Homemade garden shears from scrap materials

It is very difficult to imagine working in the garden without the use of garden shears. They are needed for trimming bushes and removing weeds. Sometimes they are used to cut lawn grass or perform other work. Scissors are an indispensable household item that every gardener should have.

This tool can be easily purchased in a store where a wide range of different manufacturers is presented. And also try to make it yourself from scrap materials.

Most summer residents choose the second option. The design is quite simple, which allows you to do it yourself without special skills and knowledge, provided that they grow from that place. In addition, this is a good way to save money and at the same time purchase a reliable item that will last for many years.

This tool can be easily purchased in a store where a wide range of different manufacturers is presented. And also try to make it yourself from scrap materials.

Pros and cons of garden shears

The benefits of lawn scissors

can be attributed:

high maneuverability and accuracy of cutting (around benches and flower beds, decorating bushes and other types of fine work);
ease of use;
it is possible to work at any time (regardless of weather conditions, availability of electricity);
needed in landscape design;
do not harm the environment;
light weight.

of garden shears

One can highlight the fact that they do not cover a large part of the earth, but are responsible for small, inaccessible places. It is not easy to process large areas; it will require a lot of effort and time.

Why are garden shears needed? Main purpose of the tool

This tool should be classified as a hand tool. It is used to correct the length of shoots and thin branches. Used when caring for shrubs, grapes and tree crowns. Mostly necessary for landscaping the site and cutting off dried plant branches.

A standard pruner consists of the following elements:

working blade;
bolt;
nuts;
springs;
support blade;
buffers;
castle;
handles.

The success of a pruner is determined by the performance of the blade and its good cutting characteristics. The angles of the blade should be sharp to easily cut through plant stems, branches and other parts. Thanks to this, the process becomes correct, and the cut will ultimately be clean and smooth.

Important! The bolt must be tightened very tightly to ensure maximum operating torque.

After trimming, the spring facilitates the smooth return of the pruning shears to its place. Incorrect pressure can lead to breakage of the part, which will lead to malfunction of the tool as a whole. The support blade is slightly curved to reduce friction. There is a special dent on it through which juice flows.

But the lock helps to fix the pruning shears in their original position. This way you can avoid damage to the blade, as well as prevent the formation of any injuries.

Features of the Belarusian pruning shears for grafting trees

Belarusian grafting pruners, today, are characterized by amateur gardeners as one of the most reliable, easy-to-use, durable and high-quality tools. They have a typical design and have the following parameters:

the movement of the knife blade is carried out in a perpendicular direction to the handle;
the working part is made of high-strength and modern steel ST-20 coated with white zinc;
The knives are made of high-quality tool steel;
the handles are made of reliable steel alloy with silicone coating;
total weight does not exceed 0.45 kg.

The material of the handles is comfortable and easy to clean with a regular soap solution. The thickness of forged knives with double-sided sharpening is 0.3 mm. A special feature is the minimal gaps, as well as almost completely absent play in the moving part of the grafting drive.

How to make garden shears with your own hands?

The basis is 2 steel plates and two rounded travel guides. You will also need a bolt and nut to connect the parts together.

Tools you should take:

grinder;
welding machine;
device for bending labor and reinforcement.

A hole is drilled in the plate at a distance of 2.5-3 centimeters. Then you need to weld the round rods. The edges on the handles are slightly bent on the bending machine. This is necessary to make it more convenient to hold them.

Using a grinder, cutting edges are made on the plates. After this, the two halves of the homemade scissors need to be connected with a bolt and nuts.

The tool is thoroughly cleaned and, if necessary, polished. If desired, you can apply paint and get to work.

Preparing garden equipment for winter

Inspect garden equipment - a cultivator, a lawn mower or trimmer, a gasoline or electric saw. When starting the inspection, be sure to follow safety precautions: do not turn on the engine, disconnect the mechanism from the power supply.

Clean the housing from dirt, adhering soil and grass. Pay attention to the condition of the working parts (cutting surfaces, nozzles, fishing line, chain), be sure to clean them of rust, sawdust, and lubricate the metal parts with a special lubricant. Check the oil level and drain the fuel from the tank. Remove batteries from battery-powered equipment. For electrical tools, check the integrity of contacts and insulation.

You can check the condition of the engine of the equipment yourself, and if there is not enough training and experience, it is better to entrust this to a specialist. This also applies to repairs. It is not advisable to do it yourself, because... A minor breakdown can seriously damage the mechanism.

Shrub trimming shears

From a metal corner (25×25 mm in size) cut off 2 pieces (each 120 cm long). At a distance of 15 cm from one of the ends of both pieces, holes are drilled for the axle. After this, semicircular holes are drilled 7–8 cm from the other edge of the pieces of metal corner. These cutouts and the adjacent ends (10 cm each) of the corners are sharpened at an acute angle, and wooden handles are screwed (with screws) to the opposite ends.

This text is an introductory fragment.

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Timing of pruning

Timing of pruning The duration of the pruning season is determined by the biological characteristics of breeds and varieties and the weather conditions of the area. The main pruning is carried out in the cold season in the absence of plant vegetation. Pome-bearing species in a state of growth dormancy

Pruning technique

Pruning technique For trees, depending on their age and varieties, the pruning system is determined annually. The density of the crowns, the strength of growth, the type of fruiting, etc. are taken into account. If the strength of growth is small, especially in young trees, this may be the result

Timing of pruning

Main purposes of pruning

The main goals of pruning are the health and longevity of plants - sanitary and rejuvenating pruning, which is used for all plants, regardless of their role in the garden. At the same time, if sanitary pruning is a mandatory component of comprehensive care, then the question of

What types of garden shears are there: features of choice

When choosing long-handled garden scissors for cutting bushes and grass, consider first of all the volume and complexity of the work you intend to do with this tool. For example, for trimming hedges and decorative coniferous shrubs, as well as for creating a neat lawn, ordinary garden scissors with sharp, even knives are suitable. They can cut leaves, thin branches, and grass equally well. But to trim thick and tall hedges you will need a special tool.

In general, there are several types of hand garden shears, differing in their purpose:

for cutting grass - they are designed for precise and accurate cutting and leveling of the lawn in hard-to-reach places;
for cutting roses - help to care for the flower garden;
for hedges - help maintain order among shrubs and ornamental trees;
household multi-purpose scissors are a universal tool not only for working in the garden, but also for performing household tasks at home.

Using garden shears

Safety precautions when using scissors

Garden shears are a sharp tool; when working with them, you must be attentive and careful. Follow safety precautions when working with lawn shears.

Before you start working, you should check the scissors for functionality (the blades must be sharpened and all parts are in good condition).
Sharpening garden shears is the most important safety criterion. Today, the most popular and frequently used method of sharpening garden shears is laser. In addition to laser sharpening in production, it is necessary to sharpen scissors regularly and monitor the sharpness of the blades.
If your garden shears come with a replaceable battery, purchase a spare battery for continuous operation. The first one is working, and the replacement one is charging at this time.
An important rule when working with lawn scissors is to hold them correctly (with both hands). Since the blades of the tool are sharp, you can accidentally cut yourself while helping with the other hand.

It is not recommended to use third-party chargers, as the voltage may differ from factory settings. A higher voltage will reduce the time it takes to charge the battery, however, it will also quickly damage it, reducing its resource.
It is prohibited to use tools without their intended purpose; garden shears are not suitable for cutting tree branches.
Pass tools only from hand to hand; throwing them is strictly prohibited.
After finishing the work, you need to put the scissors back in the designated place.
Make sure that scissors are accessible to children; make sure that scissors cannot be reached by people who are prohibited from using them.

Rules for the care and storage of garden shears

In order for the site to be always beautiful and well-groomed, it is necessary to maintain order and aesthetic appearance. Various equipment and tools help gardeners with this. It is advisable to build a small shed or allocate a room for storing tools. Then all your inventory will be in one place, and it will not be difficult to find the necessary tool. After finishing work, be sure to wipe the scissors from leaves and dirt; do not leave the tool wet to avoid rust. Before use, check whether the blades are sharpened, sharpen them if necessary, and only then begin work. To store garden shears, get a separate box with solid walls. The room must be dry, since rust will appear from humid air, the metal will begin to deteriorate, and the garden shears will not be able to perform their main function. High-quality care of garden shears is the key to a long service life.

What are hand brush cutters used for?

If you have to do a standard hedge trimming, then large two-handed hedge trimmers with straight long knives are suitable for it. But for trimming larger shrubs and trees, it is better to take scissors with special blades that have serrated or wavy sharpening.

Thanks to such knives, the cut branches will not slip out of the tool, and pruning plants will be easier and more efficient.

To form neat and precise topiary shapes of shrubs, it is better to purchase straight brush cutters with short knives. This tool will help not only remove excess branches and leaves, but also give bushes and ornamental trees a curly appearance. Thanks to this method of pruning, interesting compositions are created from plants to decorate the landscape.

Many professional hand-held hedge trimmers today have reinforced handles with a lever or gear drive. Thanks to such handles, the load on the hands is reduced and the gardener does not have to exert much effort when cutting thick branches or when performing a large amount of work. And for working with tall bushes and hedges, scissors are made with telescopic handles that are highly flexible and durable due to their adjustable, securely fixed crossbars. With this tool you can reach not only high-lying branches, but also trim the lower part of the hedge without unnecessary bending and tiring your back.

Grafting pruner

Used in professional and amateur gardening. Makes it possible to obtain the highest percentage of survival rates , which is due to the exclusion of the human factor from the vaccination process.

Purpose and application

It is distinguished by a figured knife , which allows you to make a professional mirror cut, both on the scion and on the rootstock, after which you only need to accurately connect the parts. The grafting pruner is optimally suited for working with most fruit trees, and the success of the activities carried out when using such a tool exceeds 70-80%. The disadvantages include rare breaks in some areas of the junctions of the scion and rootstock.

However, the cuts obtained with a grafting pruner provide the smoothest and most even surfaces possible on the scion and rootstock. Excellent results can only be obtained by using high-quality raw materials in impeccable condition. It is optimal to purchase a set of knives with different configurations.

As a rule, the standard configuration includes three different knives: V-shaped, Omega-shaped and U-shaped . As an addition, it is recommended to take care of purchasing garden varnish, grafting tape and markers for seedlings or cuttings. The transparent version of the Professional Grafting Tape is very suitable for these purposes.

Types of grafting pruners (video)

Advantages and disadvantages

In addition to the main advantage in the form of the highest survival rate, the advantages include:

simplicity and ease of all work performed, even in the complete absence of skill and experience on the part of the amateur gardener;
the ability to graft not only annual shoots with a thickness of no more than 3-4 mm, but also more mature branches with a thickness of up to 1.3 cm;
a long period of operation without loss of quality characteristics is due to the use of high-quality and modern materials in the manufacture. Most often, the guaranteed amount of work performed without the need to sharpen is about three thousand cuts.

The main advantage, according to most gardeners, is the ease of working on different types of wood, which is due to the presence of several types of interchangeable knives in the kit.

What tools are needed to care for lawn grass?

If you do not pay attention to caring for the lawn near your home, it will very quickly lose its attractive appearance. It will begin to thin out, dry out, weeds will begin to grow on it, and the grass will look stunted and unkempt. But if the grass is trimmed regularly, it will grow thickly, provoking the growth of new young growth, thanks to which weeds will not have a chance to occupy the lawn area.

The ground lawn is considered the most beautiful decorative type of lawn, which requires constant care and careful maintenance. And, of course, it needs to be trimmed from time to time. It is better to trim its main central part with a trimmer or lawn mower - this way its surface will look smooth and well-groomed. But to cut those areas of the lawn that cannot be reached with an electric tool, you will need special hand scissors that can cut the grass along the entire length of their blades. The main feature of these scissors is that their blades can rotate at an angle from 0 to 180 degrees. This makes it possible to cut grass in the most difficult to reach places with both your left and right hands.

How to sharpen garden tools yourself bookmarked 8

First, try treating the cutting edge of garden shears (secateurs) and grass shears.

All garden shears work according to the same operating principle. The two cutting surfaces intersect, closing the gap. This way they cut the grass, branches, stems, etc. At the manufacturing plant, the ideal contact angle of the blades is selected, which allows you to effectively cut plants. If you sharpen the blades at random, you may end up ruining the tool by simply “overdoing it.”

To sharpen garden shears, you can use a regular sharpening tool. First, completely unscrew the nuts that connect the scissor blades. Take a small blade of grass and test the sharpness of each blade individually by applying the grass.

Clamp the blade in a vice with the sharp edge facing up. Hold the file with both hands and slide it along the blade from the handle to the tip. Always move the file in the same direction. The blade angle should be the same over the entire surface. Please note that it is the inside of the blade that needs to be sharpened. To sharpen the metal part of the blade you need about 10 strokes.

Place the back of the blade on sandpaper. The paper should be uniform to clean the blade evenly. Work the blade in a circular motion, pressing it against the sandpaper.

When working with each tool separately, carefully study the features of each blade.

It is advisable not to use garden shears to cut thick branches for which they are not intended. This may damage the instrument.

Sharpening pruners follows the same principle. The file should move from the base of the blade along the curve and to the very tip. Make sure the factory blade angle is intact.

The dull part of the blade also needs to be filed. The file must be held at a position of 90 degrees relative to the blade. You need to get rid of burrs on the blade using sandpaper.

The pruner is used to trim branches up to 2.5 cm thick.

To sharpen grass shears, pull the sharpener along the blade. Remove the nuts. Make sure the sharpener is in full contact with the blade. To completely sharpen the tool, you need approximately 10 equal, uniform movements.

Use sandpaper to remove burrs. You need to move the blade in a circular motion. Be careful as hangnails can damage your fingers. Then wipe the blade with a dry cloth.

Homemade garden shears from scrap materials

This tool can be easily purchased in a store where a wide range of different manufacturers is presented. And also try to make it yourself from scrap materials.

On what plants can pruning shears be used?

There are many options for trees and shrubs that can be grafted using a special pruner. But the most common options are:

rowan, apple and pear;

various types of spruce, cedar, pine, cypress, thuja;

various types of citrus fruits and their combinations;

roses and rose hips. A special feature is the possibility of grafting a rose bought in a store;

bird cherry, cherry, plum in any combination;

apricot, peach, plum, cherry plum;

wild or walnut;

pumpkin, watermelon, melon;

currants, gooseberries, grapes, viburnum, hawthorn;

maple, hibiscus, lilac or various ornamental and bush plants.

Why are garden shears needed? Main purpose of the tool

A standard pruner consists of the following elements:

working blade;
bolt;
nuts;
springs;
support blade;
buffers;
castle;
handles.

Important! The bolt must be tightened very tightly to ensure maximum operating torque.

But the lock helps to fix the pruning shears in their original position. This way you can avoid damage to the blade, as well as prevent the formation of any injuries.

What to look for when choosing

Garden grass shears will cope with cutting the lawn on small lawns and in places that are difficult to reach with a lawn mower (near flower beds, trees, near fences). It is preferable to choose models with a rotating mechanism that allows you to adjust the angle of the blades.

Blade length is an important parameter when choosing a tool. The longer the metal blades, the more shoots can be cut at the same time. Garden shears with long handles and blades are usually used for trimming low-growing shrubs and pruning trees with lush crowns. Secateurs with short blades are better at precise pruning when you need to remove single shoots or dead branches.

Scissors with a curved edge hold the shoot more firmly during pruning and prevent the blades from slipping. Winding blades are indispensable when pruning climbing plants and coniferous shrubs. And scissors with serrated blades are easier to cope with removing large and strong shoots.

The thickness of the blades also matters. Tools with thin blades are suitable for working with herbaceous plants. Only thick blades can effectively trim strong branches.

How to make garden shears with your own hands?

The basis is 2 steel plates and two rounded travel guides. You will also need a bolt and nut to connect the parts together.

Tools you should take:

grinder;
welding machine;
device for bending labor and reinforcement.

Using a grinder, cutting edges are made on the plates. After this, the two halves of the homemade scissors need to be connected with a bolt and nuts.

The tool is thoroughly cleaned and, if necessary, polished. If desired, you can apply paint and get to work.