How to sharpen and look after your garden tools

A blunt spade makes you do the work the steel should be doing

Most people have never sharpened a spade and are surprised to hear that you're meant to, and then they do it once and they can't believe the difference, because a sharp edge cuts roots instead of bouncing off them and you finish a bed without your shoulders aching. Same with a hoe. A sharp hoe slices weeds off at the surface and a blunt one drags them out with a lump of soil attached.

None of this is hard. It's just unfamiliar, and those are different problems.

Clean it before you sharpen it

Get the dirt and the rust off first, because sharpening over rust just makes rusty shavings and wears out the file. A wire brush does most of it. For anything really pitted, a soak in vinegar overnight lifts rust off without much effort, then brush it off, rinse it, dry it properly and oil it straight away, because vinegar leaves bare steel that will flash rust in a day if you walk away from it.

Find the bevel and follow it

Nearly every garden tool is sharpened on one side only. Look at the edge in the light and you'll see the angle that's already there, and your job is to keep it rather than invent a new one.

Clamp the tool or brace it on a bench. Push a flat file along the bevel in one direction, lifting it off on the return rather than sawing back and forth. Keep going until you can feel a fine burr on the flat side, then take that burr off with one or two light passes on the flat. That's it. A spade wants a fairly blunt working angle because it hits rock and root, so don't chase a razor edge on one, you'll only chip it.

Pruners and secateurs are the exception worth learning properly. Only the outer face of the cutting blade gets touched, never the flat inner face that runs against the anvil or the counter blade, and a stone gives you a better finish there than a file will.

Oil it, and oil the handle too

Bare steel rusts fast in a shed. Wipe a light oil over the metal after every clean and it stops, and that includes the shears you're about to hang up for months.

Timber handles are the part everybody forgets, and a cracked handle is how a good tool ends up in the bin. Sand the rough bits back and rub raw linseed oil in, let it soak, then wipe the excess off. Do it once a year and the handle outlasts you.

When the handle goes, replace the handle

This is the bit worth knowing, because a snapped handle on a decent Cyclone tool is not the end of the tool. We carry replacement handles for the shovel, the rake, the hoe, the mattock, the axe, the hatchet and the block splitter, and fitting one is a job for an evening.

That's the whole argument for buying the decent tool in the first place. A cheap set gets replaced entirely when one thing breaks. A forged one gets a new handle and keeps going.

Or bring it in and we'll do it

We run a tool sharpening depot at the shop. Saw blades and planer blades go out and come back properly sharpened, and if you've got something you're not sure about, bring it in and we'll tell you honestly whether it's worth sharpening or whether the steel has had it.

Shop related products

• Supercraft Combination Bench Sharpening Stone. Coarse on one side, fine on the other, and the right thing for secateurs.
• Supercraft 250mm Surshape Flat File. For spades, hoes and mattocks.
• Weldclass 4-Row Hand Wire Brush. The first thing that touches a rusty tool.
• Diggers Boiled Linseed Oil 1L. For timber handles, and it dries faster than the raw.
• Diggers Raw Linseed Oil 4L. The bigger tin if you're doing handles and outdoor timber at the same time.

Did you know the Cyclone garden tool range is in store rather than online, which is 39 lines covering forged spades, shovels, hoes, mattocks, rakes, pruners and loppers, along with all 7 replacement handles. We also carry a diamond sharpening steel and chainsaw sharpening kits. None of that is on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.

The rest is in the hand tools range and the garden centre. If you want the honest answer on whether a tool is worth saving, bring it to the counter and ask Elroy, who we call Guru for good reason.

More from the garden

• How to build a trellis for climbing vegetables
• How to build better soil in any garden
• When a garden pest is worth spraying, and when it is not

I own a very good file and I keep it somewhere very safe, which is why I can never find it.

Candeece

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