Making straight grafting cuts

Here are links that have images on the Northwest Cider Supply website.

https://northwestcidersupply.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_2&products_id=49&zenid=91de1d0a3698d888e70e0b68691a62c8

https://northwestcidersupply.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1_2&zenid=91de1d0a3698d888e70e0b68691a62c8

https://northwestcidersupply.com/store/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=49&zenid=91de1d0a3698d888e70e0b68691a62c8

Thanks.

I have tried both and I have had much better success with the Victorinix (granted I’ve done >200 with it and like 6 with the Tina). Do I need to sharpen the Tina or do you think it comes sharp? Why do you think it is superior? Do you have any tips? It just feels duller.

@aiden

Can you shave your arm with them ?

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I’ll check and report back tomorrow. Thanks

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Victorinox supposedly ships usably sharp. I wouldn’t generally assume a new grafting knife will be grafting sharp though.

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if never seen a factory new knife that shaves armhair. Except maby for razor blades. But alls kitchen/grafting knifes arrive not dull. but definitly not sharp. Good news is that a new knive only takes a few minutes on a stone to get to shaving.

@BG1977 Did you manage to do the grafting cuts oky this year?
Good technique helps a lot.
The video already posted by carot is from a guy thats grafting profesionally. And teaches his crew. I learned technique from waching his video’s and pausing and playing back the cuts.

like jcguarneri already posted, the skillcult video is excelent also.

This is another video. Fastest grafting if seen

He keeps his thumb a little in front of the knife. I always try to keep it behind the knife’s edge. I gues he’s experianced enough that it doesen’t matter. But when learning id always keep your fingers behind the knifes edge.

Another one of him

Although i completly agree with skillcults idealogie of skill>tool.

I tought 11 people how to graft last season. All of them never did it before. All of them no to limited knife experiance. And a single bevel matters a lot. 1 person made 30+ cut’s, could not get it. swapped knife. first cut, perfect.

If you practise enough or have enough knife skills a dubble bevil will work just fine. But for a beginner learning, a single bevil is a huge advantage. However with the right teacher and a sharp dubbel bevil you’ll also learn just fine.

A single bevil knife is flat on 1 side. And beviled on the other.
You always want to have the flat side in contact with the part of the plant your keeping for your graft. And the beviled side touches the part that your trowing away.

Also a “higher” knife makes it easier to make single cut flat whips (W&T) i use both an opinel #12 and opinel #5. The #5 is awesome for small cuts and chip budding or thin scions. But thicker or longer cuts are much easier with the increased length and hight of the #12 blade. Although the #12 might be a bit on the larger side. if your buying an opinel id sooner go for a #6 - #8

Tina vs cheaper
Those Tina knifes look great, never touched one. For the price of one of those i can buy 10-12 opinels. Those opinels dull a little fast during grafting. But i touch em up with like 10 strokes on a stone every 100ish grafts. If never been disapointed by going for higher quality on a tool though. So someday hope to own a Tina knife. For the time being it’s a little to expensive and i can imagine that goes for a lot of hobbyists. Although if you compare it vs the difference in cost between buying grafted tree’s vs grafting rootstock yourself. The tina knife can be earned back in 1 season. So everything’s relative.

For a stone, i think a quality 1000 grit water stone (pref japanese) is all you need. Higher grits will be slightly better, but matter nothing until your technique is good enough. First you sharpen back and forth till you feel a bevil on both sides. Than you alternate edge trailing (edge leading is “cutting” into the stone edge trailing is “petting” the stone with the knifes edge) to remove bur and refine the “ragged” edge you got from the edge leading strokes before.

This video shows you the edge trailing (stropping) motion. Het gets it sharp enough to cut tomato’s paper thin on a 140 grit wetstone. Imagine what you get with that techinque on a 1000 grit.
https://youtu.be/YxpmooHDM5I?t=472 (copy paste the link, can only play on youtube)

Another thing you could try with peaches or other stuff that likes higher temps is chip budding later in the season. (either with dormant wood from fridge, or prunings late summer)
To be honest, i have limited experiance with peaches. But it seems logical to me, that things that like higher temps. to graft them when the temps are higher.
And graft things that are harder to get to take, when the rootstock is more active.

little long video. But i think it’s quite beginner friendly.

And ofc again an excelent skillcult video.

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You’d be horrified at my grafting knife! I converted a disused clam knife over to single bevel. It works great, but needs stropping every 2-3 grafts, and I need to touch it up with my finest stone no less frequently than every 10! Fortunately, the soft steel resharpens easily. It was just never meant to hold a ~20 degree single bevel. If I keep this up, I may convince myself it’s worth buying a “proper” grafting knife.

The upside to this frequent resharpening is it became incredibly obvious how much of my success with a given cut is related to technique and how much is related to how sharp the knife is. I’d say the level of sharpness accounts for about 50% of the quality of the cut. When I first started using it, I did about 40-50 practice cuts, wondering why I couldn’t quite figure out the cuts and not really improving much after the start. @barkslip suggested it needed to be sharper, so I touched it up. Lo and behold, my “skill level” increased dramatically.

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You could also resharpen to 30-40 degree single bevil. Most knives can hold 30-40 degree inclusive. (30-40 degree single bevil, or 15-20 degrees on both sides)

20 degree inclusive when cutting hard matterial is a lot to ask, even for harder steels.
You could also make a low angle really large secondary bevil. And then sharpen the edge at a larger angle.


If you look at the picture, you can see a hair’s thicknes line on the cutting edge. Thats the primary bevil or “micro” bevil. Se even though this opinel looks to have a really small angle. the actual cutting part of the blade is stronger.


As you can see by the sharpening pattern. The opinels are not perfectly flat.
Also i like the carbon version a lot more than the inox. Gets sharper. Seems to stay sharper better (although to early to really tell) And is a lot easier to sharpen.

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Oscar I think the geneal metallurgical rule is that carbon steel will take a much better edge than inox.

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They must be the shiniest Opinels ever! :slightly_smiling_face:

What did you use to grind the the back side flat? What are the benefits of removing the locking ring?

I mainly use a Victorinox floral knife but have loads of Opinels lying around from family holidays to France in the distant past. I might have a go at seeing if I can make one look as good as yours do.

EDIT, just realised that no 5 opinels dont come with a locking ring, doh :smiley:

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That fits my observations. I could not shave with the Tina but I could with Victorinox. I’ll try sharpening the Tina and report back. Thanks for the advice.

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This is my first year grafting. I had the very same issues. That is more or less what my very best cut for a W/T looked like. The worst were much worse looking. We will see how they pan out.

For me , the trick is making the cut with one quick motion.
If it does not Look straight. I start over lower. I don’t try to whittle on a bad cut.
Of course using a razor sharp single bevel knife

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For the long cut I teach “Grip it and Rip it!”

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It depends on the steel. Most stainless knives are made from inferior alloys, and improperly heat treated. Stainless will generally take a fine edge if the carbon content is >0.85%, and it has been quenched & properly cryo-treated. The process is more expensive, and time consuming. Most of the manufacturers make their stainless blades too soft, because they assume the customer will abuse the knife.
I would be careful when buying any Chinese steel. The specs are so broad on many Chinese steels, you have to go by the assay. They also like to give inferior steel alloys similar name to U.S. high-speed steels, to fool casual buyers.

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@Masbustelo
The reality is a little more complex

your general rule holds up for most cheaper steels.

But heat treatment and a lot of other things play a larger role. Than just the formulation or recepie of the steel.

If the carbon is spread throught the steel or is locked up in clumps of carbides for example matters a lot. And the size of the carbides also.

It becomes even more “confusing” when you consider powdered steels that make all kinds of exotic alloys possible.
But thats ging a bit off topic here.

In the end if your buying a opinel for grafting, id recomend the carbon one for sharpnes and easy of sharpening.

@Dave8abond
They are quite shiny :slight_smile: i gave up partly trhough polishing the sides though, was a lot of effort for somthing thats mainly cosmetic.
I ground the back flat by hand on a flattend water stone/plate. Took a while. It’s faster to do that mechanicaly. But buying or sourching somthing mechanicle to do that would cost extra and also take time. So i put in the “blood sweat and tears” minus the blood en tears though :grin: (although you can cut yourself while sharpening, so be carefull)

Like you said the opinel no 5 does not have a locking ring. I would like it to have it. And the no 6 has. The no 6 is a little on the large side for easy chip budding. Still works fine, but id just prefure the no5. And the no5 is quite a bit cheaper to.

Like Nil said
the more expensive proceses can yield better steel.
I disagree about his chinese steels statement. Cheaper products usualy preform less, if they come from china or anywhere else. China makes a lot of cheaper products. But also makes good quality stuff, it’s just more expensive. There’s nothing magical about china that makes stuff produced there inferior to stuff produced anywhere else. Same for japan, theyr known for good steels. But if you source the absolute cheapest price point from japan and match that pricepoint in china, the chinese product actualy might come ahead.

anyway more on-topic.
I find that a properly sharpend larger single bevil knive makes it easier to make a “1 go” flat cut.
Also when cutting cleft grafts in thinner more flexible scions/stock i value 1 cut that is concave over a straight cut thats been whittled. The concave or even convex doesen’t matter that much on flexible stock. Since you can easaly bend it for good contact when wrapping the graft. If your topworking or working whith thick hard woods like nuts, it probably matters a lot more that things are nice and flat

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Have you tried using a file for re-beveling? When I converted my clam knife over to single bevel, I first completely removed the edge with a file (perpendicular to blade) so I was starting with a blank slate. I then did my preliminary angle with the file before moving on to the stones. Only took about 10 minutes, if my memory isn’t being too generous. Not sure which technique wastes more steel.

I’ll have to take your double bevel suggestion into consideration. I’ve never bothered with them, but they are intriguing.

i have not tried whith an iron file. Thats quite a “brute force” tool for somthing as fine as a tiny knife. However i do imagine it to work a bit faster.

The problem however is that an opinel is convex. So grinding the primary bevil of, will not yield you a flat side.

I just ground the backside flat. and when the flat plane on the back side almost reached the cutting edge, i started sharpening the secondary bevil on the other side(the large shiny bevil, not the tiny hair line primary bevil) till they met.

My secret weapon was a lighter fixed with some 3m dubble sided automotive tape. (the gray gummy tape with the red plastic film to seperate layers in the roll) costs 1-2$ on ebay

If also used small wooden blockes wrapped in electrical tape in the past. Just taping somthing to the knife when sharpening a large surface really helps. Since the knife is so small and especialy a opinel nr 5 will want to fold while sharpening. Since it does not have a locking ring.

So i basicaly made a little handle to ease the sharpening. Keep paying attention though. Dubble sided tape can come loose. And it sticks a lot better when it’s on a polished surface. I almost did not get it off the flat side after sharpening the beviled side.

I also wrap the handle in parafilm. Just to keep water and sharpening gunk out.

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@BG1977 … check out the vid below… what a nice clean cut.

and another…

TNHunter

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