Sharpening Tools and Maintenance Care
Forum Archives
tommyb
Location: Oregon, Willamette Valley
Posted: Jan-30-2005 at 10:04am
Good stuff, M.D.,
How about a lesson in sharpening/spring maintenance?
I'm an angle grinder\wire brush followed by bastard and fine tooth file guy, what do you do?
And do you do the same for your shovels and spades?
You mention bike lube for keeping things moving, do you use alcohol for cleaning or would WD 40 work?
TIA,
Tom
PS: You got any ideas on my strange tools posted in the Photo Gallery?
mdvaden
Location: Oregon, Western
Posted: Jan-30-2005 at 6:15pm
I use a bench grinder on my shovels, but I think I'll be using the angle grinder more on those. I keep one in my truck to sharpen shovels on-site.
I use a file on my loppers.
There is a great sharpening service in Beaverton, Oregon called DCP Sharpening that has sharpened my arborist saws as good if not better than new. They used to do surgical instruments, but stick to knives, saw chain and tools now.
503 - 644 -7379 for anyone near Beaverton. Many small engine repair shops accumulate orders for sharpening or for sharpening pick-up.
That lube I use is for lube only. I keep a tiny spray bottle of 5% bleach with water in the door pocket of my pickup to spray pruning tools as needed.
I heard that some tree workers are using cans of Lysol for convenience because it's so neat and handy.
M.D. Vaden
DebbieTT
Location: Washington, Kitsap Peninsula
Posted: Jan-31-2005 at 10:21am
When sharpening the loppers I always wonder if I am doing it right. Is it possible to describe the best method of sharpening. I use our knife sharpener. Is it like sharpening scissors?
mdvaden
Location: Oregon, Western
Posted: Jan-31-2005 at 9:12pm
My guess is that is would be more like sharpening a knife blade than scissors. Scissors seem to have rather abrupt angles to the cutting edges, whereas knife blades have an edge similar to about 6 to 8 degrees.
I'd like to try mine on the knife sharpener just to see how it turns out.
Pruners never seem to come with sharpening directions. It seems they expect people to look at the edge and take a guess at which surfaces and angles to sharpen.
Saw chain on the other hand has a lot of literature available. I don't keep any on hand since I've done it for a while. But saw chain has two angles involved. One angle to hold the file based on right-to-left, and another angle for up or down. Basically the file is held about 30 degrees to the left or right while simultaneously holding the handle downward about 5 degrees.
Saw chain sharpening is one of my least favorite chores.
I keep a permanent marker in my sharpening tray to mark the first cutter I sharpen on each side so I know when I've finished one side. A sharpened edge is usually more shiny, but often dirt covers the edge while it rotates through the saw.
M.D. Vaden

Gardening for the Homebrewer: Grow and Process Plants for Making Beer, Wine, Gruit, Cider, Perry, and More
By co-authors Debbie Teashon (Rainy Side Gardeners) and Wendy Tweton