Caring for Your Garden Tools: The Flat Mill File

The flat mill file is a key tool for any gardener.

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Almost all garden tools with stainless steel blades, such as pruners, shovels and trimmers can benefit by yearly sharpening. The inexpensive flat mill file is a great sharpening tool.

Generally two different types of flat mill files are appropriate for garden tools. The single cut file has one row of teeth going the same way down the file, and it is the appropriate tool for most routine sharpening tasks. The double cut file has a dual row of teeth that go down the file in opposite directions. The dual rows offer increased filing power, and if your blade has larger nicks or burrs, the double cut file helps remove them more efficiently.

Please note that both single cut and double cut files also come in a round form. Use the round file for tools with rounded edges such as a looping shears.

Preparing your tools for sharpening is a relatively straight forward task. The tools should be cleaned, to the point of using a steel wool pad to remove any rust that may have started to form on the blade. Gardeners are often advised to also take apart smaller tools such as pruning shears. It is really easy to remove the screw and center nut on most pruning shears.

Once the tools are prepared, many gardeners suggest placing them in a vise to keep them steady during filing. Filing is a matter of moving the flat edge of the file down the beveled edge of the tool in a single direction, away from you. After a few swipes down the bevel, you can see the new edge emerging. It is important to work your way up and down the blade using the same filing angle as you work the bevel. Once you see a new edge on the bevel you might want to run some thin grit sandpaper for steel up and down the new edge to create a more polished appearance.

Many gardeners have ruined good tools because of improper sharpening techniques. Trying to remake a tool by creating a beveled edge where none previously existed is one of the most common sharpening errors. Garden tools that have both a flat edge and a beveled edge, such as many hedge clippers, lose their clipping ability when their edges are radically change. Therefore, the general rule of thumb is to never try to file a beveled edge into the flat edge of a tool.

© 2006. Patricia A. Michaels