{"id":9796,"date":"2017-03-21T02:21:44","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T02:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=9796"},"modified":"2017-03-10T10:29:26","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T10:29:26","slug":"looking-after-garden-tools-old-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/flowers\/looking-after-garden-tools-old-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking After Garden Tools Old &#038; New"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Pots for potting by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/3659527456\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3649\/3659527456_a5986864d0.jpg\" alt=\"Pots for potting\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Clean your Garden Tools<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Clean all of the dirt and soil from your spades, forks, trowels etc. after each use.<\/li>\n<li>Allow your tools to dry completely before storing to prevent rusting, mould and handle rot.<\/li>\n<li>Before storing, wipe the metal parts of pruners, shears, and loppers with an oily rag. A shot of products such as WD40 will also do the trick.<\/li>\n<li>Rinse off tools with soap and water then dry and rub with an oily rag as chemicals such as fertilizers will quickly corrode any metal parts.<\/li>\n<li>Disinfect old terracotta pots before reusing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Oil Your Tools<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Especially with old tools, rub linseed oil into the wooden handle of your tools to help prevent drying out and splintering.<\/li>\n<li>Spray metal tools with WD40 or equivalent to prevent rust.<\/li>\n<li>Rusted tools should be cleaned with a wire brush, sandpaper and steel wool. Penetrating oil will help with the more stubborn spots.<\/li>\n<li>Oil tools well before storing for winter.<\/li>\n<li>Mix builders sand and oil in a bucket to plunge tools into and it will clean and prolong the life of your tools<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Sharpening and Repairing Garden Tools<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Use a flat edged file to keep your tools sharpened to maximize their efficiency.<\/li>\n<li>Pruners, <a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/garden-equipment-tips\/secateur-and-secateurs-tips\/\">secateurs<\/a> and shears can be tricky to sharpen so you can leave these types of tools to the professionals. If you use a sharpening stone work on the outer side of the blade not the smooth cutting surface.<\/li>\n<li>Sanding down a splintered handle then rubbing with linseed oil will restore it to a smooth finish.<\/li>\n<li>Old good quality but rusted tools that you see at car boot sales\u00c2\u00a0 can be restored to almost new condition. A good old one often beats a moderate new one<a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/tips\/reduce-reuse-recycle-repurpose\/\"> (see reuse recycle<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Read <strong>Garden Products<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/products\/?p=223\">Old Garden Tool Books<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Consider <a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/articles\/garden-insurance-and-insuring-against-loss\/\">insuring <\/a>your better tools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clean your Garden Tools Clean all of the dirt and soil from your spades, forks, trowels etc. after each use. Allow your tools to dry completely before storing to prevent rusting, mould and handle rot. Before storing, wipe the metal parts of pruners, shears, and loppers with an oily rag. A shot of products such as WD40 will also do the trick. Rinse off tools with soap and water then dry and rub with an oily rag as chemicals such&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/flowers\/looking-after-garden-tools-old-new\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-flowers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}