You make it look so easy. I’ve not done any grafting but would like to try. Especially once my apple trees get bigger I want to graft different apple varieties on them. More varieties on less number of trees. At least that is my thoughts.
What are you dipping them in? Do you prefer a straight edge grafting knife of a curved on? Not sure what the advantages are of either.
Thank you for posting this video. Good luck with all your grafts.
Hi @MikeC,
That’s just a video I like. It’s not me. He’s dipping them in wax to hold the existing moisture of the wood in, and to cover the cuts so they don’t dry out. I’m not quite that fast, but I have a friend that grafts as fast and as well as this fella.
I do have a straight edge Tina folding grafting knife that I’ve had for at least 10-years. It was a 140$ then and now they’re 120$. My buddy carries a regular old pocket knife with 4 or 5 folding blades. He also carries no matter where he is or what time of the year on vacation or not, scewdrivers and wrenches and pliers. I never met anyone else that carries tools like that in their pocket 24-hours a day. His wife refuses to empty his pockets because one time she found a dried up frog that Gary found at work and thought was interesting enough to put in his pocket. 
Dax
Bench grafting is nice because you can sit in a comfortable position and position the scion and rootstock in any way you’d like. Sometimes when grafting to an established tree you are contorting your body into position that aren’t very comfortable just to reach the right spot.
Hahaha, great story about his wife. The things he picked up i am sure she didn’t want any part of.
A lot of older guys I worked with as well as my relatives would always carry a pocket knife with them. Only a couple of guys carried the Swiss type one. One had a little pouch that his belt went through to carry it. Everyone else just carried their pocket knives well, in their pockets. Everyone did it so it was not a big deal to see then bringing it out and using it. I have a small Crown Royal blue bag I have all my uncles and grandfathers knives in. No one else in the family wanted them. I just took them because I hated to see them just either tossed away or given away to anyone that wanted it, non relatives that is.
Heck yeah, you can get the one or ones you like sharpened up. Every now and then I send my knife to Frank Surace in Chicago. He sharpens with Japanese water stones.
I always have to write a note saying only sharpen the front side of the blade and knock the burrs off the back because it’s a tree grafting blade. It’ll come back so damn sharp that even the excess grafting I do and because it’s high quality steel it won’t need sharpening but every third year. This will be my second season on it. I’ll send it in next winter.
Dax
Another member posted this video recently. I thought this was pretty clever…
Dax
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fstBNYNcddg&list=FLiEzU-xR5rSFRDsiyiWQ2jg
My friend showing me his grafting tool he built solely from a pair of blades acquired from an old grape grafting tool. This guy worked as a tool and die maker all his life and was in charge at IH CASE. He’s the one who put the frog in his pocket.
Dax
Thank you for posting these really good videos. Makes it look simple. Neat tool your friend made. I would think something like that would save a LOT of time. That makes the cuts work really well when the two pieces match up. I like the system he uses and the moist sawdust is a good idea too.
For me it was interesting to see that they graft their peach trees when they are pretty dormant. They have no leaves or flowers on them.
I would say they probably saw bud swell on other nearby trees, or knew the sap was flowing because they had been pruning around the orchard days or weeks prior.
If the sap is running slow, that’s a good thing in my opinion as long as there is enough heat to aid in callousing.
Dax
This guy has a whole series on grafting apples in an easily watchable format:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7o-ZWg2JKg&list=PL60FnyEY-eJDRcuY_h1U9QX4KurnShOay
@Barkslip Dax, do you cut toward yourself when grafting, or away from yourself? Do you use a right-handed or left-handed Tina T605? I’m trying to decide what side I want the bevel on. (I forgot your YouTube channel name, thought one of those video’s may show it).
Toward myself. People unfamiliar with grafting should cut away. I stop the knife blade with the thumb of the hand holding the knife w/o any sort of protection.
Right handed knife. Bevel will be on top of the blade while holding knife in hand. I always and will continue to recommend sending your knife to Frank Surace in Chicago along with a note stating this knife is for grafting trees. please sharpen one side only and knock the burs off the other side, only. Tape a small piece of paper on the side of the knife to be sharpened or mark it somehow that makes sense.
It’s so inexpensive to have Frank sharpen a knife.
My youtube channel is on my profile.
Dax
He is a wealth of information. I’ve been watching a lot of his videos over the past few days
Skillcult and Gardenvideo.com… Skillcult does many things that I also like to do and the guy in Gardenvideo.com has a great series about apple breeding rootstocks ect.and many things in the garden,
Here is a good , straight forward grafting video,
While he demonstrates on tropical plants this works the same up north to.
Good info, no bull sh–.
Echo 's tropical fruit video series
This ones 1hr. 10 min. Last 20 about avocado
I think iam going to watch them all.
http://youtu.be/7BbSjTVEDCc
And he holds his knife the same way I do with his thumb under the scion,
So I like this 
I love the way he explains everything so clearly. The video quality is not the best, but he takes his time with everything and you have plenty of time to absorb things. It sounds like he’s had to explain this to trainees plenty of times, and knows what questions are going to asked.
Yeah , for an hour long video, he does not waist much time saying anything that does not need said, and pretty much covers the important stuff.
_
Great info and video.