Pinch Scissors

Similar to how to care for your secateurs, the key to a long life for your shears is to be sure to maintain them well through regular cleaning & sharpening. As well as ensuring you use them the way there intended to be used. 

Correct use of your Snips, Shears & Clippers:

• Keep them sharp & oiled, sharpen after every use
• Japanese steel is hard and sharp, and can be more brittle than people are used to - it will chip if abused.
• Do not cut wire, metal, stone, plastic or any other hard material (even bamboo fibres and some very hard woods, especially knots and burrs, can damage steel edges).
• Do not twist or apply uneven pressure.
• Shears and clippers are to be used on fine green growth only, no woody stems. 
• Cut diagonally across branches, not horizontally or straight across.
• Watch out for maximum cut lengths, shears are not loppers or secateurs.
• Use the base of the blades, not the tips, for heavier cuts.

Cleaning & Sharpening:

The first rule of thumb is to keep them clean & sharp... Shears, in particular, like to be sharpened with every use.

Click here for a detailed guide on how to clean and sharpen your Japanese pruning tools.

Click here to download The Gardener's Kit Guide to Cleaning & Sharpening your Japanese Pruning Tools

We recommend that you clean, sharpen, oil - in that order and be sure to sharpen before the blades get blunt. 

How Often?
It's a common question - how often should I sharpen my cutting tools? Short answer is, it depends on how frequently you use your tools.
Here are recommendations based on frequent use; you can judge from there if you don't use your tools often.

• Secateurs:  every couple of weeks if you use them daily. Click here to watch the experts at Okatsune sharpen secateurs. 
• Shears:  daily, or even throughout the day, when you’re using them intensively. Especially if clipping boxwood. Click here to watch Jake demonstrate how to sharpen the Niwaki shears
• Saws: clean and dry saws after every use. Impulse hardened blades do not need to be sharpened. Click here for our Guide to Saw Care 

How To? 

1. Wipe off soil and mud (you should get in the habit of doing this and then drying your tools at the end of each workday).
2. Clean built-up gunk and rust off the blades with the Abrasive Cleaning Block or Crean Mate rust eraser.
3. Do a detailed sharpening with a whetstone or two - see below for 'Which Grit' to use. Soak your sharpening stone in water for a couple of minutes before using. Unless you are very handy, don’t take your secateurs and shears apart – it’s very difficult to get the double-locking bolt back together and the blades properly aligned.
4. You can sharpen on-the-go with the Swiss Istor carbon steel sharpener, but a light touch is required - you don't want to grind off too much steel.
5. Use the Twin Diamond File or the Niwaki grey #220 grit sharpening stone to restore damaged blades.
6. Apply Camellia Oil to lubricate and protect blades after cleaning. You're done!

If you don’t like sharpening yourself, or don’t have time for it, use our in-house sharpening service. 
 
Which Grit?
The appropriate whetstone grit depends on the type of steel, how long it's been between sharpening sessions, and whether there’s been any significant damage to the blades.
We recommend using the manufacturer's recommendation for the tools that we sell.

• Okatsune #400 grit - for regular sharpening of all Okatsune products; also good for Felco
• Niwaki #220 grit (grey) - this is a coarse stone, use for rough/damaged blades
• Niwaki #1000 grit (brown) - for regular sharpening of all Niwaki, Tobisho, Kurumi blades.
• Niwaki #3000 grit (sand) - this is a fine polishing stone, use for detailed work on high quality steel

 
Click here for the full collection of Japanese Tool Care products

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Is available from our Vic West Showroom, in Victoria BC.

Directions & store hours can be found HERE

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