Running slow After tilting over my mover to remove the blade to sharpen it, a little oil dripped out. Now it runs but sounds like it is going to stall out. It never does, it just runs poorly. What do I do to fix this?

Every so often you will find that your gardening shears just aren't up to snuff. This will usually be most prominent when it get really difficult to cut through even the weakest of branches. Cleaning and sharpening your pruning shears is very simple and can be done in a matter of minutes.

To start you have to make sure that your shears are clean. Its not difficult to clean them, you can use a cleaning solution like scrubbing bubbles to get the dirt off, you just spray them and wipe them off with a soft cloth. If there is a lot of dirt or rust on the blade you might need to use a wire brush or a piece of steal wool to get them clean.

When you are satisfied with how clean the shears are you will need to get a sharpening stone. Carefully using your thumb on the convex blade (the big side of the shear) of the shears find the beveled edge. This will tell you the angle that you should be using to run the stone along the edge at.

When you have identified the angle that you're going to use to sharpen at, take the stone in your dominant hand and in the other hold the shears open. Applying a little bit of pressure rub the stone in small circles. You don't want to over do it, just a few times should be enough to get the blade sharp again.

The beveled edge should be the only blade that needs to be sharpened. On the flip side of the balde you shouldn't need to sharpen because it should be flat. In the case that you run your finger along the flat side and you find a bump you can use your stone to just smooth it out.

When you are satified with how smooth the blade sides are you should put a little bit of oil into the joint of the blades and open and close the blades a few times to get the oil into the gears. And finally using a cloth wipe the oil up and spread it over the blades. Wiping the oil over the blades will help to keep them from getting rusty.

To make sure that are ready to use you can test them on a piece of shrubbery or you can just head back out to the garden and get to work!