winter hand tool maintenance?

Anyone here do any hand tool repair or maintenance in the winter months?  

I know for me there is always lots to do.  Oil the handles on the hoes and shovels, sharpen and oil blades, sort through the broken tools and see what can be repaired and what is heading to the scrap yard... that sort of thing.

What's your favourite way to protect wooden handles?  
What tool maintenance do you do in winter?  

Short answer is yes.  I typically clean, sharpen, oil, replace lost or missing hardware, tighten handles if needed and or replace handles as the case may be.  I've found a good way to keep shovels clean and oiled is a bucket of sand with some type oil in it.  When you finish using the shovel, hose it off and stick it in the bucket of sand a time or two.  The sand scours the blade and the oil protects the metal.  I will sand down wooden handles as needed and use a food grade oil on them.  I only sand down enough to have a "hand safe" finish, not to baby smoothness. I sharpen with a file or whetstone as dictated by the tools primary use.

Walt, that 'bucket of oily sand' idea is great! I'm going to do that . . . as soon as the sand thaws out! Thanks.

Yea, Tracy, having thawed sand is important.  I laid my sand out on an old piece of plywood in my shop floor and let it dry completely then it went in the bucket with the oil poured over.  Don't fill the bucket up to the rim.  Within a couple or three inches works and you won't spill as much sand out that way.  I keep my bucket under cover so it doesn't get rain or snow in it.

Fixing the tools over winter is a great idea.  But I end up working in the shop doing woodworking and blacksmithing projects.  So I end up fixing garden tools when I need them.  I think yours is a better plan.

I am a big fan of doing the yearly maintenance in the winter. A lot of work goes into touching up rust spots and looking for signs of wear. Blades get sharpened and everything gets touched up. I will take the time to go through my kitchen knives as well and inspect each one.

While it may take some work, beeswax is my go to for refreshing tool handles. You have to be careful not to leave a ton on, I tend to go over the handles with a cloth several times at the end.

I try to sand & oil (linseed or other treatment) the wood in November, as well as sharpen, before I put them away.  I used a wheelbarrow today, that definitely needs some work on those handles.  What do y'all use on the wood?

Timothy Norton wrote:Blades get sharpened and everything gets touched up. I will take the time to go through my kitchen knives as well and inspect each one.

Could you share more about what you do? I have a lot of metal tools I'm bringing inside for the first time this winter to give them some maintenance, and I could use some practical advice

Great sand bucket idea. I usually hand clean gardening tools, sand and oil handles, and even edge shovel edges for root cutting.

I’m an “about every trade” guy. So welder gets wiped, welder spool felt gets checked, lots of tool puttering happens actually all year long. You don’t have break downs as often with maintenance.
I actually have maintenance reminders on my digital calendars for truck maintenance, certain tools, house filters, etc.,… I also have a 4 month reminder to actuate all valves in the house and shop. I never get stuck valves, any more, when it’s important for them to work.

May sound anal, but I have found when I make things part of a routine it’s a lot less of a chore or costly, later. And I get much quicker at each to where it doesn’t annoy me. And have more time to learn other things, with out a real break down that could take a day or two to fix.

I use palm or belt sanders, grinders, and knife stones for sharpening. I melt "all food grade: beeswax and carnuba with mineral oil (22% / 3% / 75%) in my "tool" crockpot, for handles, metal surfaces of plant tools, and cutting boards. On non-plant tools I use "Red N' Tacky" to wipe most metals surfaces and joints for storing.

Just my two dollars. (2 cents doesn’t cut it anymore)
😁😁😁

Alan Burnett wrote:
Could you share more about what you do? I have a lot of metal tools I'm bringing inside for the first time this winter to give them some maintenance, and I could use some practical advice

I use a wire wheel on my drill to derust my tools. Then i use a grinder to put the edge on and to grind away divits. I lightly sand the wooden handles. Then i take any old varnish i have and put several coats on. Its a good way to get rid of small quantities of old varnish rather than put it in the trash. Last i put oil on the metal parts. Nothing fancy, even used motor oil.

Alan Burnett wrote:
Could you share more about what you do? I have a lot of metal tools I'm bringing inside for the first time this winter to give them some maintenance, and I could use some practical advice

I use a wire wheel on my drill to derust my tools. Then i use a grinder to put the edge on and to grind away divits. I lightly sand the wooden handles. Then i take any old varnish i have and put several coats on. Its a good way to get rid of small quantities of old varnish rather than put it in the trash. Last i put oil on the metal parts. Nothing fancy, even used motor oil.

Oil wooden handles, metal parts and blades get an appropriate oiling (NB: here in the Maritime West the winter is RUST season, and rust prevention & stabilization are not just a good idea, dey de LAW! (especially as I learned today, after a another hot summer caused some asphalt shingles to fail and start leaks, A new priority was added to the list.... after I took a look at a tool that was not rusty two weeks ago!) I like to oil wooden handles by a wood stove (NOT TOO CLOSELY, RIGHT?) and make sure I don't leave 'em in the drying zone very long, like set 'em in the dry-the-boots range, and check 'em before eating dinner, so as not to lose track with a full, drowse-inducing belly.

Alan Burnett wrote: Could you share more about what you do? I have a lot of metal tools I'm bringing inside for the first time this winter to give them some maintenance, and I could use some practical advice

So I can start my response with a shameless plug for Permies Skills to Inherit Property program and specifically the tool care badge that has helped me learn a variety of maintenance techniques for hand tools.

My first step for metal tools is to get any gunk/funk/rust off of them and get them clean. Larger tools might get a wire brush while smaller ones an old toothbrush and rag. If things are rusty, I have had great luck utilizing vinegar soaks followed by a little file work if the surface is bumpy and could interfere with function. Naturally this is done for smaller items as I don't have the vinegar to soak like a shovel head. I wish I did!

I have a variety of sharpening stones and tools that I have acquired over time. Unless something had really done a number, I usually am just utilizing a fine whetstone and some patience to get a nice edge. If an axe has 'axe-identally' bounced off a rock then I might break out a coarser stone to take off more material at a time.

Tools like a shovel or a hoe that does earthwork are easily sharpened and shaped with a file. I am experimenting with a paste wax that is one part beeswax and one part linseed oil to protect against rust and still trying to evaluate it over something more oil like. Tools are going to get dinged up and used, but I still think its worth the effort.

Something I like for sharpening whatever edged tool needs it is called a Speedy Sharp.

It looks like a carbide lathe bit soldered into a handle.

WAY quicker than a file, less effort than a grinder, and you can carry it in your pocket, which I do all the time.

Having it right there all the time encourages my lazy self to tune up those edges frequently...and then it's such a pleasure to work with a freshly sharpened tool.

https://speedysharp.com

Easily found on Amazon or Ebay also.

One more...my girlfriends Dad was a stone mason and he had the sand/oil bucket and also a large pipe stood on end and fastened to the wall full of food grade oil to soak the handles in while not in use.

Dave Bross wrote:Something I like for sharpening whatever edged tool needs it is called a Speedy Sharp.

It looks like a carbide lathe bit soldered into a handle.

WAY quicker than a file, less effort than a grinder, and you can carry it in your pocket, which I do all the time.

Having it right there all the time encourages my lazy self to tune up those edges frequently...and then it's such a pleasure to work with a freshly sharpened tool.

https://speedysharp.com
.

I have one i use occasionalky on wood carving knives. Never thought of using it on shovels and hoes. Thanks

I have several old hand saws. I watching a restoration video which showed how to sharpen a crosscut. Looks easy. Does anyone include saw sharpening in their winter tool chores?

Randy Bachman wrote:I have several old hand saws. I watching a restoration video which showed how to sharpen a crosscut. Looks easy.

According to period information from the USDA Forestry Service, you can "sharpen" a crosscut, but to get it to "sing" and cut in a way that is practical for production work requires a knowledgeable craftsman with skills that had all but vanished from our culture half a century ago. I'm not sure if youtube university has tapped into that level of expertise, but I imagine it would be difficult to learn from just watching a video without extensive practice.

I did run into an older hobbyist from Northern Illinois a few years back that sounded like he had gotten pretty good over the years, but have lost contact since I acquired my own crosscuts. I could probably track him down again if there is anyone in the area looking to connect...

Walt Chase wrote:.  I've found a good way to keep shovels clean and oiled is a bucket of sand with some type oil in it.  When you finish using the shovel, hose it off and stick it in the bucket of sand a time or two.  The sand scours the blade and the oil protects the metal.

So this feels like a very silly question, but why do I want to scour the shovel head? Scouring is going to dig grooves in the metal, increase surface area. This shovel is going to be shoved into the dirt 10,000 times, I want it to act as close to a surgical blade as possible so it requires the least amount of force to split things in half.

Thank you for the information...

I was gifted a gardening book that suggests different activities for each month, and February says to clean and maintain garden tools. So here we go!

Clean the dirt off, file any large dings, whetstone the blade, and give the whole blade a coat of oil. Handles sanded and rubbed with oil. This is my plan

Randy Bachman wrote:Last i put oil on the metal parts. Nothing fancy, even used motor oil.

This worries me. I'm using this shovel to transplant raspberry crowns and divide hostas and sunchokes which I will soon eat. Trace amounts of my tools and their oil coatings are going to wind up in my food and in my body. Maybe I'm worrying for nothing, but putting this used motor oil in my body does not bring joy.

I have a good supply of food grade mineral oil, so this is what I plan to use.

Alan Burnett wrote:

Randy Bachman wrote:Last i put oil on the metal parts. Nothing fancy, even used motor oil.

This worries me. I'm using this shovel to transplant raspberry crowns and divide hostas and sunchokes which I will soon eat. Trace amounts of my tools and their oil coatings are going to wind up in my food and in my body. Maybe I'm worrying for nothing, but putting this used motor oil in my body does not bring joy.

Same here, I've heard more than once that used motor oil contains heavy metals from wear while in the engine and is carcinogenic...