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To have fun and ease gardening yearly, there is a great need for you to ensure that your gardening tools are working perfectly as they should.
By working perfectly, we mean sharpening the various essential gardening tools that aid effective planting, cultivating, weeding and many others.
You might be wondering at this point what must be those tools that you can use to sharpen your gardening tools. To unravel them, keep scrolling and reading.
Essential Sharpen Garden Tools And How To Sharpen Them
Below are the various essential garden tools that are used in the garden and the way that they can be sharpened for long-lasting use.
1. Sharpening Pruning Tools
By pruning tools, we are referring to those gardening tools that are used to remove or cut the back parts of a plant or plants that could be harmful to the growth of the plant as well as its development and yielding.
Below are some of those tools under this category:
A. Secateurs And Loppers
For a long-lasting use of these tools (Secateurs and Loppers), you have to sharpen them as not doing so can result in them becoming blunt while in use. This can lead to damage to the plants when pruning them.
To sharpen these tools, you should use a diamond tool or whetstone or sharpening steel.
Having known this, let’s quickly walk you through how best to make use of a diamond tool to sharpen the secateurs.
A. The first thing to do is to loosen and remove the central nut.
Do well to do it carefully. You can disassemble the parts on a piece of a kitchen towel or cloth.
Afterwards, you can spray WD-40 on it and soak it to loosen the dirt.
B. Clean the blade of the tool before proceeding to sharpen it out. This will help you to properly observe its condition.
C. There are different sides to the blade sharpening but it is recommended that you start firstly with the coarse side.
D. Sharpen the angled side of the blade only. Hold the blade and run the diamond tool on it.
E. Apply enough pressure along the blade to expose some new shiny metal as well as on the tip.
To help with sharpening the blade evenly, you can mark it with a marker pen. This will clean off eventually when you start sharpening the blade.
F. You can buff along the blade in a circular motion but ensure that you do some neat smoothie of the metal in one direction.
G. Check the blade with every sweep as blunt and damaged blades usually take longer to sharpen.
H. Use the fine side of the diamond sharpener to give a smooth finish to the blade. For better smoothing, you can do 2-3 sweeps.
I. Check for any burr on the flat side of the blade. Afterwards, you can remove the diamond sharpener flat across until it’s removed and smooth to the touch.
Please ensure that you don’t sharpen the flat side of the blade as it will cause huge damage to the cutting side of the blade.
J. Once it is clean, you can reassemble the blades. Put a few drops of general-purpose oil or a smear of Vaseline onto the central pivot and spring it.
Doing so will help to improve the movement of the blade as well as reduce the amount of stiffness in it.
K. You can test the sharpness of the blade by cutting through any sheet of paper close to you. It should be cut cleanly with minimal effort. A blunt pair of secateurs would fold and crush the paper rather than cut it.
The best type of sharpener for a large pruning job is the pocket-sized diamond.
More Garden Tools:
B. Garden Knives
Another pruning tool is a garden knife. They are different types of garden knives and each of them has its purpose with different unique blades.
A gardening pruning knife usually has a curved blade while a grafting knife has a rectangular blade.
In the garden, there is a need for each knife. While the all-general-purpose knife is highly needed, the grafting and propagation knives need to be razor-sharp for a much better outcome.
Just like the secateurs, you can also use a diamond tool or sharpening steel.
Let’s look at the best ways to use a diamond tool.
A. Firstly, you need to clean the blade with WD-40 before starting.
B. Prepare your stone before use.
All you need to do is to apply a small drop of the general-purpose oil to the abrasive side of the stone or you can soak it in the water for up to 5-10mins. This depends on the type of stone in question.
C. Knife blades can have one or two sides to sharpen likewise a pocket knife usually which has one bladed side and one flat, like secateur blades.
D. Push the blade up the stone away from you with firm controlled pressure, in one motion keep the blade running along the stone, at an acute angle of the blade.
E. While sharpening, do well to examine the blade with every sweep of the stone, looking for new shiny metal that is smooth, sharp, and evenly exposed.
F. Prepare the fine side of the stone with oil or water, before finishing the sharp side of the blade with 2-3 sweeps.
G. With a double-sided blade sharpen both sides evenly, to keep the blade balanced.
H. On a single-sided blade, check for the flat side for any sharp burr.
If you notice any, remove it by running the flat side of the blade and flat across the stone a couple of times.
Avoid not sharpening the side of the blade as this will affect the cutting impact.
I. Test sharpness by holding up a sheet of paper and gently resting the blade on the top edge.
The knife will cut through with minimal effort.
J. Wipe the blade clean and store it somewhere clean and dry.
C. Garden Shears
Some garden shears such as hedging shears, sheep shears, and lawn edging shears usually come with a specially-designed sharpener that’s mainly for each brand. For some other shears without any specific brand of sharpener, you can sharpen them with general sharpening tools.
2. Sharpening Cultivation Tools
Just like the pruning tools, there are also cultivating tools such as hoes, diggers, spades, and so many others. It also needs to be sharpened especially if you start noticing any form of blunt on the blades of the tools.
Below are the ways that you can sharpen the tools.
A. Fix the shaft of your hoe or spade in a workbench vice, with the front side facing upwards.
B. Then, you should begin first to work at the nicks with a metal file and push it away from you across the blade while keeping it at the same angle.
Spades tend to be flat while hoes may have a very slightly sloping angle. So ensure that you work on it slowly and evenly along the blade.
Please note that while sharpening it, avoid making the blade too thin as it will affect its strength.
C. You should turn around the tools to ensure that there is no burr on the tip of the underside of the blade and if it is, do well to remove it.
D. Ensure that you repeat this process with whetstone if you wish, for a finer finish on the blade.
For long-lasting use after sharpening, it is highly recommended that you sharpen the tools at least once or twice a year depending on the level of usage.
Best Essential Sharpening Tools
Below are the best essential sharpening tools that are most recommended to use for your gardening tools.
1. Whetstones
These are blocks of fine-grained stone that are divided into two different types depending on whether they need oil or water for lubrication to help the blade glide across the stone.
Any type that you choose to use is suitable for sharpening blades like knives and secateurs. All you need to do is to ensure that the correct lubrication is used, otherwise, the stone will spoil.
2. Diamond-Coated Sharpening Tools
These come in many shapes and sizes. They are good for specially pocket-sized tools such as secateurs and knives while diamond-coated files are suitable for spades and hoes.
3. Sharpening steels
These are typically used on kitchen knives and they are good for maintaining garden blades such as loppers.
4. Files
These files usually help to make light work while sharpening the cultivation tools such as spades and hoes.
Just pick the suitable one to work with on your metal tools.
5. Camellia oil
This oil is used especially when the tools are lean and sharp.
The Japanese who are the most people that make use of this oil use it to keep blades moving freely and prevent rust.
6. Abrasive material
These refer to all those materials that can be used to remove leaf sap such as a washing sponge, fine wire wool, or a special cleaning block.
The best abrasive is Liberon’s ultra-fine wire wool especially if you want to clean up the look of metal blades.
It’s made from steel and shouldn’t crumble as you go. You’ll get a meter-long strip of wool in this pack.
- House Plants That Starts With Q
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- Houseplants That Start With L
FAQs
1. What Are The Three Types Of Sharpening?
The three types of sharpening stones are water stones, diamond stones, and oil stones.
Each of these stones has its unique advantages that can help a gardener as well as any user to achieve their sharpening goals.
2. What Is A Sharpening Tool Called?
Honing steel which is sometimes referred to as sharpening steel is a rod of steel, ceramic, or diamond-coated steel that’s used to restore keenness to dulled blade edges.
3. What Are The Top Five Gardening Tools For Professional Gardeners?
The top five gardening tools include
A. Telescopic Pruner.
B. Hoe.
C. Hand Trowel.
D. Rake.
E. Shovel.
4. What Is The First Step In Sharpening Your Garden Knife?
The first step in sharpening your knife is to decide whether or not you need to hone or stone your knife.
After repeated use, the burrs that run along the blade of your knife begin to fray causing dullness.
Depending on the level of dullness, you may only need to hone your knife to realign those burrs.
5. What Is Mostly Used In Sharpening?
The most recommended sharpening tool is Abrasive, especially on your blade.
Some common abrasives include diamond, tungsten carbide, alumina oxide, and natural and ceramic stones.
Conclusion
For better gardening yearly, there is an important need to examine your tools and work on them if need be depending on the suitable sharpening tools which we hope that you have been enlightened about in this article.
If the information has been helpful, do well to relate how it has an impact on your knowledge about gardening.
Don’t forget to recommend us to your friends and family who love to know more about gardening.
