Yes, two thoughts. One, you should be using 1084 if this is one of your first blades. Easy to get, cheap, and avoids the problems you're having plus it makes a better blade.
Two, lawnmower blades aren't 'hard' in knife terms - a real knife would be considerably harder. Lawnmower blades are made to be tough, if they were 'hard' they would break pretty quickly. That said, if you want to drill a hole in steel that is not fully annealed (which would include lawnmower blades) you need carbide drills. The proper drill would be a straight flute carbide drill but you would have to go to a machinists supply like MSC to find that. Your local hardware store will probably have carbide tipped masonry drills and they will work. They drill sloppy, ugly, holes in steel but they will punch a hole for you ...
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