Signs It's Time To Sharpen Your Garden Shears (& How Often You Need To)

Shears are easily one of the most essential garden tools. They are typically used for either harvesting or removing dead plant growth at the stem. If you frequently use garden shears yourself, you might agree that it would be difficult to keep your plants looking healthy without them. Although these garden tools are undeniably helpful, they do not work nearly as well once they become dull. As a result, it is important to familiarize yourself with the signs that reveal it is time to sharpen your garden shears. The key indicator is when the tool begins crushing plant stems rather than easily cutting through them. If you keep up with routine tool maintenance, you should only need to sharpen your garden shears every six weeks.

Staying on top of routine garden shear sharpening will help you use them to keep your plants looking great. However, it will also protect the health of your plants. When dull tools crush stems because they are not sharp enough to slice through them, this makes your plants more susceptible to disease. Using sharp garden shears is clearly vital for growing a lush and healthy garden.

Ideally, you will sharpen your garden shears long before they become so dull that they no longer easily cut through your plants. Although most gardeners should sharpen their shears every six weeks, those who do not use them very often would not need to complete this task as frequently. If you only garden for four hours a week or less, shear sharpening only needs to be done one to two times a year at most.

To sharpen your garden shears correctly, you will need to take them apart by unscrewing the bolt in the center. Next, go ahead and clean each component. There is no need to purchase a special solution. Simply clean every part with a mild detergent and warm water. Use a scouring pad to tackle any stubborn spots. Dry each component with a cloth. Next, grab each blade and sharpen them one after the other with a water or oil-dampened whetstone by lightly scraping the angled side of the blade against the whetstone in one direction.

Transition onto a finer grain whetstone, and then a super fine file to get the blade completely smooth. Ensure that you sharpen the blade at 10 to 20 degrees. Be careful to not thin the blade edge to less than 1 millimeter. You will know that the blades have been sharpened enough once you shine a light against the edges and it does not reflect off of the metal.