Article: Inside & Out
Garden Tool Maintenance
Make Sure Your Toolshed Is Full Of Clean Tools.
Most of you would admit that in the past you have put away shovels that were dirty and rusty, set aside dull and stained hoes, and “fixed” the cracked handle of your favourite rake with a tight wrapping of electrician’s tape. As a result, the o-so-needed tools didn’t work as well as they should have. The learning curve here is that the time wasted struggling with dull or broken tools would be better spent with a brief, regular maintenance regime and more efficient, productive hours in the garden.
Clean Tools Last Longer
After every use, wash soil and grime from tools with a steady spray of water from the garden hose. If nothing else, tools should be cleaned after each use. Doing so keeps diseases, fungi, insect eggs, and weed seeds from being unwittingly spread around the garden. Cleaning also extends the life of a tool by removing moisture-laden, rust-enhancing soil from steel surfaces. For tools with a keen edge, a good cleaning keeps rust from eating the edge away.
Spades, rakes, hoes, trowels, and any other tools that come into contact with soil should be hosed off with water after each use. With the garden hose nozzle adjusted for maximum pressure, average garden soil washes away easily. To remove heavy clay soil, some scrubbing with a hard bristle brush also may be necessary. After washing any tool, dry it with a cotton rag before putting it away.
Tools that don’t come in contact with soil, particularly those with sharpened edges like axes, pruning shears, and knives, should be wiped down with a thick, rough cotton cloth to remove any gums and saps from their blades. When working on pitch-producing plants like conifers, dampen the cloth with a little paint thinner before wiping. In all cases, once dirt and residue are removed, dry the tool with a clean cotton rag.
Apply Oil To Prevent Rust
Oil steel tool heads to prevent them from oxidizing. The oil creates a barrier between the air and the steel. Even after washing and drying, steel tool heads are still susceptible to rust when exposed to oxygen. In fact, as a general rule, the better the grade of steel used, the more vulnerable it is to rusting. So, considering the high cost of quality gardening tools, it just makes sense to keep rusting to a minimum.
Motor oil is an inexpensive and effective rust preventer. When applied to steel surfaces, the oil insulates the steel and prevents it from oxidizing. To thin the oil out and make it easier to work with and to better coat both porous and smooth steel surfaces, mix one quart of non-detergent 30W motor oil (any brand will do) with a 500ml of kerosene or lamp oil. This 2:1 ratio of oil to kerosene can either then be wiped onto the steel surface with a clean cotton rag or sprayed on to metal surfaces—a recycled household-cleaner spray bottle works as long as you mark it accordingly. Store the mixture away from heat sources and dispose of it as you would any motor oil.
Whichever way the oil is applied, keep the coating thin so it won’t drip off the tool head and onto the floor. Because oil is organically based and breaks down rapidly in soil, you don’t have to worry about this small amount of oil adversely affecting your soils.
Remove Rust With A Wire Brush
Extremely rusty tools require special attention. I use a sheet of 80-grit sandpaper to remove light coatings of rust. For a slightly heavier coat, a stiff wire brush can be effective. But, when rust has turned a steel surface rough, like the texture of medium-grit sandpaper, a heavy-handed approach is needed. On badly pitted steel surfaces like those on tools you find at yard sales, the quickest and most sensible option is an electric drill with a wirebrush attachment.
Sand away a light coating of rust. 80-grit sandpaper should be coarse enough to get the job done.
Use A Wire Brush To Remove A Layer Of Rust.
For a very heavy coat of rust, use a drill with a wire brush attachment. Before taking any kind of wire brush to a tool, always put on a pair of safety glasses. The rust particles or the wire bristles can fly off at high speeds and in unpredictable directions.
Once you have removed as much rust as possible, proceed with applying a coat of the oil mixture to the newly exposed steel to stop the oxidation process in its tracks and keep in check the almost-invisible residual rust that couldn’t be removed.
