Sharpening your garden tools may be one of the most important skills you can learn to make your work in the garden easier and more enjoyable.

However, any tool that has nuts & bolts, screws, blades or chains will need some cleaning and sharpening. Usually after a couple years of service, your favorite garden tools like garden cutters, shears and pruners start losing their edge. That’s when they need to be cleaned and sharpened. After all, a sharp tool cuts more easily and accurately than a dull one!

From long-handled pruning shears to shorter grass garden cutters or long-bladed hedge shears, these blades can quickly wear down after a few seasons of work. To sharpen the tools, you’ll only want to sharpen the blade edge. The other edge of them does not need to be sharpened.

Pruners

To sharpen pruners, you’ll only want to sharpen the blade edge. The other edge of the pruners does not need to be sharpened. Hold the pruners in your non-sharpening hand. Stroke the sharpener against the blade’s factory bevel, pulling the sharpener away from the pruners handles. Remember to run the file the entire length of the blade. Don’t file across the pruners blade; file parallels with the blade. Do this about five times. The blade will begin to shine. You’ll feel the burr start to form on the opposite side. Flip the pruners over, and remove the burr with the sharpener or sandpaper.

Loppers and Hedge Shears

Loppers can be sharpened the same way as pruners. If you’re going to use a file, consider buying a file handle. A handle will let you easily use the file. Sharpen both blades of hedge shears.

Shovels

To sharpen your shovel, use a bastard mill file. At a 45 degree angle, stroke the file across the edge of the shovel blade in a back and forth motion. Flat-edged shovels usually don’t need much sharpening, but shovels with a curved edge depend on the sharpness of the edge to easily penetrate tough soil, roots, ice, and other materials. Keep this edge crisp by periodically cleaning and sharpening the blade. A large file can help add a new edge, but if the shovel has some serious dings and nicks, you will need a grinder to really buff out the edge.

When you’ve sharpened your garden tools, you should lubricate them with oil. The oil will help prevent the formation of rust on your tools. Use non-petroleum based synthetic oils, such as silicone fluids, tung oils and wood-derivative oils. Petroleum oil used on your tools will seep into your garden’s soil. It’s harmful for animals and vegetation. It’s best to clean and sharpen your tools throughout the gardening and pruning season.
Some garden tools like shears – and most of the other tools on our list – can also rust over time, or develop thick layers or grime. It’s vital to remove rust and dirt before you start sharpening. This is where high-grit sandpaper is useful: Sand the blades down to a nice shine before you begin sharpening.

How to Choose the Right Wrench

There are so many different kinds of wrenches on the market. It can be tricky and overwhelming to find the right one. But you don’t have to worry about it anymore after reading this guide. We are here to help you learn how to choose the right wrench for the job.

Open-Ended Wrenches

An open-ended wrench is probably the most useful tool in your tool kit. It is usually the quickest and easiest to use. It has a U-shaped opening that grips two opposite faces of the bolt or nut and also has flat jaws that slide around the heads of nuts and bolts and are levered for loosening or tightening. Open-ended wrenches are often double-ended, with a different sized opening at each end. The ends are generally oriented at an angle of around 15 degrees to the longitudinal axis of the handle. This allows a greater range of movement in enclosed spaces by flipping the wrench over. Open-ended wrenches grip the bolt from the side. This is useful for working under the hood of a car or to hold a nut in place while ratcheting a bolt.

Combination Wrenches

A combination wrench is a double-ended tool which has an open-ended jaw at one end and a boxed end or ring spanner of the same size on the other end. Both ends generally fit the same size of bolt.

Adjustable Wrenches

Also known as crescent wrenches. It is the most common type of wrench. An adjustable wrench accommodates nuts and bolts of various sizes. It’s designed to move in only one direction, which prevents putting too much stress on the screw that sits just below the head of the wrench. An adjustable wrench’s head is offset a little, which helps when loosening or tightening. The gripping faces of the jaw are displaced to a 15-degree angle that is relative to the tool’s handle. This helps the wrench’s ability to be used in tight spaces.

Socket Wrenches

A socket wrench is good for working on automobiles and other machinery. These wrenches come in two types: those with deep sockets for bigger bolts and those with shallow sockets for smaller bolts. Both can tighten nuts in tight spaces. Socket wrenches work just like the ring end of a wrench, but the ratchet handle makes the operation much faster.

Ratcheting Box Wrenches

Ratcheting can be reversed by flipping the wrench over, or by activating a reversing lever. This type combines the compact design of a box wrench, with the utility and quickness of use of a ratchet wrench.

Rubber gloves are also referred to as latex gloves, can be purchased at home improvement centers and hardware stores. Wearing rubber gloves for housekeeping and kitchen chores can protect your hands and nails from harsh chemicals, hot water and things that you just don’t want to touch. While they are relatively cheap to replace, it’s always nice to be able to keep a pair of good quality gloves lasting long enough. So what should you do to ensure your rubber gloves are kept in good condition for as long as possible? What are some simple ways in terms of how to clean your rubber gloves and keep the inside fresh and sanitized?

1) Wash the outside of the gloves with mild liquid detergent and warm water thoroughly to remove dirt.

The first thing you have to do after using the gloves is to wash them. The very substances you want to keep away from your hands are all over the outside of your gloves. So take a few minutes at the end of a chore to rinse them thoroughly. Remember, the best way to wash your gloves is to treat them like your own hands. Dish soap or hand soap is fine to rinse the gloves. Warm water can kill more germs, dirt, and grease. You can wash the gloves while you are still wearing them, and avoid water and residue getting on your hands. Let them dry completely. It might be wise to turn them inside out after the outside has dried, allowing both sides to dry out.

2) Protect Your Rubber Gloves at Storage

Protect your gloves from heat and sunlight when they are being stored. Avoid putting them near windows with strong sunlight streams or in a hot storage room, unless you want your gloves to turn into a melted mess. Gloves should also be protected from being punctured, so don’t store them with any knives, shears, or other pointy objects. Even the smallest punctured hole in your gloves can give you a wet surprise the next time you wash dishes.

3) Don’t use the same pair of gloves for Kitchen and Bathroom cleaning

It does not sound like a good idea to wash your dishes with the gloves you wear when you scrub the toilet. You can choose another pair of gloves with a different color for each chore, or even use disposable gloves for some chores. For example, some people use rubber gloves for washing dishes in the kitchen but use disposable gloves for chores like the bathroom. Find what works best for you. Store each pair conveniently where you will be doing the task. If you have multiple bathrooms, you can even store a pair in each one. Or, store the gloves with the cleaning supplies separate for each task, perhaps in a small carrying case.
Last but not least, always remember to put on gloves when you are doing household chores. This extra step can help you protect and maintain your hand, nails, and skin. In the long run, not having to deal with dry skin and cracked nails is certainly time-saving.

So have you learned how to clean your rubber gloves? If so, now is the time to clean them. Don’t forget to email us if you are looking for high-quality rubber gloves.

When using a screwdriver, these are what you should do:

First, make sure you select the right kind for the job. If not, you may either ruin a perfectly healthy screwdriver or strip the screw head and make it difficult to remove later, if you have to.

Secondly, fastener heads may have a single slot, a slotted cross, a hex-shaped indentation, a star pattern, and other shapes. So be sure to examine the head of the screw or fastener to match it to the correct screwdriver. Never use a flat-head screwdriver on a Phillips-head screw. Even if you do get by with this combination a few times, you are risking damage to both the screw as well as the screwdriver.

Next, confirm the tip of the screwdriver completely fills the screw head you are driving or removing. If the tip is too narrow, you will lose considerable torque and leverage while driving, and that means you have to put in more effort to complete the job. Additionally, you risk bending the tip of your screwdriver and/or stripping the screw head.

If the tip of your screwdriver is wider than the screw head, it may damage the surface you are screwing into. If the tip is too thick, the blade will not be able to drive the screw, as it will simply slip out. To use the right screwdriver for the job, you can use a suitable screwdriver-sizing chart such as below.

Slot-headed Screwdrivers and Screws

Phillips-head Screwdrivers and Screws

Remember, when driving screws into wood, it’s a good idea to drill a pilot hole first. Without pilot holes, screws tend to follow the grain of the wood, which results in crooked screws. The pilot hole can guide the screw into the wood and allows it to enter straight. In addition, the pilot hole prevents the wood from splitting as you drive the screw in. Place the screw in the pilot hole, hold it with your fingers and apply a little pressure with the screwdriver as you turn the screw. If the area around the screw is insufficient for holding it with fingers, you can use a screw holder.

What are screwdrivers?

A screwdriver is a hand tool which can be used to screw or unscrew a fastener. It allows you to tighten a screw by turning the driver clockwise and loosen it by turning counterclockwise. Typically, screwdrivers are used with small electronics, computers, electrical work, furniture, and automotive work. Impact drivers and cordless drills can also be used for bigger jobs like construction.

The screwdriver essentially consists of four parts: (1) The handle, (2) the shank, (3) the blade, and (4) the tip.

Matching the correct screwdriver tip to the head of a fastener

You may think every screwdriver looks very much alike, but actually, each of them is unique. They are distinguished from each other based on their tip and what type of screw they drive. The most important thing to use a screwdriver is by matching the correct screwdriver tip to the head of a fastener.

The two most commonly used screwdriver tips are the flat-head/slot-head and Phillips-head screwdrivers.

1) A slot-head screwdriver, also called the flat head/regular screwdriver, is used with a slot head screw. It consists of a flat, single blade that fits the single slot of traditional screws. It’s the oldest and most common type of screwdriver in the world. You’ll find flat head screws used in most simple woodworking projects.

2) A Phillips-head screwdriver has a four-star point at the end of its shank which fits into the corresponding cross-shaped, shallow depression of the screw. This special design enables the user to apply more torque to the screw than the slot-head screwdriver. The tip of the Phillips-head screwdriver and the depression of the screw together force the blades of the Phillips screwdriver to slip out before any damaging over-torque can occur. Users should always look for a Phillips-head screwdriver made of quality metal, such as steel, because the harder the tip, the less chance you have of stripping the screw.
While the above two are the most common screwdrivers, there are still other types of screwdrivers that can be used for different jobs. Please check below link to know more about various types of screwdrivers – Click and Go

The moving Hook

Have you ever wondered why the hook of a measuring tape always slides back and forth?

This isn’t a flaw—it’s made by design and is actually a very important feature of measuring tapes. When you hook the tip of your tape over the end of an object to make a measurement from an outside edge (a pulling measurement), the tip is pulled out and the hook will extend slightly. The gap it slides —believe it or not— is exactly the thickness of the hook which is one-sixteenth of an inch. On the contrary, when you make a measurement from an inside corner (a pushing measurement), the tip squeezes in and it takes into consideration the space of the hook which guarantees an accurate measurement. In short, the tip of a measuring tape slides back and forth to compensate for its own thickness.
Isn’t this feature fascinating?

The mysterious number on the tape body

At the base of every measuring tape, you can usually find a number. In photo 1 below, the number is “70mm”. It tells us that the base of this measuring tape is “70mm” in length. You may wonder “why in the world do I have to know this?” Well, this number is incredibly useful when you are making an inside measurement. Normally, users tend to bend the measuring tape to get an inside measurement, but it distorts the reading and makes it very hard to read. However, if you place your measuring tape against the wall like photo 2, you can get the accurate length of the wall by combing the tape measurement and the length of the tape body, which is ”70mm” as suggested on the case.

There you have it, you are one step closer to become a master of measuring. Hopefully, you’ll find the above two tricks useful and we’ll come back for more soon.

Knowing the scale, especially length is crucial when it comes to woodworking, interior designing, construction, craft, and carpentry, etc. And yet, some will panic when using a tape measure because they don’t know how to read the scale on the tool.

How to read a tape measure?

Typically, the scale of a tape measure consists of inches and centimeters (metric). Knowing the scales and different units is key in terms of how to read a tape measure. On most tapes, the inch scale is at on top, and the metric-scale is at the bottom. To read the inches scale, the first thing you need to know is that you need to split them up into small divisions. The smallest mark represents 1/32 of an inch. And it goes all the way up to 1/16 inch, 1/8 inch, 1/4 inch, 1/2 inch, 1 inch and finally 1 foot. The lines go from smaller to bigger as well. If you can, try to remember the lines because it can help you find each measurement quickly.
You can also find smaller red markings after 1 foot which basically saying 1 foot 1 inch and 1 foot 2 inches and so on.

For metric scale, each centimeter has 10 divisions that represent millimeters. And every 10 centimeters are marked by red color which will help users to locate the measurement more easily.

16-inches mark

A tape measure usually has a special mark every 16 inches (32 inches, 48 inches…etc.) because the wall studs are typically 16 inches apart from each other. This special mark will make it more convenient to mark off wall studs. However, if you are not dealing with wall studs or joists, you can ignore this mark.

Small black diamonds

In most tape measures, one can find small black diamonds on the inch scale of the tape at 19.2 inches. And these marks will appear again for every 19.2 inches. In other words, the first black diamond is at 19.2” and after that, they appear at 38.4”, 57.6”, 76.8” and 96”, or 8-feet. They are for truss layouts for 8-foot sheet goods, therefore they are also known as the “black truss” markings, which provide a quick visual for the tape user and speed up the measuring process.
If you divide 5 into 96 inches (8 feet) gives 19.2 inches, which yields five trusses per sheet. The black diamonds on the tape measure represent that spacing.