Agreed. These are typically much longer than I use. These were from ARS GRIN and I had more than I needed.
I finally received mine in the mail today. J68
Calibrate the hell out of it. You will get excellent cuts if you jack around long enough, seriously.
That means cutting wood from trees and simply trying, trying, trying.
Dax
Bingo.
Dax
Got two out of ten. Considering the poor match in diameter between Scion and rootstock, not too bad.
Tried to convince my relatives that it was like doing open-heart surgery, but they didnât buy it.
Two out of ten successful grafts? Mismatch in diameter is never an excuse for grafting failures. You are making a mistake somewhere else in the process. Assuming that you are grafting viable scions at the right time of year, perhaps you are not obtaining any cambium contact or they are drying out from not being sealed properly.
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I think sometimes people worry too much about getting a perfect match laterally with the scion and understock and are missing out on cambium contact. The best way to ensure cambium contact is to have the cambiums cross. The most prolific high-volume professional grafters ensure that the cambiums cross.
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Good idea. Iâll graft at a slight angle in the future. Pretty sure Iâve got it sealed.
This device fills an important niche in my grafting tool arsenal.
Some of my fig cuttings are very expensive, sometimes $50 for just 3-5 nodes. The nodes are spaced quite close so doing a Whip/Tongue means sacrificing several nodes for just 1 graft. Iâd like to make as many grafts as possible for the money I spent on these rare varieties and use just 1 node if possible.
This tool creates a nice saddle graft with twice the cambium contact for given length compared with a Whip graft. You could cut a saddle with a knife but it is quite difficult and dangerous. And unlikely to be that precise.
For thin scions that are not that costly or easier to obtain, I use a knife and do W/T or cleft.
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The way to calibrate this tool is to get the blades on with the tips together as best as possible. Then the anvils should be aligned just enough not to touch the blades when completely depressed. Then tape the handle together or use a rubber band and then line up the anvils precisely.
Dax
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I really like the way the Zenport tool works. My only regret about the tool is that they built it too cheaply.
I was grafting with it the other day and was cutting a larger peach rootstock (it was larger, but not huge, about 1/2 to 5/8") and the tool broke. I wasnât even putting that much pressure on it.
I got it home to see what happened, and the square tube is held in place by a square nut which fits inside. The nut is supposed to be fastened to the square tube, but all they did to âfastenâ it was to crimp the tube on the nut. Although a fast and cheap way of doing it, itâs not a very positive union for this application, which was the cause of the failure.
Here is a pic.
![KIMG0899[1]](https://d55v7rs15ikf5.cloudfront.net/original/3X/d/8/d84c181085c9a52ca7400bb4147e9b4272babad3.JPG)
I removed the square nut and the flat head machine screw, so they could be more visible in the pic. But the square nut was originally crimped inside the square tube.
I like the idea of the tool, just the manufacturing needs to be better.
I may try to weld the square nut inside the tube, but I donât know if that will work. Itâs really thin tube and I have an industrial stick welder (for heavy duty stuff) not a mig welder.
I think the tool may work if you donât use it on anything bigger than 3/8". 1/4" would probably be better.
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I cut some monster fig wood with mine. I was nearly standing on it to make the cut and nothing broke.
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Didnât you get one from Amazon and one from Alibaba? I got mine from Alibaba. I think the quality was slightly different between the two?
I could have gotten a bad one (except that itâs a bad design to crimp the tube on a nut).
After looking at the tool a little more carefully tonight, I think the best solution for repair is to simply mill a slot in a new piece of square stock, then drill and tap the end (from eyeball, it looks like a 1/4-20 tap).
It wouldnât have a spring return that way, but it would require a lot of machining to drill out the inside of the square stock to allow room for the spring, which wouldnât be worth the time for a spring return, imo.
I guess all I can say is youâre right but for 22-25$ itâs pretty damn nice when compared to my 450$ Fieldcraft Topgrafter. Itâs allowed a lot of people to get the same cuts very inexpensively.
Wish it wouldnât of broke on you, Mark.
Dax
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Mine broke yesterday the same way yours did!
Dax,
I hope you donât think anyone could blame you, if some of the tools break. The forum operates on the principle that free advice is given as a goodwill gesture, and is taken at the takers own risk.
Re: Manufacturer - I do wish the manufacturer would have spent a little more money to fasten the nut in the square tube properly. I would have paid a little more for a little better manufacturing. Then on the other extreme is the Fieldcraft. $450, wow! You know there is some profit built into that one!
I do like the cuts the cheap tool made. It was also very fast, which I liked. I like the tool enough, I think at some point I may try to machine a piece of square stock to replace the weak point in the tool.
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Bob. I almost gave a âlikeâ to acknowledge your post, but I was afraid you would think I was glad your tool broke, lol. Oh well, you know what they say, âmisery loves companyâ. 
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You know actually⌠I had to keep adjusting it and couldnât figure out why it kept moving⌠then looked at the shaft and it was bent⌠pushed it straight again and after a couple more grafts it was all done ⌠It lasted long enough to get most of mine done⌠so for the money it was ok⌠I have extra blades⌠so will probably get another and be a bit more careful with it.
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