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How To Sharpen Your Garden Shears Correctly
By BARBARA PAVONE
Regularly sharpening your garden shears is essential to maintain their efficiency because dull shears make your work harder and damage plants, making them susceptible to disease.
If there’s a screw, remove it to separate the blades. Clean them with dish soap and water, and remove sticky residue with medium grit sandpaper and rust with WD-40 or steel wool.
If you use a file, run a wet cloth over it, align its flat surface with the blade's bevel (the angled edge of the upper cutting blade), and file the bevel in one direction only.
Just 10 to 20 passes of the blade against the file is enough to restore the blade's edge. Use coarse, fine, and extra fine file grades to get the edge smooth with no visible nicks.
If you’re using a whetstone, soak it in water for a few minutes, place the bevel against it at a 10 to 20-degree angle, then pass the blade repeatedly over the stone until sharp.