Box cutter with very sharp Milwaukee blade also works.
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Those never worked for me. In my experience it’s hard to get enough “pressure” to ensure good cambium contact with those cuts. A good old fashioned cleft graft, bark graft, or whip and tongue, if you are skilled enough to cut it (I’m not), all work better.
The website was a little clunky, but I ordered one you liked. I had really poor results last year doing everything by hand. 10 grafts, two took for a while, but none made it. Maybe the tool will be better. I’m curious how long it will take for the tool to actually arrive.
This tool is complete nonsense, a good knife with an understanding of what cambium is (& know the reasons for success and failure) would enable anyone to graft.
I would expect delivery within 6 - 8 weeks at my place on the east coast. I don’t know how much that would charge up in Alaska.
For a beginner, I’d argue a v-cut tool is a very valuable “tool in the toolbox”. It effectively makes a cleaner cleft graft that heals pretty evenly. If I bugger up something I have a utility knife and my Tina 605 to work with too.
@Moose make sure you are lining up cambium and not outer bark. That was my mistake for the first year when I had terrible take rates. Also make sure your rootstock is starting to wake up and that should help it heal faster based on my experience with pawpaw and persimmons. Apples and pears are more forgiving.
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I might miss the grafting season if it takes that long. It says expected to ship in 11 days.
Depending on what you are grafting you might be cutting it close.
I ordered a couple plum scions to graft to an invasive mayday tree (prunus padus)- experimental mostly. There isn’t a lot out there about people having success.
The rest are apples.
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It’s a knockoff of a highly expensive ($400+) Topgrafter tool.
Mine worked fine at first but then started crushing the wood. We’ll see if the new $12 blades work.
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