Alan, I will see him in a month or two so I will ask for sure. I think it might have to do something with manipulation and once you get it in your hand you can save time on aligning scion, don’t need to worry about wiggling, graft being fragile etc.
As you can see in this video you can do whip & tongue grafting with great speed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCaRqvoL6Lc
He has been grafting since he was 15 (he lived right across the biggest nursery in the country so he was lucky in this regard) and is in the fifties now.
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I see. That is not the kind of grafting I do as I never work with straight rootstocks on a bench- that’s factory work. I wonder what wage the workers get in exchange for their skill and the monotony of their task.
I imagine a system could be devised using a splice that would be as or more efficient, but the hard thing would be wrapping the grafts with a rubber tape strong enough and as fast as what they are using.
When I lived in NYC for a while I’d watch Korean women tend to produce in their markets, and sometimes Chinese women making dumplings in restaurants. If you think that man is fast, I bet some of those women could have left him in the dust after about a week or two of practice. Traditionally, in early industrial societies, female workers did a lot of the work requiring skillful and fast fingers.
This is a little OT, but I remember reading about some of the early nuclear test facilities.
They found that for all but the most technically demanding of tasks, Women hired from the community (don’t forget, it was the war) did a better job than the scientists.
The women would do what they were trained to do, and get on with things, whereas the men would be like, “Huh. I wonder why it’s doing THAT,” and get stuck messing around with stuff that really wasn’t important. LOL.
It’s been years since I read that, but it has always stuck with me.
I like to graft but doing it this way but certainly change my view on it in no time 
They must be paid per rootstock otherwise why the rush?
Alan, I sent you a PM so please check your mailbox whenever you have time.
While bench grafting isnt all that glamorous it does have its advantages. We bench graft 90% or more of our apple and pear trees but we are in the business of selling young trees. So we bench graft in April, plant in May and then nurture them through the summer. We can bench graft inside out of the elements, standing or setting at a bench, chatting amongst ourselves, etcc. Some of those grafters can really crank out an amazing amount of product. I have looked at those Scionon tools on-line, look like they might be nice, but they are a bit pricey and I tend not to be a gambler on tools that may or may not fit a need for me.
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Cut the wood well that cutter?
Yes,it basically uses a thick razor blade.I only cut scion wood,so the blade doesn’t get changed too much.
The tool greatly improved my grafting success rate,rather than using a knife. Brady
I realize this is a dated thread, but I’m curious if anyone has tried a Scionon more recently. I’m stepping up production of grafted pawpaws, and my hands aren’t getting any younger. While I’ve had good success with a simple cleft graft, a tool and a more elegant looking graft would be welcome. The videos of the Scionon make a whip and tongue look easy. Most of my wood is about 1/4", pencil size. I’ve looked at Dax’s favorite the tool that makes a V graft. Could work for me, but maybe not deep enough for smaller wood. Scionon is $200 now. Thanks for thoughts and ideas. Marc
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I bought a scionon years ago when I was learning to graft. Honestly i never used it very much after I got proficient with a knife. The whip cut is easy to do with a regular single bevel knife. The scionon is cumbersome to use cutting the tongue which is the part beginners have trouble with.
The tool recommended by Dax is more single purpose but works far better.
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Old thread, the link is now broken. I think I bought one of these, but I forget to try it come grafting season. Now with grafting knife thread, I’ve nicely sharpened my grafting knife, so probably will want to use it
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