Well fool me, Amazon and Felco were the top two hits on a Google search. Felco has a list of replacement parts. [
www.felco.com › us_en › service › index › spareparts
](https://www.felco.com/us_en/service/index/spareparts)
I was accepted to our local Master Gardener Program and my first assignment is an article on “Care and maintenance of gardening tools or new tools you’ve found useful in your garden”!
So excited!
Congratulations! What tools are you choosing?
When given the list of topics I immediately thought of this thread! I sure would like permission to use some of your suggestions, and others as well. Not sure which tools I’d pick yet, but the one that was new to me on this thread was the Dremel!
Congratulations’
Anything I post here is free for anyone to use; it’s “un-copyrighted” ! Some of the things posted were learned from other people.
Each gardener will have, need different tools, depending on how they are growing, what they are growing and … um… age. As I got older, those kneeling stools, with handles to help you get up (and it flips to make a seat), became a staple. In my 20s, a kneeling pad was enough.
If you know the kind of gardeners your audience will be, it may help narrow the long list of potential tools. Even a given tool, like pruners, come in so many styles. While I need a big, 13 horsepower rototiller in much of my garden, it’s way too large for most folks. Garden rows which have been tilled with the big beast tiller, often just need a little rototiller, which might be more useful for most homeowners.
If you look in your tool shed, box, storage area, that should help. Container gardening, landscape gardening, in-ground/field growing all utilize different tools. It will be a challenging article for you, for anyone! Did the group give you a word count or number of pages? I mean, one could write a book on the subject! Gardening friends or people in the Master Gardener’s Program may have suggestions, based on what they are growing. You may have enough favorites of your own to more than fill the article.
I wonder if there’s a Dremel attachment which would help peel ginger! I was given a bag full of fresh, organic ginger, from Peru. The rhizomes were too small (finger thick) and knobby for the spoon method, so scraping, trimming with a “granny paring” knife was used, a tedious process! Maybe I should contact the Dremel company with a suggestion!
I’m hopelessly lazy and somewhat impatient so I couldn’t prune. I derive much pleasure visiting botanical gardens in the spring but I just don’t have the self control and discipline to care for the plants like that. But I wish I did.
I bought this for the fall and spring.
I think you’ll be amazed at the number of replacement parts available for Felco pruners on Amazon. I just replaced the blades on my Felco #2 and #6 shears, I also bought a bottle of Felco cleaner/oiler. Probably cost a little more than WD40, but not by much, and I cannot stand the smell of wd40, which never seems to go away.
I don’t know if Felco products actually rust, but they can get really filthy and fairly corroded.
Just be sure you’re ordering for the right model number and right-or-left handed.
The gear assembly on the anvil part is replaceable, too.
I think it’s worth the money to replace parts on Felcos, not sure about other brands.
my wife uses those to make extension cords shorter.
ARTICLE LENGTH:
Minimum length: 300 words for articles. No minimum for announcements, original poetry, etc.
Maximum length: flexible, approximately 700 word
But check this out;
“We want our publication to be fresh and original. Please do not recycle any material that you plan to submit to another publication or has been previously published elsewhere.”
" Is my work considered previously published if I post it in a writing forum or Web board?
If the forum or Web board is private and intended for the purposes of encouraging feedback or community support, then most editors will consider the work unpublished. But just in case, you may want to take it down once you’ve received feedback so it doesn’t appear online.
If the forum in question is public (that is, if nonmembers can see what you’ve written), then your work will likely be considered previously published."
That looks doable and the 700 words kinda limits what are your most favorite tools.
As for “previously published”, I’m sure you can reword, restructure what goes where and add details, like what kind of Dremel attachment works for what you are doing, brands and such. That’ll keep it “fresh”. Here, it’s safe to say that feedback and community support are intrinsic. HO isn’t like a professional scientific organization, such as ResearchGate, where peer-reviewed papers appear online. We’re more friendly than that! LOL! Have fun!
@bogman ; regarding the “nifty multitool 2/30”; I’m searching "multitool 2/30 " and want to be sure I found the right thing. Is it this?
Or maybe
The blades I ordered both came with the “multitool”
From Amazon,
FYI
It’s the top tool you have pictured, which often, but not always, ships with blades. New Felco pruners usually come with it, but it’s easily lost. That’s all one needs to take Felco pruners completely apart, or just tighten, adjust them. I need to put mine on a keychain or something, as it’s often lost, fell behind something, under stuff. More time is spent looking for it than using it!
@bogman I just ordered a Felco sharpener and Amazon says I ordered one last year! I’m sure I’ll find it eventually.
I took a new picture!
I also plan to cover other garden “things that cut” like my hoes, loppers, and machete.
Check out this Dremmel at a library in Durham, N.C… They do 3 D printing.
That’s quite a collection of pruners and tools! That pointy hoe looks like it’ll get into some really tight spots, less bending down to hand-weed.
I had to give up using a machete after losing half the right-hand wrist. Out here, the jungle was too much for it anyway. Now, I use a samurai sword, katana! Works great and gripping with both hands makes it easier and safer.
That Dremel doesn’t look like any I’ve seen before! 3D printing, Dremel must be into all sorts of tools folks don’t know about. The minion, Kevin, is a fun touch!
What do you mean?
I don’t recall using it but my husband was familiar with them from Jamaica. Interesting to have but I think it’s too far gone.
As @DavidPF said, “. If the rust has deeply eaten into the cutting edge, it would be better to just not bother”.
I may have made the situation worse because I let some Rust-Oleum gel dry on it, which the instructions say not to do.
Same with the tip of my “onion sheep shears”
So far I’ve tried Rust-Oleum, overnight vinegar, a bit of steel wool, and the Dremel on different tools. I still plan to try a salt and baking powder paste, and some kind of synthetic scrub thing ( Scotch Brite), a few sharpening options, lubricants, and teak oil on handles before I finish this article… tommorow 
Well, years ago, I had a wrist injury and thought it was just sprained. When it didn’t heal after many months, I had it x-rayed and found out I had Keinbock’s Disease, where the blood supply to the wrist’s Lunate bone gets interrupted/destroyed and the major bone in there dies…not good. There were other complications, like I ignored the pain before surgery and kept working. Long story short, half of the right-hand wrist was taken out, a “proximal row carpectomy”. This limits the wrist’s range of motion and makes using something like a machete…unwise. The remaining hand/wrist is a bit less strong and stable, something you don’t want when swinging a sharp blade!
Some of those tools look like replacement is in order; the corrosion looks deep. You might be able to sand off the corrosion to tell if the tool can be reshaped or if it’s too pitted. Sandpaper or very careful use of those Dremel sanding disks might get you to clear metal. With a machete, corrosion could make it unsafe, prone to breakage, depending on where the corrosion or weakness is.
It’s always best to wash off cutting tools, dry them with a rag and after they air-dry, spray them down with lubricant/rust preventative. Even a wipe-down with mineral oil can help. By the way, Mineral oil is good to coat not just wooden/bamboo cutting boards, it’s good on wood handles, as long as you wipe it off after it soaks in (so it’s not slippery). Mineral oil, unlike many oils, doesn’t go rancid. I use it on my hoe handles, in case I forget to bring them in and it rains, or the dew is heavy.
Oh…Sorry to hear that.
But glad to hear about the mineral oil. I think I have some!
