Keeping garden tools such as lawn mowers, pruning shears and loppers is suggested to be a very important function in every gardening book. However, keeping tools sharp is very difficult for most yardeners. Beware of using a powered grinding wheel. If you are not skilled with such a device, you can take much too much metal off your garden tool in a few seconds of not paying attention.

Sharpen Hand Pruners and Loppers The Easy Way

These tools benefit from some sharpening each year if not more often.  However, you do not need any fancy sharpening tool to do the job.  Would you believe a disposable nail file will keep a decent edge on bypass pruners and loppers.  Maybe it is not as sharp as a professional needs with pruning for hours and hours in a single day; but for yardeners the nail file does fine.

Simply try to get the nail file at about the same angle as the sharpened part of the pruner blade and with a  motion away from the blade; do not pull the file back towards you.  This way you take away a very small amount of metal and that means a sharper edge.  Test the sharpness by cutting a newspaper; if it makes a smooth cut it is sharp enough for your roses. 

Another trick to help keep your pruners in tip top shape is to clean the blade from time to time to get rid of the sap and other sticky stuff that adheres to the tool over time.  We use Krud Kutter for this job and for hundreds of other cleaning jobs in and around the house. 

For More Serious Sharpening Jobs

We believe that a homeowner should not try to sharpen the lawn mower blade. It is a complex task requiring special equipment.  Take the blade to a dealer; then it is done correctly.

AXE AND KNIFE SHARPENER

This is a very handy tool to have in the tool shed.