Unless you showed a series of photos I’ll never understand but that’s Okay.
Dax
Dax, I know you’ve nipped off water sprouts at a right angle. Well, what’s to keep you from angling your nippers so that the end isn’t square- in fact, as far from square as you can get it? Do that on the scion as well as the water sprout, marry the cuts, and wrap- that’s all there is to it.
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If you are grafting many trees it will save an enormous amount of money.
Glad it worked!
M.
And your hacksaw. 
Dax
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I haven’t done any clefts for years- way too time consuming.
What are you securing with and what about wind? I can’t imagine doing a splice graft for anything outside of a greenhouse but I know Clark does them on his pears. You must wrap the hell out of those. 1/4" is pretty tiny I guess.
Dax
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I tape them together firmly with vinyl electric tape- probably survive a hurricane, but by hurricane season they are as strong as the original shoot. Sometimes I unpeel the tape on a warm fall day- if very young and tender bark starts to peel off with the tape in a way that seems threateningly deep I slice through the tape with a razor knife just deep enough to get through the tape, but always cutting a bit into the bark- heals fine. For some reason, stone fruit has the grow power to stretch that tape and never seems to get constricted by it.
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I pulled the last of my tape a week ago, pulled very little bark, I think the cheapest electrical tape you can find may have less stick
Works for me.
Dax
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Back on topic, that is a really nice looking knife. I tried using a box knife but the cuts always dished out on me. When I had my brother sharpen a knife with a single bevel it made a very flat cut , perfect for grafting
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There are loads of D2, 440C, S30V etc etc folding knives out there that come with a chisel grind already. Why go to the trouble to buy this knife and need to re-grind the blade?
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I think if you put it in your hand you’d understand. I can’t say any differently.
Dax
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Following this post, I treated myself to one of these knives. Soon after receiving it I sent it off for sharpening to Frank Surace per Dax’s recommendation.
I received the knife along with 3 other knives I had requested to be converted to grafting knives - 2 opinels and another right handed knife I needed converted to left handed. Hardly any left handed knives on the market.
They all came back much sharper than I was ever able to make them in the first place.
I am now able to make beautiful slanting cuts 2" long in walnut, plum, apple, pear etc with 2-3 strokes at most even in 3/4" thick walnut. The heavy knife makes equally easy work of 3/4" walnut and 1/4" fig scions.
A sharp knife is a joy indeed! I am going to enjoy this grafting season.
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@hambone too.
Either of you guys rotate a scion to cut away from your body (thick scion) and the blade didn’t stay completely locked? I had that happen and thought no way I can keep my knife. The knife went toward the middle holding position which of course collapsed the blade toward my hand. Never did I expect that. I sold my knife. That was enough for me. I ended up keeping the Joe Pardue which is a hell of a knife too. It wasn’t my favorite but it’s a close second.
I took that money and bought another Tina 605. Tina knifes are excellent for small wood but not anywhere near as good as this Joe Pardue. Cutting pear scions slightly more than 1/4" or close to 3/8ths the Tina just doesn’t have the weight or power to do two in a row “simple” cleft cuts on the scionwood. I found myself going 5-6, 7-8 times to get the results with the Pardue that are (2) cuts. I do love a Tina 605 knife however and will have both to do different tasks.
I’m saying be careful and pay attention to long cuts away from your body with those cotton samplers you guys both have. I was doing a bark graft, naturally-speaking.
I don’t know anything about knife construction but I ground this down using a belt grinder. Maybe this was my cause:
Dax
No trouble with it yet. I always pull toward my body. Making the bark incision though always poses risk of folding up unless careful.
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I’ve so far only used the knife to make W/T cuts where the bark wasn’t terribly thick or sticky. I did practice on a lot of black walnut wood and it seemed to cut very nicely.
Wouldn’t any folding knife be potentially dangerous (other than something where the blade can be locked open? I haven’t used a Tina 605. Perhaps it is constructed in such a manner.
I do have a fixed blade Tina which may be less dangerous in such a situation.
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I always pull toward myself too @hambone except when I need to see better the wood grain to get the last and final cuts flat on some of those long cuts if the scion isn’t perfectly flat. These are scooping cuts where I’m pressing down at the top of the scion and scooping as my blade turns to go flat to finish the long cut. Usually it’s when I’m cutting a scion down really thin.
I do suppose any knife could potentially slip but I’ve never had that happen prior.
Well, I made my decision. I’m not going to gouge myself.
Dax
Here I go messing up everything but the Joe Pardue doesn’t budge an inch. It’s a damn good knife.
If you aren’t doing anything like me… turning the scion away from me and then turning it back toward me and back and back forth and back and forth… you’ll love the large cotton sampler.
I’m damn happy though with the Joe Pardue. And having a Tina at my side as well.
Dax
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