JLDoggett

Rowdy try mineral oil and steel-wool to clean them. Then follow Phil's article on sharpening.

__________________
"Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and wrong....because sometime in your life you will have been all of these"

And I further resolve to click on an ad, each time I visit, to help support the site and to be welcoming to lurking guests when you join! After all, you're already here.

Rowdy

will give that a shot. thanks.

Rowdy

got a link to Phils article on sharpening cant seem to find it anywhere?
was able to salvage most with the mineral oil and steel wool but my 8 inch shears are pretty whooped might have to drill out the rivet and resharpen them completely.

Salvelinus

Certainly! Thanks for asking.

First, the base needs to be very smooth. It doesn't take much of an imperfection to stop the advancement of the callous over the wound. Concave cutters are incapable of performing this task. You have to use a very sharp knife or carving tools and shave off a little at a time.

Second, be sure to contour the base so it will blend in with the trunk/branch when the wound heals. This may mean making a much larger wound, but one that will look very nice, maybe even unnoticeable, once it is healed.

Third, realize that healing occurs from the cambium layer and therefore you need to allow space for the callous to swell and spread initially.

I was taught this method for hardwoods in my advanced class, and it has proven to work extremely well. I also use it on my ficus with good results:

Once the base has been contoured and carved very smooth with a sharp blade, make a slit with the knife around the periphery of the wound right at the edge, perpendicular to the surface of the bark.

Then, make a cut from the wound bed to this slit at an angle (approximately 45 degrees from perpendicular) all the way around, so there is a peripheral "trench" at the edges of the wound. Smooth this transition with your knife so the whole wound bed is smooth.

Finally, seal the edges of the wound to prevent the exposed cambium layer from drying out. You don't need to seal the dead wood in the middle. If all goes well, you will have nicely healing wounds very soon, pushing off the wound sealant and advancing rapidly across the wound bed. You may need to get the process going again every year or so by repeating the treatment if the wound is very large.

To further clarify, look at the drawing in the attachment. This is looking at the wound from a cross-section, with the carved wound bed in the middle and the bark on either side. I'll try to get some photos of healing wounds treated with this technique, but hopefully this explains what I do.

Attached Images

wound.jpg (7.3 KB, 7 views)

__________________
Namaste,

--Scott ><>

"There seems to be no survivors to interview, but I suspect [kamikaze pilots] did not shout 'traytree' the moment before their personal sacrifice." --Herb Gustafson