Cutting Thick Branches

Before you begin sharpening, buy yourself a new mill file. For best control get one that is 10 inches long (it will work best) for your hedge and prune shears and grass clipper too. To avoid getting confused read the packaging first, as it will tell you the best file to use for your garden tools. and believe it or not, ordinary scissor sharpeners will do a fine job on grass clippers, Honda generator EM 7000isAB.

When sharpening use long broad file strokes for your hedge shears, they sometimes take the most abuse. They were designed for cutting green wood with a thickness of no more than 3/8 inches thick and have at times been mistakenly used as pruning shears.

Cutting thick branches or dried wood can bend the blades and stress the pivot nuts on hedge shears when they are improperly used. Before sharpening check the pivot nut, if it isn't secure, tighten it, and if it cuts clean, the tool doesn't need sharpening.

Always make sure the blade isn't bent and if it is, place it in a vise and tweak it until it is straight. To file, place the blade flat on a piece of plywood and using 300 wet/dry sandpaper keep the blade flat and file in a circular motion with sand paper being careful to check for burrs. When burrs are smoothed out, lightly oil with 3 in 1 oil.