My Garden Delight

Gardening Tasks: Tool Usage and Files

Tool Usage and Files Selection for Gardening Tasks

Gardening is easy if you have the appropriate tools. But how will you use the gardening tools if you don’t know where they are being used? You need to choose the right tool for a certain gardening job. Learn important tips so that you are well prepared in finishing your gardening tasks by using the right tool.

1. Distinguish the difference between shovels and spades. Spades contains flat blades while shovels have rounded tips. Use spades for scooping and shovels for digging.

2. Flexible rakes are used for lightweight materials for clippings including leaves and lawn clippings while metal bow rakes are used for moving and grading mulch and soil.

3. Use pitchfork when you are moving twiggy materials like small branches. Use a spading fork when loosening hard soils or turning the compost pile.

4. Use cultivators when opening the soil surfaces or uprooting young weeds. Cultivators are adding oxygen to the existing garden beds.

5. Hoes having short handles or weed knives are used for removing weeds from existing garden beds while hoes having long handles are used to remove weeds from empty existing garden beds.

Learning the gardening tools usage can save you time and effort on gardening jobs. However these garden tools can become dull during a longer garden routine. Sharpening is needed. If you already know the right tool for the right job then you need to know how to choose the right file. Files are used when working with metals to sharpen, shape, trim or smooth. The cut describes the arrangement of teeth.

1. Choose ratings of coarseness from smoothest to roughest. The different ratings includes smooth, dead smooth, bastard, second cut and coarse.

2. Obtain the file measurement form heel to point. The heel is the part where the files start to taper into the tang. The longer the length of the file the further the teeth’s distance and the coarser it is.

3. Remember the golden rule when selecting the right file: Large coarse files are designed for trimming and shaping materials while small fine files are designed for smoothing and sharpening edges.

4. Match the shape of the file to the work that is going to be done. The file size variations include half-round, round, flat, square or triangular. Triangular shaped files are good for filing work piece in V-shapes. Half round file is perfect for work areas requiring a gentle curve. 90 degrees corner can be worked out by square files and round files are created for smoothing round holes. Flat files are considered an all purpose file appropriate for any straight edge or flat surface.

5. If you are shaping or smoothing a ferrous metal, a single cut file is ideal.

6. If you need to remove some material parts which do not require a smooth finish then a double cut file can be used.

7. If a smooth finish is required after you have removed material then a file having curved teeth is appropriate. This file is good for materials made of aluminum, brass or other nonferrous materials.

8. It is advisable to install a handle on the tang of your file for your convenience, comfort and safety.

Always keep in mind that gardening is a task to be enjoyed. And selecting the right gardening tools and learning how to use it the right way will definitely be to your advantage.