Sharpening Your Tool Maintenance
By Kay DiVerde
Every tree care enthusiast knows that using good, a sharp tool is essential to make a clean, smooth cut. Smooth surfaces heal quickly and promote the growth of new bark to cover the wound. Ensuring that you make a proper cut requires the initial purchase of quality products, regular maintenance of the tools and an occasional blade sharpening. Knowing how to sharpen different types of tools and when to use a professional sharpening service is essential for keeping your pruning tools in razor-sharp condition.
In addition to sharpening your tool blades on a regular basis, you need to provide routine maintenance to your tools. Keep the moving parts oiled and tight. The most important care you can give your tools is to wipe the blades clean after EVERY use. Dirt left on the blades can dull or nick the blades. Sap can be removed from blades with a cloth dipped in kerosene. Diseases from wood can be passed from one tree or bush to the next on your pruning tools. To disinfect your tools, remove diseased wood and prepare a mixture of equal parts of household bleach and water to dip your tool. Be sure to wipe off any excess moisture with a dry cloth. To prevent rust, wipe the tool blades with an oily rag before storing.
At the beginning of each pruning season, take the time to check over your tools. Tighten and oil the moving parts, and also the springs. Wipe linseed oil on unvarnished wooden handles. And now, the best thing you can do for your trees and shrubs is to only use sharp blades to trim them.
| Ensuring that you make a proper cut requires the initial purchase of quality products, regular maintenance of the tools and an occasional blade sharpening. |
Be familiar with your tools before attempting to sharpen them. Anvil-type blades, for example, only need one blade sharpened, and that blade must be sharpened on both sides. The edge must be perfectly straight or it will not rest true against the flat opposing anvil. Stems may cling together with a few threads of plant tissue after each cut. You need to sharpen both blades of bypass lopping shears, hedge shears and bypass hand shears. You need to sharpen each blade only on the outside edge because their blades cut as they slide past each other.
To sharpen pruners, loppers or manual hedge shears, you will need a file and a grindstone, carborundum stone or whetstone. Use a file to remove metal when a blade has been nicked. Prior to using a whetstone, soak it thoroughly in either water or lightweight oil. Continue to add drops of the liquid to the stone while sharpening the blades. The liquid is used to float away particles that are ground off. To sharpen a blade, hold it against the whetstone, maintain the existing angle on the blade's edge. Continue to move the blade or whetstone in a motion like you were cutting off a thin slice from the whetstone. Some tools, such as clippers and hedge shears, are easier to clean, sharpen and oil when taken apart. If you do take a tool apart, do it with care and line up the parts in the order you remove them. This way, putting it back together won't be as frustrating.
Some saws require special treatment to sharpen. Triple-edge toothing on saws require special care to sharpen and impulse hardened blades cannot be sharpened. Sharpening chainsaws can be very tedious and dangerous work. With these difficult sharpening jobs, it is often safer, more cost-effective and less frustrating to hire a professional to do the sharpening or to just buy a replacement blade.
To get the longest life out of your yard tools, regular care and maintenance is required. Keep the blades clean and sharp to provide the cleanest cuts. And when you are not using your tools, store them in a location that is dry and out of the reach of inquisitive young gardeners. You will soon learn that if you provide your tools with proper care, they will return the favor by treating your trees and shrubs with kindness.
Kay DiVerde is a freelance writer, horticultural researcher and consultant for Orchard's Edge. DiVerde also writes for a variety of newsletters and publications in the Midwest.
