Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.
LJN's professional business forum is unrivalled and open to anyone within within the UK landscape industry
LJN's Business Objectives Group (BOG) is for any Pro serious about building their business.
For the researching visitor there's a wealth of landscaping ideas, garden design ideas, lawn advice tips and advice about garden maintenance.
Replies
You could do them yourself, its actually quite easy. Run a flat file along the blade at the same angle they are pre ground at, pretty much if it gets all the resin off so it goes shiny then its sharp, run the end of the file on the underside to take the little burs off and then that tooth is sharp again.
Oh OK, that sounds very easy. Will have to get a flat file. Is this a sharpening file? Hope I can get one at B&Q. Gives me something to do whilst the weather is so bad.
You can probably get them in B&Q but Oregon ones are top quality and cheap
http://www.frjonesandson.co.uk/products-page/oregon/sharpening-equi...
And then for a holder
http://www.frjonesandson.co.uk/products-page/oregon/sharpening-equi...
A wire brush to clean the file off every now and then (little and often better really). Each file lasts a few sharpens until its not really worth it anymore. Although I'd have thought that B&Q ones are likely to be a softer metal so might not last 1 sharpen.
Thank you Seth, they are close to one of my customers, so will pop in there and have a look one of these days. I will order from them online. Looks like good prices.
I always use an angle grinder........... much much quicker and does a nice job. If you haven't already got one, you can usually pick them up very cheap from places like Screwfix or even Aldi. Its important though to not get carried away and remove more metal than you need too + don't do too many passes of the grinder at once or you'll heat it up (you'll see it discolour to a bluish tint) and lose some of the hardening. Its also best to use the grinder such that the "disc" is rotating away from the blade cutting edge.... this stops you getting a "burr" on the edge and reduces the chance of the blade tip overheating. I find an HS86 single sided 30" blade takes about 10 minutes............ I hate to think how long that would take with a file.
About 25 minutes with a file for my HS87
can I please add that if this is your first time sharpening blades please use a hand file.
using a grinder is the quick option yes but it come's at a price
1, you will remove material very very fast which sounds fab until you realise that each tooth is shapend at different angles and some teeth are now smaller than others. this will result in a bad finish on its cut and also weak blade teath.
2, when using a grinder on blades unless your able to adjust the speed it operates at don't use it, you will be heating up the metal which will soften it up and risk deforming your cutting edge, also once you have what you think is a razor sharp blade you will find after the first use its probly not going to cut butter. this will be because you have a very soft cutting edge on the blade which will bend out as soon as material is cut against it.
there really is a lot to be said for a good set of flat files and a little bench mounted vice, this method may take about 2 hours to do properly but the result will last far far longer and will give a much better cut than if you went hacking at it with a grinder.
now im not saying you can't use a grinder full stop just making you aware of the problems I see all the time when people go at blades with powertools without knowing how to do it.
if you use a grinder you have it on medium speed with a grinding disc fitted (not cutting disc) and with very quick but light strokes inside to out along the tooth of the blade ensuring you are following the exact angle of the blade.
as seth said you are only looking for an even shine meaning all the dirt is taken off which will mean enough material has been removed to result in the blade being sharp
I use a dremel with a very fine grinding stone. The briefest of strokes, only ever a single stroke on each tooth. Little and often is always a good rule with sharpening anything, and it's a fairly fast job even with a file if it's done regularly.
On that note, when did you last sharpen your hoe? I've reminded myself it's overdue!
Thank you very much for the replies. I am going to do this manually. I don't feel confident in using the grinder etc.
Ditto to Paul,
I've used a dremmel for a few years. I started by using a stone bit to sharpen the blades. It took me a while to realise that all I really needed was a fine dremmel grit sanding band. It seems to do the job, generally taking off the build up of sap/dirt that builds up on the blades. The blades usually comes up shiny and sharp. I then use some felco 980 cleaning spray. It generally stops the sap from building up as quickly as it used to.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next