I was thinking of buying this grafting tool kit for my nephew. Has anyone use it and think it is OK product. He is a newbie to fruit trees.
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I think the tool is useful for grapes, not sure why they’re sold in kits like that. What’s he grafting? I would recommend the knife, some budding tape and parafilm.
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He is kind off clumsy so I didn’t want him to cut is finger off and just use the tool for grafting apple, pear, stone fruits, and maybe persimmon.
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I would say it’s a good present if he doesn’t have any grafting supplies, all the stuff in there will work. There’s lots of variations for materials and methods that all work.
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And a roll of parafilm.
I cannot attest to that knife but it’s the right price and definitely the correct size and blade type. It looks pretty good.
Don’t do any other kits. The v-cut system is the only way to get perfect results and it does that.
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@tonyOmahaz5 I received this exact kit as a gift last year for my first year of attempting to graft apples. I will say my success was not very good, but could absolutely be user error.
the grafting tool itself seems well enough made and fairly sturdy. it has 3 different sizes of “U” shaped blades. I believe another member posted “V” should be the preferred shape.
The grafting knife was sharpened on both sides of the edge. I’ve heard grafting knives should be flat on one side.
Probably still a decent gift, but i will be purchasing a quality grafting knife this year and going that route. hope this helps
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Whenever I place my knife into another person(s) hands on purpose to see their reaction & especially during the middle of one of their grafts… they put their knife into their pocket. It’s a Tina 605 foldable knife. It’s unquestionable the most comfortable and heavy (weight) knife their is and the snap is fierce. It doesn’t budge when unfolded. The craftsmanship is unlike anything else.
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I bought something similar but much less complicate, maybe half of the price even.
I’ve tried many knives and still use the Tina 605.
I think that that’s the one I just bought based on the appearance and price.
No idea if it actually works, but the overall look of the product when I opened the box is promising. An appropriate gift.
I would spring for a roll of buddy tape for nephew if you are concerned about success percentages.
It would cost you more than the tool, however.
P.S. I’ve had success both cleft grafting and budding with an Opinel knife recommended here. Very reasonable price
I bought a similar kit that includes the same tool when I first started grafting a few years ago. The tool is not bad and I think it would make a good gift. I use the scissors on it mostly to cut my stock and scions to the size I want. Sometimes I use the graft cutting blades (mostly the V), but only when the stock and scion are the exact same diameter. I’ve come to prefer just using a knife in most situations now that I am more experienced, but I think it’s a nice tool to have anyway.
I think my kit came with the same tape, and I didn’t really like it. It was a pain because it didn’t really stick to itself or stretch well. You had to wrap it tightly and make a knot or hold it on with a rubber band. So I’d think about getting him a roll of parafilm or something as well.
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I feel like a sharpening stone might be my most essential piece of grafting equipment.
I can do fine without my parafilm.
i can do fine without my favorite grafting knife.
I could even manage without my favorite pruners.
give me a potato peeler and a sharpening stone and ill be fine.
I don’t wanna imagine doing it without the stone though.
Buying a grafting knife without a way to (re)sharpen it feels like buying an electric sander without any (extra) sanding paper.
Tina grafting knifes seem to be almost industry standard.
They are however pricy. For the price of that knife, you can get a more than decent knife, a high quality sharpening stone and high quality pruners and still have some money left.
Depending on budget. I’d go for
1e 30-40 dollar whetstone #1000 grit. (coarse enough to reset an edge with some elbow grease, fine enough to polish when “stroping” on the stone. Suehiro CERAX for example
2e opinel carbon knife or something similar. Nr 6 imo is decent for allround grafting. nr5 is my favorite for chip budding. But a reground thrift stone knife can be fine also. nr6 is the first one with a locking mechanism. (5 and lower don’t have that)
3e some parafilm. Is optional. Some people dislike it, i personally love the stuff. When i started i got a single meter (~3f) for a few dollar on ebay from a reseller) You don’t need a full roll. That meter of parafilm (4in wide) could yield you 50-100 whip and tongue grafts.
4e a good pruner. There are multiple, but i second Barkslips choice. Those okatsune’s are awesome. Although they are carbon steel. And do stain from use, and rust when left wet! So if your nephew is not one to take care of his tools. Another pruner might be preferable.
5e one thats not mentioned often. But a little rubbing alcohol, isopropyl 70% is best,(in a spray perfume bottle)
You can use this to clean sap of your pruners/blades and to disinfect.
Here’s a picture of some of my grafting tools.
All tools are whetstone sharpened. Flats side topside on knives. Knives with handles on the bottom of the picture are “left handed”
Knives with handles on the top are “right handed”
Knives have 1 side ground completely flat. Other side at an angle (20-40 degrees depending on steel/use)
This is not absolutely necessary. Some people graft with “normal” grind knives. But i find it makes making flat cuts a lot easier. And especially for beginners, helps a lot.
btw i love my okatsune so much i polished the whole thing on a sharpening stone. 104 is the one on the picture. I have reasonably large hands and even then it feels on the edge of being to big. I think most people would like the fit of 103 more. (i also have that one)
I dislike the grafting tools. But if he’s that clumsy that you don’t trust him with a knife, than you can also buy the tool and some grafting tape. Why buy a set with a knife?
If you go the knife route. I’d recommend getting the knife super sharp, with a sharp knife you can use proper safe techniques and have to apply way les force.
I think most cuts happen when you apply to much force and use the wrong technique, and those factors cause you to slip and cut yourself.
I think skillcult has a video on safe knife technique’s. I personally learned from looking on YouTube and searching for video’s from professional grafters, pausing and playing back the parts where they cut and copying their technique. They tend to use technique’s where it’s really hard to slip and cut yourself. They have to, if they cut their fingers they can’t work (comfortable) for a few days.
An alternative is just grinding a left handed knife, and cutting away from yourself. (like your normally cut a twig into a spear)
With a sharp left handed single bevel knife this stil works fine. You than either learn proper technique for the tong of the whip and tong graft or skip the tongue and bind the graft with a bit more tape.
This is assuming your nephew is right handed. If he’s left handed things flip around.
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I recently purchased a worksharp knife sharpening system. The cost was reasonable and it has given me far better results than I could achieve by hand with stones. Admittedly my knife sharpening skills leave something to be desired. Using the worksharp system gave me an ultra sharp edge that I could shave off my forearm hairs, (something I could never accomplish before).
I should have ordered a strop and compound with the sharpener but I didn’t. I figured I’d just make one myself, but didn’t get around to it. When I realized I needed a strop badly last night while sharpening I devised my own hillbilly stropping system. A plain old piece of cardboard from an Amazon packing box seemed to work quite adequately as a strop. I thought maybe I could improve on this, so I added a little “bee keepers friend” to a little grape seed oil on the cardboard as a substitute stropping compound. Bee keepers friend does an amazing job of scouring stainless steel clean, so I thought I’d give it a go. Seemed to do all right in a pinch.
Don’t lynch me for such barbarism, I know it’s not a substitute for an expensive stropping system, (just making do with what I had on hand).
I have a Worksharp too. I love it, especially for kitchen knives.
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I have that exact kit. The tool is a copy of the Italian omega grafting tool. I had that one too but it got stolen along with my grafting knives a few years ago. It works great if you use the same caliper scion and rootstock. I have a $5 set of calipers that I use to make it easy. The knife isn’t so good - too big and thick for grafting. I suspect the steel isn’t the highest quality. All in all it would be a good starter kit. Add a pocket knife, parafilm tape and wax and you should have good results for closely matched stuff.
I’ve been playing around with one of these this season. If the scion and stock are around the same size, it makes a very nice union. Blades came reasonably sharp—but mine were a little rusty. Works better (for me) than the bigger Chinese v-cut tool I also have, which tends to crush pear scions (but works okay with harder stuff such as persimmon wood).
Anyway, I kind of like to use a tool on something I have a limited amount of scion wood for—so I don’t whittle it all away. I am not exactly Mr. Dexterity. (Yes, I know that practice makes perfect, but I only have so many grafts to do—and I don’t think I’ve got it in me to go professional. 
)
I was thinking about upgrading to one of these Italian grafting tools:
Any thoughts on these? “Standard” or “Large”? Either? Or neither?
For doing clef graphs or splice grafts this is easy, quick, relatively safe and uses standard utility blades so never needs sharpening. There are various brands. Some use replaceable utility blades some use other longer blades. I’ve seen some as cheap as $10. This is just one example.
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I’ve done quite a few cleft grafts with a similar pair of utility cutters. I agree that it does work very well.
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I also use the same cutters. Even though I have a fair number of razor sharp grafting knives I find these much easier to use.
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