As I’ve come to understand from reading here, and the depths of my memory of my wetlands and aquatic plants course and related classes in school, the cambium layer (which is the live tissue) is only a few cells thick. This is impossible for us to “eyeball” so lining up the outer bark layer is the next best thing we can do, assuming each piece is the same bark thickness. You just need enough of that cambium to line up to start fusing the two together, but more is better.
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Which direction did they not fit? Vertically or horizontally? As I said above you could grind down the edges to make them fit properly. My tool is still working with the original blades, or else I would check myself. I heard it can take awhile to get everything re-aligned after a blade replacement.
I’ve used mine a whole lot. The cuts are so clean that sometimes if I look away it takes a second to find the graft point again. I’ve only had one fail- a mulberry that grew about 10’ in a few months and broke the graft off.
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Don’t line up bark because it could be different thicknesses. What you do is line up the green strip on at least one side perfectly. You hope the green stripe on both sides of sticks line up.
The layer is called cortex that’s a few cells thick and is invisible. It has ‘cork’ cells that cause callus that continues to build and create both strong unions callus on the outside of a tree where damage occurs in addition to the same cortex cells within the graft union “working area” where you do your cuts and seal the union tight for the sticks to unite. That covering over of (external bark damage) created from deer, rabbits, mechanical injury, wind, etc- is callusing cell material, too, and is cortex, again.
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Mike what do you wrap your grafts with after using this tool?
I bought my tool and blades from probably a different seller while on Aliexpress a few years ago. My blades (luckily) all match up perfect to my tool. I could never say which sellers I bought from.
I agree since this problem exists and it’s a bad one, that if you can purchase blades from the seller at the same time as the tool is purchased, that’s probably a good idea.
I bought like (5) pairs when I bought mine. I didn’t want to be looking for them 10-years later and not be able to find them.
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Regular grafting tape.
They overlap at the tip and keep each other from making a cut. I don’t grind things down!!!
. Well maybe my husband’s patience at times…… 
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I have never had a decent hand-cut graft. I do not have the hand strength to make long clean cuts that match. The v-cut tool worked out great, even on weird diameter matches. Very clean on one side, the other I covered with wax or treekote.
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In my opinion, Buddy-tape is worth getting. I wrap with rubbers and Buddy-tape, one over the other. I did cut the tape into narrower strips for most things.
I had the generic grafting wrap, and the plastic strip, both were awful. I haven’t tried Parafilm.
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Are all this the same tool just with a different name or they are different tools with different qualities???
I found the tool with all this names.
Zenport ZJ68 V-cut
Zmucen grafting tool
FUNTECH V-Cut
Pro V-cut
Ruben if it looks like the same tool, it very likely is just with various marketing names. It’s well worth the cost in my novice opinion.
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Yes, they are generally all the same. Different sellers, look around when stock is out, some USA, some China. A dollar or two different, typically in country costs more. I have only seen replacement blades on aliexpress. I did hundreds of grafts with the original set, though I do have extras. Someone here said the whole unit broke, so I am considering a second unit. I want to figure out how to mount it on a table for bench grafts.
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Good to know, thanks for the information and tips about the blades!
The tool does make short V’s, especially on really thin stock (like 3/16 or 1/8" stock) but I’ve had a lot more success with this tool verses hand grafting where I struggle to make a perfectly straight cut on both the rootstock and the scion. Plus using the tool is way faster for me.
The disadvantage of the tool is that it doesn’t do as good a job when there is a significant difference in diameter of the scion and rootstock.
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I see no evidence that Zenport ZJ68 and all of its “Clones” are not all manufactured by the same vendor. This might have been different in the past.
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This quick & easy modification makes it a more useful tool:
Wonder if it is possible to tell they are the same manufacturer by the packaging?
Would be good to know so I could order extra blades.
I own that same exact one, I used it a lot last year, yet I never owned any of the other ones that it looks like, nor could I find any new blades for it, the seller claims that amazon would not let them sell the blades anymore. I gave up looking for blades, the included blades dulled down a lot before I stopped using it that spring last year. You could try contacting the seller privately with amazon. Not sure if that would help.