The Queen of Flowers will resent you if you attack her with dull rose scissors. Therefore, sharpen the blades carefully before each pruning. This guide explains how to do this professionally.
How can I properly sharpen my rose scissors?
To sharpen dull rose scissors, first disassemble them and clean the parts thoroughly. Then sharpen the blade with a whetstone at a 90 degree angle, smooth it on the fine-grained side, peel off the back and care for the joints.
Preparation work – tips on the right tools
In the home garden, combination sharpening stones have proven themselves ideal for sharpening all types of dull secateurs. High-quality products are made of corundum with one coarse-grained and one fine-grained side. Water stones are characterized by additional cooling of the blades so that their steel hardness cannot be lost due to frictional heat. Stones soaked in grinding oil, on the other hand, process the cutting edges more gently, so that the grinding process takes longer and causes greater wear.
So that you can work on the blades of your rose scissors with the whetstone, they are dismantled. With most commercially available scissors you will need a screwdriver and an open-end wrench. Clean all parts thoroughly with hot water or cleaning spray.
Water grinding stones take the longest preparation time. Before you can use these grinding aids, they must be placed in water for 4 to 5 hours.
Sharpening rose scissors - How to do it step-by-step
Once you have removed and cleaned the cutting edges of your rose scissors, the actual grinding begins. The following step-by-step instructions apply equally to bypass scissors with two sharp blades and anvil scissors with one blade and a blunt opposite side:
- Fix the whetstone soaked in water or grinding oil in a holder or place it on a wooden board
- Sharpen the blunt blade at a 90 degree angle on the coarse-grained side of the stone with slight twisting movements
- Then smooth this side of the blade on the fine-grained stone side
- Then peel off the backing on the fine side of the stone to clean it of any grinding burrs
Put the sharpened cutting edges back into the mechanism. Before you screw the rose scissors together, grease the joints. For example, chain grease for bicycles (€12.00 on Amazon) or Caramba multi oil are well suited for this purpose. At the end, tighten the retaining nuts until your pruning shears can just move smoothly.
Tip
Sharpen your grass shears regularly using this method. Smaller grooves are immediately smoothed out and do not degenerate into deep blade nicks. Thanks to this caution, you can save yourself the costs of a professional sharpening service or the investment in a wet grinding machine.
