With a blunt pruning shears, pruning your shrubs and trees will not end well. Frayed cuts provide a welcome target for diseases and pests on trees and shrubs. To prevent this from happening, prudent house gardeners sharpen the pruning shears before each use. This guide explains how to do it right.

If the pruning shears are not really sharp, they can quickly injure the tree or shrub

Tool requirements and preparatory work

As a sharpening aid for your pruning shears, we recommend a European combination sharpening stone, which is used with water or sharpening oil. This sharpening stone has two sides with different grit for coarse and fine grinding. Water-soaked sharpening stones also cool the blades and do not wear out as quickly as oil-soaked abrasives. In contrast, the grinding process with oil has a gentler effect on the cutting edges of garden tools. This preparatory work guarantees a smooth process:

  • Optionally soak the sharpening stone with grinding oil or soak it in water for a few hours
  • Meanwhile, disassemble the pruning shears into their individual parts using a screwdriver and open-end wrench
  • Thoroughly clean the removed blades with water or cleaning spray

Please note that an oil-soaked whetstone cannot later be used as a water whetstone. Therefore, to determine the best process for your needs, first test the effectiveness of a water-soaked sharpening stone.

Instructions - How to sharpen your pruning shears in an exemplary manner

Wipe the cleaned blades of your pruning shears dry with a cloth before you start the actual sharpening process. How to do it right:

  • Clamp the soaked grinding stone in a holder or place it on a wooden board
  • Press the sharpened side of the blade at a slight angle onto the coarse-grained side of the stone
  • In the cutting direction, slide along their curve with a minimal twisting motion
  • Repeat this process several times with each side of the scissors

Then turn the whetstone around. Slide each blade over the fine-grained side of the stone in a circular motion. All grinding burrs are thoroughly removed. Before putting your freshly sharpened pruning shears back together, carefully grease the joints. The oil gets to the hinges better if you move the hinges back and forth several times.

tips

If the blades of your pruning shears are covered with deep nicks, even a Japanese water sharpening stone can no longer do much. We recommend investing in a wet grinding machine so that extremely stressed pruning shears cut like they did on the first day. This precision device even sharpens sensitive grass shears like a razor.

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Care tips