mower's blades to prolong time between sharpening as I know several guys who have lawn mowing services on their days off from the fire department.  What I was generally told is that it would be cost prohibitive.  A new set of blades for a standard, or even comercial mower is pretty cheap, so why even bother?  I did try to harface one old mower blade that I had laying around, and it didn't work well for me.  I tended to burn the blade back so badly that it didn't look like I would be able to resharpen/balance the blade again.  That was with SMAW though, TIG might work better.Contact me for any metal polishing needs you may have, my avatar is a pic of a standard, painted fire axe that I ground, sanded polished and buffed to a mirror finish.
Reply:Originally Posted by txfireguy2003I think you may be referring to a post that I submitted a few months ago.  I was asking about whether or not it would be beneficial to hardface a mower's blades to prolong time between sharpening as I know several guys who have lawn mowing services on their days off from the fire department.  What I was generally told is that it would be cost prohibitive.  A new set of blades for a standard, or even comercial mower is pretty cheap, so why even bother?  I did try to harface one old mower blade that I had laying around, and it didn't work well for me.  I tended to burn the blade back so badly that it didn't look like I would be able to resharpen/balance the blade again.  That was with SMAW though, TIG might work better.
Reply:Blades are cheap compared to replacing a bent shaft.  I think I'd rather have a blade that will take a big dent than one so hard that it bends the mower shaft, but stays sharper.