How to Maintain and Care Your Gardening Tools
When buying brand new gardening tools, you’ll most likely have something of low price/low quality as well as higher-priced/high-quality tools.
Quality tools are supposed to last years, but they should be cared for and consistently maintained.
In case you choose bargain-priced equipment, maintaining them is much less of a situation because if they wear out, you can throw them out.
When fresh gardeners search for advice on gardening tools, I recommend buying the best you can afford.
Shears and pruners You can buy at your local discount stores. However, small hand tools are among the most heavily abused in your Garden.
It’s smart to invest the extra few bucks for tools that will last over many seasons and perform well under continuous use.
Consequently, you’ll want to apply good care of them to protect the money you invested a minimize the chances of spreading weed seeds or soil-borne pathogens all over your yard. Maintain and Care Your Gardening Tools
I know — it is easier said than done, right?
However, tool maintenance doesn’t have to be a real struggle. If you take a couple of minutes after every use (even every few uses) to take care of your tools, you’ll save yourself countless hours of elbow grease at the end of the season.
No matter the quality, preserving your garden tools frequently can help to assure that they’ll be prepared to go to work on the next garden job.
Following a few simple rules are going to add years of living and use to every one of the tools which were created, making your gardening chores easier.
So here are few tips on How to Maintain and Care for Your Gardening Tools.
Always get rid of all the dirt out of your digging equipment after each use. Commonly hosing is all it requires, but work with a screwdriver to get rid of caked or perhaps dried mud.
Do not put your tools away damp. Leave them to dry completely before storing to avoid rusting as well as handle rot.
Once each back garden season, apply linseed oil into your wooden handles to help protect them.
After every use, wipe the metallic components of pruners, shears, and loppers with an oily rag. Alternatively, you can clean your equipment dry with a thoroughly clean rag, then spray gently with penetrating oil like WD40®.
Sharpen your cutting tools and also the blades of spades and shovels throughout the gardening season. A hone or perhaps whetstone must be utilized for sharpening cutting equipment. A file should be used to get rid of nicks and clean the advantage of your respective trowels and shovels.
Thoroughly clean some tools which have been utilized for chemical applications. Other chemicals and fertilizers will rapidly corrode on some metal parts.
For added rust prevention. Fill a five-gallon pail with builders sand and put a quart of brand new engine oil over it.
Use this as a shovel cleaner/oiler every time you set your equipment at bay.
Plunge each tool in as well as out the oily sand repeatedly after use. You are also able to utilize this bucket as being a shovel stand.
How to Sharpen Garden Tools
Shears
From long-handled pruning shears to shorter lawn gardening cutters or perhaps long-bladed hedge shears, these cutting blades can easily use down after a couple of months of work.
Shears have two beveled edges, bottom and top that each should be honed (trying to hone other portion of the blade is ineffective) to make sure you understand precisely where these bevels are).
The best part is that, with a bit of help from a clamp, a standard mill file could quickly provide shears back the edge they initially had with little effort.
In case you see the blade is nicked or perhaps bent, you might want to purchase brand new garden cutters and always use them on smaller-sized branches.
Important note: Shears – and nearly all of the various other resources on the list of gardening tools – also can rust over time or create thick layers of grime.
It is essential to remove dirt and rust before you begin sharpening. This’s precisely where high grit sandpaper is beneficial:
Hone the blades down to a nice shine before you start sharpening.
How to Sharpen Lawnmower Blades
The most challenging thing about sharpening a lawnmower mower’s blade is detaching the mower’s blade safely out of your lawnmower.
After the blade is carefully removed and kept in a vice, a big file is all you need to add an edge on the blade.
Just be sure you ensure you’re sharpening the right side of the cutter! When detached, it can often be hard to tell which way the cutting edge is facing.
Shovels
Flat-edged shovels usually do not need much honing, but shovels with a curved edge require sharpness of the edge to easily penetrate hard dirt, roots, other materials, and ice.
Keep this particular edge crisp by regularly cleaning as well as sharpening the blade.
A large file can help add a brand new edge. However, if the shovel has some severe dings & nicks, you will need a grinder to buff out the edge.
Knives
The odds are great you have a knife or two lyings around for small yard-related tasks.
Keep these knives sharp with a diamond honing stone or perhaps traditional whetstone and a bit of mineral oil.
In this event, you do not have to clamp anything down for just about any effective sharpening process.
Rake
You will find two standard types of rakes.
The first is a casual, little rake utilized to clean up lawn clippings and foliage – these do not have to be sharpened.
Nevertheless, there tend to be more heavy-duty rakes used to break up hardened dirt, find roots, and any other strenuous tasks.
These rakes can gain from a periodic sharpening to help keep them efficient: Small files could reach all over the tines and do an excellent job.
Hatchet or an Ax
You can undoubtedly sharpen your hatchets and axes; however, you require tough tools for the task.
A file can help maintain an edge on smaller-sized hatchets, but if your ax is completely worn down, you will have to make use of a grinder.
Remember that, unlike several other tools, axes could be honed on each side to improve the cutting edge.
How to Sharpen Garden Tools with a Hand Grinder
You will find angle grinders; anyplace tools are sold.
Larger hand grinders are obtainable, but the famous 4 in. and 4 1/2 in. grinders would be the correct size for many jobs.
You can purchase a cheap angle grinder tool, but for regular use or for demanding jobs like cutting cement or stucco, I would recommend spending a little more for a grinder with a better engine (look for a motor that draws five to nine amps).
Do not be fooled with cheap offers to buy the Hand Grinder. There have been cases where cheap Hand Grinders fell apart when working causing severe injuries or even death.
The capacity to deal with different accessories and discs is the thing that makes angle grinders very versatile.
Your angle grinder features a spindle washer as well as a spindle nut that you will install in various configurations to accommodate thinner or thicker disks or perhaps get rid of altogether if you screw cups and wire disks onto the threaded spindle.
Consult your manual for directions on mounting accessories and disks.
You will locate coarse disks for an angular grinder in any hardware store or perhaps home center.
Although almost all look identical, the disks are created for various jobs. Read the product labels.
Remember safety guidelines when working with power tools such as Hand Grinders.
Always wear protective goggles and gloves, as with any tool with high-speed spinning elements, be sure you have enough free space around your working spot.
It is essential not to have anyone around you when you operate Hand Grinder; if a rotating disk breaks, it may cause severe injuries or even death of anyone standing in 20 feet radius.
Conclusion
So if you apply these tips on How to Maintain and Care for Your Gardening Tools, you will have no problems with your tools.
People are lazy or forget to care for their garden tools, leading to imminent problems next year.
