Ironbridge Sharpening

I still remember these secateurs from six years ago.
They came out lovely - and, if I was a before-and-after-photos sort of guy, I'd show you 🤣
Sadly, the customer's photo is all I've got.
It looked worse than it was - but it was very pleasing to bring them back from the brink.

I've had a weird rush of these Japanese digging knives (cutting trowels?), which are always fun to do, and a bonus set of now unnecessarily-shiny secateurs.

It must be Spring even though it feels like autumn 🤷‍♂️

Ps. I was worried that this was a bit messy for an "advert" but the media spaniel says it adds a sense of realism, and she does have a nose for these things.

PPS it *is* an advert though, so I have to remind you to get things sharpened (because then they will be sharp) 😁

07887564589

This morning, I spent an inappropriate amount of time polishing another gentleman's chopper. There's no profit in it but I just can't help myself. 🤷‍♂️

An old saw. Make shiny, hang on wall.
Was great grandfather's ❤️

There's an old tradition* that you should get your knives scissors and tools sharpened before All Hallows and the dark days of winter.

As a side quest, you can then carve pumpkins and whatnot.

*This is completely untrue and I made it up 😈

Lock knife today. Sharpened and made shiny. I used to have one of these, so it got a bit of extra attention for sentimental. Apparently, I can't add video to a post with photos, so I guess I'll put that as a comment 🤷‍♂️🤞

I finished the kukris 😁
Shiny!

Polishing some kukris.
It's lucky that polishing is easy and quick and not at all monotonous 🤣

I'm supposed to do adverts, an' that.
So here's a "before". I'll add an "after" ... umm ... after 👍🤣

Nice start to the day 🙂

For form's sake, I will point out that I am open over the bank holiday. Garden tools cleaned and sharpened ... just sayin'
😘

(The elephant is completely unrelated and I have no idea why the image is in my camera roll 🤷‍♂️ But gooogle says "adverts with an image perform better", so I thought I'd test that)

A hatchet this evening.
Both before and after photos, like a proper blogger 🤣

I also did an after shot with something reflected in the bevel because those seem popular 🤷‍♂️

The polish is not just aesthetic. In my opinion, the smoother surface allows the wedge to cut further into the wood - because reduced friction. This is not an uncontested opinion amongst the sharpening community but it is nice and shiny 😁

The arrival of the first secateurs heralds the start of spring 🙂

After and before photos - and I get a gold star for remembering to take 'before' images, for once 😃

Five pounds each, for such items as these.

A set of AGA knives was brought in with a few issues. Mostly the request was to fix the pins but I thought that I'd tidy up the bolsters and profiles a bit whilst they were with me. And sharpen, obvs 😘

Because of the local connection, I'm trying to find out a bit about them. They were made in Sheffield (it says on the brand mark) and I assume they rebranded as AGA.

The best guess of the jury of knife sharpeners that expressed a preference is 1980s. They look similar to Sabatier and that (so says the jury) is when they were "cool". It has also been suggested that that is the last time anyone could afford to run an AGA 🤣

I have emailed AGARangemaster customer services to ask - because I don't see why I should suffer on my own.

I have replaced the pins with brass-esque hammered rivets snipped from a rod I keep for the purpose. Somewhere among the before and after shots below, I hope I included the photo of my highly sophisticated rivetting equipment...

Stay sharp 😘

This is an old video from 2018 when I was sharpening in Hitchin. I've deleted the old webpage and I'm copying media over to the new in a sporadic fashion 🙂 I really miss that old work surface. I will need to get some board and 2x4 and improve my workbench ... Anyhow - this is a wee video of the process for sharpening Felco no.7 secateurs....

Secateurs This is an old video from 2018 when I was sharpening in Hitchin. I’ve deleted the old webpage and I’m copying media over to the new in a sporadic fashion :) I really miss that old work …

It's nice when I get messages like this 😀

Just messing about, I've cleaned one side of these shears (not sharpened yet) to see if I could do before and after all in one shot 🤣

This is what it looks like when my old customers send me their knives ...

I made a little oven out of mud and some salvaged half bricks. And then I made a teeny loaf of bread, which I have now eaten.

Don't forget to get things sharpened. 🙂

Sorry, it's a very dull photo 🤣

But ... this small job of two horse blades represents a small milestone: my first unannounced, drop in customer 👍

I'm particularly pleased because it came by word of mouth rather than advertising.

Sharpening is making the world a happier place for 50p an inch :D

Don't just take my word for it, it's in the paper. Disappointed to only make it to twelfth best thing, though 😭🤣

I hope you have a great new year
Tim