Having dull blender blades can be very frustrating. Not only does it leave your blends looking rough and inconsistent, but it would also leaves your blender at risk of getting damaged in the future. To prevent this, it is important to know how to sharpen blender blades. This article would teach you all you need to know about sharpening blender blades, as well as provide you with a few tips on how to make sure the blades stay sharp for longer.
Before we jump into the process of sharpening your blender blades though, you need need a few tools.
Tools You’ll Need
- An adjustable wrench
- A cylindrical file (5/32”)
- Synthetic grease
- Q-tip
Now with that out of the way, let’s get right to it!
How To Sharpen Your Blender Blades Step-By-Step
Step 1: Detach Your Blender
Start by unplugging your blender from the outlet and detaching the jar from your motor unit. This is absolutely non-negotiable. Never attempt to handle blender blades when the device is still plugged in, and the jar attached.
Once the jar is detached, unscrew the base unit which houses the blades. This is the base part of the jar.
Step 2: Unscrew the Blades
Once the jar has been detached and the base unit unscrewed, it’s time to take out the blades. To do this, turn the base unit upside down. At the bottom, you will find a nut. This is what keeps the blades attached to the base unit. Using your adjustable wrench, unscrew the nut until the blades come off.
While most blender blades can be unscrewed this way, some blenders work differently. If you find that your blender doesn’t have a nut underneath the base unit or that there is some kind of mechanism preventing its removal, you might want to check out your user manual for how to unscrew your blender blades.
Step 3: Clean Blades With Soap and Water
Once the blades have come off, make sure you run them through soapy water and give them a good wash. Stubborn food particles can prevent your blades from sharpening properly.
You might find this article on how to clean Vitamix blades helpful.
After washing your blades thoroughly, make sure to dry them off. You wouldn’t want to sharpen your blades while they’re still wet. Not only are they harder to sharpen when wet, but wet blades can also lead to accidents when sharpening. You want to avoid those at all costs. Blender blades, even blunt ones, can still leave a nasty cut.
Step 4: File the Blades
After washing off the blades, the next step is to file them. This can get rather tricky though. Since these blades are often curved, you’d need a narrow file like the ones in this needle file set to get the job done. It’s easier to use these narrow files to navigate and sharpen the tiny blades of your blender as opposed to using a whetstone or a regular flat file.
After sharping the blades, you’d want to check to see if the blade is sharp enough. We do not advise testing the sharpness of a blade with your fingers. If you did a good job, you might end up cutting yourself. We recommend you use the fingernail test or paper test instead.
Step 5: Lubricate the Shaft
Most blender blades have a shaft that connects them to the motor unit on the blender’s base. Grab your synthetic grease and apply a little over the metal shaft. This is to prevent it from reducing the efficiency of the blades due to friction.
Don’t worry about the grease getting in into the blender. The shaft should have a rubber seal stopping liquid from flowing into the motor unit of the blender.
Once you’re done lubing, reinstall your blades, but don’t over-tighten them. Your blender should be functioning fine again, giving that smooth, consistent blend.
How to Maintain Your Blender Blades
Now that you know how to sharpen your blender blades, you should be fine right? Wrong!
It’s one thing to know how to sharpen your blender blades, but it’s another thing to know how to maintain them to avoid sharpening them too often. So how do you maintain the sharpness of your blender blades? What are the best practices for caring for your blades?
Here are some practices that you might find useful to extend the lifespan of your blender blades.
Load Your Blender Correctly
This is perhaps the most important maintenance tip which tends to be neglected too often. Haphazardly loading your blender puts too much stress on the blades, causing them to quickly get damaged or blunt.
When loading your blender, make sure to put in liquids first, then soft ingredients like fruits or leaves should come in next, and then the harder ingredients should come last.
Arranging them in the right order like this reduces the stress from your blades and makes it easy for the ingredients to ease into the blades because the weight on top would press in the blades, allowing the blades to start blending the easier first.
Doing it like this would protect your blade, making them function effectively and last longer.
Slice up Lage Pieces of Food
Perhaps you’re making a smoothie or fruit juice. Whatever it is you want to prepare, always slice up your ingredients into smaller bits. This relieves your blades of any unnecessary stress and also serves to give you a smooth and consistent blend.
Slicing up large pieces also reduces the chances of getting stubborn stains on your blender jar and blades, and also prevents your blades from getting dull quickly.
You might find this article useful. Are Ninja Blenders Dishwasher Safe?Increase the Blending Speeds
Always increase the speeds of your blender to the highest level because, this way everything blends faster, easier, and more efficiently. However, don’t start off at the highest speeds. Instead, ease into the high speeds by starting slow, and then slowly revving it up until you reach your blender’s speeds.
This also helps keep the motor unit cool because the cooling fan is fully maximized. Blending at low speeds will make the blending process take longer time, making the motor overheat.
Get all Ingredients Out
Make sure you get all the ingredients out of your blender, especially under your blender blades. To do this, you can use an under-blade scraper. This is like a squeegee for blenders that helps you reach under your blender to scrape out all the ingredients.
If that doesn’t work, you can use bananas and milk. Pour in a cup of milk and throw a banana into the blender you just finished using. Then blend them until you get a smooth mix. This would make it easier to wash off the ingredients stuck underneath the blades. There’s one more benefit to using this method; now you have yourself a healthy smoothie!
Conclusion
Now you know how to sharpen your blades. As long as you follow the steps listed above, you shouldn’t have any problems.
You can sharpen your blades once every six months to get the best results out of your blender blades. However, if you carefully follow the maintenance tips you shouldn’t have any problems within a year or two.