How to Sharpen Loppers – Professional Methods You Must Try

For gardeners, loppers make it easy to use as a pruning tool. They also have to be sharpened, just as any other type of cutting tool. If done incorrectly, it can cause irreparable damage to your lopper. If you have never pointed a lopper by hand, then hold your horses and take some time to read the entire article. This guide will show you how to sharpen loppers using different cutting media. Sharpening loppers won’t be difficult once you have read this 1000-word guide. Let’s have a discussion about it.

What is a lopper

You can use loppers to prune small branches and twigs, such as secateurs. They have very long handles. They are the most potent type of garden-cutting tool. You can operate those tools with two hands. The handles are typically between 30 and 91 cm in length to provide good leverage. Telescopic handles can be extended up to two meters in size to allow for more power and reach higher branches. You can use the word lopper in both the singular and plural. They have precisely the same meaning. The plural form is more common in speech but more diminutive in print. It appears to be based on a pair of scissors. Read more on how to sharpen garden tools

How to sharpen loppers

Sometimes, it can seem like sharpening your blades is another obstacle to trimming your hedges. You want your loppers to look beautiful every time you use them. Your plants’ health also depends on how sharp and clean your loppers are. This is what you should do: sharing your plants are subject to wounds that require the plants to work hard to heal. The healing process is very smooth if your loppers are sharper when you use them on the plants. This is because they made a smooth cut instead of a jagged or uneven one.

Learn more: How to sharpen pruners

These are the first things you must do 

Sharpening loppers is not an easy task. For best results, there is a process you need to follow. Clean your loppers first. Grab a bucket of warm soapy water and a bristle brush to start cleaning. When you learn how to sharpen your loppers, the most important thing is to get rid of all that dirt and debris. This is because when your loppers are clean. they will sharper than if they were sharpened with dirt and grime to dull them further.

Pre-sharpening Stage 

It is essential to prepare your lopper before you begin the actual sharpening process.

Make it clean

The first step is to clean the lopper’s blades. How do you clean the lopper blades? Use a stiff brush on the blade’s surface to remove any debris or wood dust. Use soapy water to remove any stubborn dirt or clumps. Any sap or pitch residue should be dipped in any solvent, such as kerosene.

Assemble the pieces

Once you clean the blades, take apart the lopper parts. Connect two lopper blades are with a screw in the middle. To remove the screw, use a wrench or screwdriver. The blades will fall apart. Do not lose track of the pieces you have just disassembled.

Sharpening the lopper 

Now your lopper can start the sharpening process. There are many ways you can do this. The most common lopper sharpener tools are files, whetstones, flat files with diamond coating, sharpening steel, and grinding stones. The processes for pointing with different types of devices can be quite different. The most common method is to sharpen loppers using a file or whetstones. We have two ways that use each of these lopper sharpening tools. You can use either one to re-shine loppers that you’re using for pruning.

How to sharpen a lopper with a file

Secure the lopper using a vice 

This will allow the file to move on the lopper while it is stationary. You must first ensure that the lopper blade fits securely in a vice. When adjusting the position of your knife, ensure that the sharp edge directly points towards the direction you are telling it.

The edge of the blade should be filed

This is the essential part of the process. Here you will sharpen the lopper blade by filing its cutting edge. To do this, place the file at a low angle along with the length. Push the file over the edge and don’t pull it back. It will reduce the sharpness of your blade rather than increasing it. You might need to make several strikes on your sword to achieve the sharpest possible cutting edge. Over-sharpening can cause damage to the blade.

Take the other blade

It will require two different blades to form the body of most loppers. After you have finished sharpening one knife with your file, remove the vice from the vice and start working on the second. Keep in mind that the cutting-edge alignments of the two blades may be different. You must place the file at opposite angles for each of the blades. To make it more comfortable, you must move from one side to the other if you use a lopper blade.

How to sharpen a lopper with a whetstone

soaked the whetstone 

We will be using a whetstone to sharpen our lopper. Apply lubricating oil to the whetstone before you proceed. It will lubricate and reduce friction and heat on the surface that is being pointed. It could also remove any dirt that was generated during the process.

Use strokes to smoothen the blade

This is where sharpening takes place. Anvil-type loppers will have one blade but only two edges. You might have two if you have bypass loppers. Now, take each blade and determine the beveled edge. Place the bevel edge onto the whetstone. Now start using gentle strokes. Continue to apply these strokes until you see the shining edge of the cutting blade. This was done on the concave side.

Smoothen the edges 

The blade should only be moved in one direction. Otherwise, it could dull the edge again. Keep the edge in one order and apply pressure to it. It would help if you attained the right angle and sharpness for the lopper blades by the end of step 2. You can fine-tune your cutting edges by sharpening the whetstone’s finer grain until you achieve a razor-sharp edge. This will make the blade less durable and protect it from any damage when you cut it again.

Care for loppers

Between sharpening, make sure to oil your loppers with some grease and wipe them clean every so often. This will keep grime and rust from building up on your loppers’ blades. Keep your loppers dry and away from the elements. They will only be damaged if they are exposed to dirt, water, and sand.

Conclusion

You can use this same method for any other type of sharpening media, just as these two methods. We hope that you understand all the methods on how to sharpen loppers. You need to follow the manufacturer’s instructions. You will need to find a replacement lopper blade.