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Any gardener who really wants to be effective in the garden needs to take care of his tools,
and your tools, if you maintain them and take care of them,
can really last you a lifetime.
Now, with tools like shovels and hoes,
when you buy them new from the nursery or the garden center,
they're actually not quite sharpened,
so even with a brand new tool, you'll want to do some sharpening on it.
Now, with a shovel, it's important to have just one nice beveled edge on the shovel.
I like to clean the shovels first with a wire brush
to get any kind of rust that's built up or dirt off of them.
You might even want to go in with some 4-0 steel wool to do any fine rust that's on them,
and take care of the handles, too.
If you've got wooden handles, rub them with some fine steel wool or fine sandpaper
and then go over them with some boiled linseed oil,
and for a very, very dry handle, you may need to do three or four applications of linseed
oil
to help keep that wood in good shape.
Now with your fiberglass-type handles, just wash them very well with some soapy water,
and that will keep them in good shape.
When you're sharpening what you'll want to do for this type of tool
is used what's called a *** file or a mill file,
and typically with your files, you'll have on your *** file,
teeth that go in two directions.
And those two-directional teeth will take off more material,
so when you're starting out, you'll use that type of tooth.
Some files will have teeth in two directions on one side
and then in one direction on the other side,
so you'll start out with your filing with the two-sided teeth,
and then finish off with the one-sided.
I also like to use a file that's got a handle; I think it's just easier on your hands,
and at least a ten inch file.
Wear gloves when you're doing this,
and when you're sharpening your shovel,
you want to hold the file at the same direction as the bevel on the shovel.
Now, if you're cutting sod, you'll want quite a nice, smooth, fine edge,
but if you're going to be doing something like shoveling gravel,
you don't really want a very fine, keen edge.
Feel the edge for rough spots and burs,
and continue filing if you need to get off any of the rough spots.
So you're just going in one direction.
I usually start from the outside edge, go to the point,
and then do the filing from the other side.
It's easiest to do this filing if you have a bench vice to hold the tool in place,
or if you're sitting and you can hold it between your knees, that works.
You could even use a bungee cord to hold it on to the table.
Now here this hoe I've got clamped to the table with some C clamps.
And again with a hoe, you're just going to file on one side,
so the tool already has a bevel,
you're going to hold your file in the same direction as that bevel
and you can go all the way down the tool,
or can just go in one way down the tool,
but especially with a hoe, you're going to do a lot better job of cutting through soil
and cutting through dirt clods if you've got a nice sharpened tool.
With things like loppers and pruning shears,
you're going to use a little bit different material.
I do like to use a household oil, not the spray-type oils, on my tools,
and you'll want to use a sharpening stone, or a whetstone it's called,
and oil that stone before you use it.
I keep my stone wrapped up in a cloth that's got some oil on it, too,
so it doesn't dry out between prunings.
Take your pruning shears apart, oil all the joints in them,
and for pruning shears that really need a lot of attention,
you may need to take them apart to actually do a good job of sharpening,
but use your sharpening stone--same thing with the sharpening stone,
you'll have one side that's more coarse, one that's more fine.
Start out with the coarse side; hold that stone at the same level as the bevel.
For this type pruner, you're only going to prune on one side of the purner,
you're not going to prune on the flat side,
so look at your pruners very carefully before you start pruning,
and that same type of application
will go for the big lopping shears or the small ones.
I like to carry a little pocket file in my pocket
so I can do a little shape-up pruning between cuts.
So keep your tools sharp. You'll find that you work not as hard,
you take better care of your plants,
and it will make your gardening go a lot better.