A gardening hobby may be enjoyable through regular sharpening garden tools. Unluckily, most gardeners have experience with wounded hands and hands resulting from dull garden tools like hoes or pruners. Any gardener can enjoy gardening a bit if the gardening tools work perfectly as it has been designed. This may happen only if you only know how to sharpen garden tools.
We are here with how you can do that. Use the following steps about how to sharpen garden tools to make them garden tools working perfectly:
Step 01: Check Garden Tool to Estimate Requirements
Verify that your tool is rust-free and clean. For further details, see the cleaning and rust removal articles. Look for any components that are deformed or that require alignment. On bypass blades, pay close attention to where the blades connect. Fix your tool as necessary. Look for any nicks or other damage on the cutting edges that will require extra care.
Step 02: Make Ready Tools/Supplies for Sharpening
Take the tool apart if required. With the exception of superior hand pruners, this is uncommon but occasionally necessary (e.g., when a blade nick necessitates placing the instrument in a vice for more involved operation).
Select the appropriate sharpener for the tool that has to be sharpened:
- 10″ mill file (bastard file) for big blades such as hoes and shovels and spades.
- For pruners and other tiny instruments, smaller files are better (hand size diamond files are perfect)
- If desired, one may utilize warm stones.
Adapt your sharpening technique to the unique requirements linked to a certain tool’s characteristics or state. To sharpen a blade that is extremely dull or chipped, for instance, use a coarser file or stone. Additionally, keep in mind that certain tools—like the Felco pruners—are composed of very hard material and call for a diamond file rather than a steel one.
Step 03: Right Ways for Sharpening Tools
Never sharpen the incorrect side of a hoe or shovel, or the rear of a bypass style cutter. Only sharpen the edges that need to be sharpened on the instrument that you are now using.
Keep your angle at the right place when sharpening the tool. This is often the angle of the tool’s edge already. Additionally, maintain the same angle over the whole blade.
Avoid sawing back and forth in one spot, which will cause the blade to develop grooves, and instead make large sweeping strokes the whole length of the cutting edge.
If substantial sharpening is required, you may often start with a coarser file and work your way up to a finer one. There are two grades on either side of the pocket-sized diamond file I use for smaller instruments and the 10-inch steel file I use for bigger ones. Use the coarser file only when required.
Once the blade is sharp, run the sharpener down the blade while keeping it flat on the blade to remove any burrs from the rear of the blade.
Step 04: Additional Sharpening Factors
Make sure you are using the file correctly by moving your cutter in the direction that the file is intended to function in. The majority of files, though not all of them, are only meant to cut in one way.
If you have access to a power tool, you should use it for larger tasks like reversing the cutting edge of a hoe or shovel that was sharpened incorrectly, cutting back a significant amount of material to remove a serious nick, or sharpening a new instrument that was not previously sharpened. To put the initial edge on a new shovel, for instance, I use a shop sander. When using power tools, take care to prevent the blade from overheating.
Develop the practice of cutting toward the sharp edge rather than against it that is, without cutting so close to the edge that your bare hand may get caught in it.
When only a few passes with a fine file are required, it is recommended practice to regularly sharpen your equipment. My grandfather had a sizable garden and was an excellent gardener. He had at least a hundred feet in rows.
He would go outside early in the morning to hoe, and after completing a row or two, he would frequently be observed stopping to pull out his tiny whetstone and give his hoe a few swipes. He was a superb model, keeping his sword sharp in this way.
Final Thought
So, sharpen the garden tools to make gardening a bit enjoyable. Keeping gardening tool sharp provide more efficient gardening. You can enjoy gardening a bit after reading the above article about How to Sharpen Garden Tools.
