The Yellow Farmhouse Garden

February 13, 2019

Sharpening my pruners

The recent ice storms caused some damage on my trees and shrubs. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be considering we had about a quarter of an inch of ice accumulation. I’ll need to do some extra pruning this spring to take out broken branches and that made me think about my pruning tools.

I got out my box of pruners and took a look at the ones I use the most for pruning outdoors. They are in pretty good shape but they do need some sharpening.

Years ago I bought a special sharpening tool designed for pruners from Corona Tools. It’s about about five inches long with a strip of carbide material brazed onto one end. The carbide is super hard so it can sharpen steel blades without ever getting worn out.

One of my Felco pruners and Corona sharpening tool.

One of my Felco pruners and Corona sharpening tool.

I use both Corona and Felco pruners as well as others. The sharpening tool works on all brands of pruners and similar cutting tools.

To use the sharpener, cradle the tool in one hand and draw the carbide toward yourself, over the length of the inside cutting edge bevel four or five times. Try to keep the angle of the tool at the angle of the original bevel. You don’t have to use much pressure.

Grasp the pruners like this to avoid contact with the blade while sharpening. This grip also gives you better control of the sharpening tool.

Grasp the pruners like this to avoid contact with the blade while sharpening. This grip also gives you better control of the sharpening tool.

Then turn the pruner over, gripping it to avoid being cut and rub once across the flat outside edge. Keep the tool flat on the blade to avoid creating a new “micro-bevel”. That’s it, you’re done.

A single pass straightens microscopic distortions on the cutting edge.

A single pass straightens microscopic distortions on the cutting edge.

I have several different small diamond files and others that I have used in the past and they work OK too, but I find the Corona tool is the easiest one to use. It is not designed to grind a new edge on damaged tools but it can be used to touch up the edges on loppers, shovels and other gardening tools. Be extra careful with loppers, their long handles make them a bit awkward to hold.

I have 14 different pruners, snips and secateurs that I use for different purposes. Now would be a good time to get them all sharpened up before the pruning season gets here.

Bob

January 12, 2017

Re-purpose broken window blinds into plant tags

A new winter gardening project presented itself yesterday. The frame on one of our window blinds snapped as I was pulling on the cord to open it and the whole works crashed to the floor.

As it turns out, mini-blind slats make fine pot markers, you know, those small white tags that gardeners use to identify trays and pots of seedlings. The slats are just about the same width as the markers that are sold in gardening departments every spring.

One big advantage homemade markers have over the garden-store variety is that you can easily cut them with a pair of scissors to whatever length you need, short ones for flats of seedlings, or longer ones for potted plants.

 

One set of broken window blinds will provide materials for years worth of plant tags.

One set of broken window blinds will provide materials for years worth of plant tags.

Homemade tags decreases the chance that seedlings will be mislabeled. Since each set of blinds will yield dozens of markers, you won’t be tempted to skimp on labels, that way every pot or six-pack divider can have it’s own tag.

Re-purposing old blinds reduces the amount of plastic debris that eventually finds it way into the landfill. And you save a few bucks along the way. Plus, it’s fun making your own gardening supplies and this happens to be a very easy project.

I’m looking at that high-quality braided pull-cord on those blinds too, but I haven’t figured out a use for that yet.

 

August 7, 2016

Correct way to sharpen a garden hoe

Filed under: Tools and Equipment — bob @ 8:12 pm

I’ve hoed a lot of long rows this season. Now it’s time to touch up the edge on my garden hoe.

The hoe I’ve been using for more than 15 years is a Dutch made, swan-neck style. Its light-weight head combined with a curved shank makes it a pleasure to use. As an added bonus it has an extra long handle which makes easier for a taller guy like me to operate. I don’t have to bend over in an exhausting, awkward position to reach the ground.

Nearly every hoe I’ve seen has the wrong bevel on the cutting edge. Right from the store, hoes often have a flat edge with no bevel at all. People take them home and immediately grind a sharp, angled bevel, like a wood chisel edge. That makes a very sharp edge but it does not last very long. It soon gets dull cutting through the soil. So gardeners end up working in their garden with a perpetually dull tool.

The proper way to form an edge on a hoe is to file a curved profile on the back of the hoe blade i.e. the side facing away from you when you use it. Keep the front of the blade metal flat, don’t grind it.

File the back of the blade, the side facing away from you when you hoe.

File the back of the blade, the side facing away from you when you hoe.

 

Imagine if you were to cut the blade in half with a hack-saw. Looking at the cross section of your blade edge with a microscope, you would see the front face ending at a right angle while the back face curves to meet the front edge.

Most of the wear on a hoe blade happens on the back side of the blade edge. A rounded back edge leaves much more metal on the side of the edge that is prone to wearing down.

You won’t be able to shave with that edge but it will last much, much longer in the garden.

Bob

 

November 2, 2012

My New Potato Digging Fork

Filed under: Tools and Equipment — bob @ 9:38 am

Earlier this week I was out in the garden digging the last of my potatoes.  I had the cold northern winds from hurricane Sandy to keep me company. So that gave me the incentive to get the job done before lunch.

I got a chance to use the antique potato-digging fork I found at an estate sale this summer. It’s a rather hefty tool with several heavy steel tines.  While I was standing in line to pay for it, a guy offered to buy it from me so his son could use it to spread bark mulch. If his son knew, I’m sure he would thank me for not selling it to his Dad. Then, a lady told me she wanted to take it apart and have a blacksmith bend it into a coat-hook. I was glad to save it from that fate.

At first, it was a real struggle wrestling that beast of a tool. I almost traded it for my lighter weight garden fork but decided to keep going.

The secrete I found was to use the weight of that steel to my advantage. By directing the downward force of the tool into the garden soil, I was able lift many more spuds with each forkful than with my garden fork.

I got the job done before lunch and have about 150 pounds of potatoes stored for the winter. The potato-fork has earned a permanent spot in garden tool collection.

June 13, 2012

My Hand-powered Rotary Hoe

Filed under: Tools and Equipment — bob @ 9:58 am

I own a lot of different kind of gardening tools. The most unusual one has to be my hand-held rotary hoe.

The single star is the front of the hoe. The handle pivots to allow the tool to be pushed or pulled.

Farmers have been using large rotary hoes for decades. These are non-powered tools, not to be confused with rotary tillers. They were especially popular in the days before chemical herbicides came into wide-spread use.

The design is basically a series of specially shaped discs mounted side by side on an axle 10 or 12 feet wide. There are different configurations; some discs are star-shaped, others have small spoon-shaped ends attached around the circumference of the disc.

To use a rotary hoe, the farmer pulls the hoe behand a tractor at a fairly fast speed. The star points enter into the soil at about  90 degrees — straight down. As it moves forward and  rotates, the point leaves the soil at an angle lifting some soil at the same time. This lifting action pulls up germinating weeds.

It is the weeds you don’t see — those still underground — that get destroyed. By the time you see the first leaves poking up out of the soil, it is almost too late to rotary hoe.

A rotary hoe in action runs right over everything in its path — the crop plants as well as the weeds. The crop plant, usually corn, is well-rooted and can’t be yanked out by the hoe. The leaves get torn up in the process but the corn plant recovers quickly.

Chemical herbicides, increasing labor costs, and high fuel prices caused most farmers to abandon their rotary hoe years ago. Many organic farmers still use them however.

My little hoe is a just a scaled-down version of those large,  farm implements. It actually works quite well whenever I remember to use it early enough.

What’s your most unusual gardening tool?

Bob

North Dakota State University has a good technical article about using a rotary hoe on the farm: http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/weeds/w1134w.htm

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