The queen of flowers resents you if you attack her with blunt scissors. Therefore, sharpen the blades carefully before each pruning. These instructions get to the heart of how to do this professionally.
Roses should never be cut with blunt scissors
Preparatory work - tips on the right tool
Combi sharpening stones have proven their worth in the home garden for sharpening blunt pruning shears of all kinds. High-quality products consist of corundum with a coarse-grained and a fine-grained side. Water stones are characterized by additional cooling of the blades, so that their steel hardness cannot be lost due to frictional heat. Stones soaked in grinding oil, on the other hand, work the cutting edges more gently, so that the grinding process takes longer and wear is greater.
It is dismantled so that you can work the blades of your pruning shears with the sharpening stone. With most commercially available scissors you need a screwdriver and an open-end wrench. Thoroughly clean all parts with hot water or cleaning spray.
Water whetstones take the longest preparation time. Before you can use these grinding aids, they must be soaked in water for 4 to 5 hours.
Grinding scissors - how to do it step-by-step
Once you have removed the blades from your pruning shears and cleaned them, the actual sharpening begins. The following step-by-step instructions apply equally to bypass shears with two sharp blades and anvil shears with one blade and a blunt opposite side:
- Fix the whetstone soaked with water or grinding oil in a holder or place it on a wooden board
- Grind the blunt blade at a 90-degree angle on the coarse-grained side of the stone with slight rotating movements
- Then smooth this side of the blade on the fine-grained side of the stone
- Then hone the back on the fine side of the stone to clean any burrs
Put the sharpened blades back into the mechanism. Before you screw the pruning shears together, grease the joints. Chain grease for bicycles or Caramba multi-oil, for example, are well suited for this purpose. At the end, tighten the retaining nuts until your secateurs just run smoothly.
tips
Use this method to sharpen your grass shears regularly as well. Smaller grooves are smoothed out immediately and do not develop from blade nicks that are too deep. This care can save you the expense of a professional sharpening service or investing in a wet grinder.