Ok, time to fess up - did you clean your hand pruners before you put them away last season? If you've already started pruning, did you give them a good sharpening at the start of the season?
There are few tools we rely on more than our hand pruners, but most of us don't really take very good care of them. Keeping your hand pruners clean and sharp can make pruning less stressful on your hands and on your plants. Ideally it should be done several times a year, but at least give them some attention at the beginning or end of the season.
Don't let your pruners intimidate you. They're basically held together by a screw or nut and taking them apart to clean and sharpen is a simple process. (And no, putting them back together again is not magic either. You can do it.) This pictorial walks you through the steps of cleaning and sharpening hand pruners.
Comments
Thanks for the great reminder. And, sharp, clean tools = great advice!
Don’t forget to sterilize cutting tools between cuts so you don’t pass disease from one part of a plant to another part or from one plant to another. How often to sterilize? Depends on what you’re working on. Check out Linda Chaulker-Scott’s award-winning book, The Informed Gardener, for scientific detail on tool sterilization.
Although I sharpen mine by hand and clean and sterilize them regularly, I do take them into a machine shop each year for a big overhaul. I take them in in December/January to have them fixed up before I go into heavy pruning season in late winter/early spring. For about $5 a pair, my shears come out good as new. Sure, I could do it myself, but for that price, it’s worth it to me to pay someone else to do the big overhaul.