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‘The sharpener guy’ is on cutting edge at Rotary Gardens

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Photo by Bill Olmsted

Sparks fly as Rotary Gardens volunteer Jerry Wilson sharpens the blade of a shovel. Wilson is considered the go to guy for the gardens when it comes to keeping edged tools sharp and work ready.

Photo

Photo by Bill Olmsted

Jerry Wilson uses a variety of stones, files, grinders, and wire wheels to keep the clippers, loppers, hoes, shovels, and other edged tools in prime working condition.

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Gerald O. Wilson

JANESVILLE — It was like watching a magician perform a conjuring trick.

Jerry Wilson held up the Felco pruners that had been left in the compost heap all winter. Encrusted in dirt and covered with rust, the pruners—frozen open—seemed destined for the landfill.

Very slowly, Wilson’s arthritis-gnarled hands disassembled the frozen tool using oil, a socket wrench and the muscles of a much younger man.

After using a wire brush on some of the bigger chunks, he put the blade to the grinding wheel. Sparks flew as the wheel hummed. The rust disappeared and the minor detritus was ground off the handle.

Off the wheel, Wilson went to work with a file, then emery paper. Finally, he added some 3-in-1 oil. After carefully considering his work from every angle and testing the sharpness of the blade with the side of his thumb, he declared the pruners ready for use.

Wilson’s audience at Rotary Gardens Horticultural Center was suitably impressed.

The general feeling was summed up in one word spoken by many of the people present: “Wow.”

Wilson is on Rotary Botanical Gardens’ staff 16 hours a week from March to November.

“He’s usually here about 32 hours of week year-round as a volunteer,” said Mark Dwyer, gardens horticultural director.

Of course, Wilson does much more that sharpen tools. He also does the pruning in the Japanese gardens, a crucial task considering the plants in questions. Such gardens are obsessively tidy, and every cut must be carefully considered.

Wilson performs plenty of other routine tasks, too. For some reason, he always gets the job of fishing the dead animals out of the pond. Once he was caught moving crawdads so fish would have a better chance at a snack.

Those habits have earned him the nickname “Muskrat,” because he’s “always messing around down by that pond,” said Larry Olsen, the gardens’ landscape manager.

For many others, though, he’s known as “the sharpener guy.”

Wilson has hosted more than one informal sharpening class for Master Gardener volunteers and members of the public. Each time, he performs his magic act from the gardens—then goes to work on whatever tools gardeners bring in.

Spades, loppers, pruners, shovels and garden shears of all shapes, sizes and functions pass through his hands and return to their owners with seriously sharp edges.

Wilson likes his job—both the paid and volunteer work.

“I’ve met people from France, England and Australia,” Wilson said. “They always want to know what some plant is.”

If he knows, he tells them.

“If I don’t, I say it’s esox lucius, because they want something in Latin,” Wilson said.

What’s esox lucius?

“Northern pike,” he said, smiling.

Not to worry; Wilson is the kind of guy who lets people in on his jokes.

Jerry’s sharpening tips

Jerry Wilson, the sharpening guru at Rotary Botanical Gardens, keeps everything from pruners to spades sharp.

So what does he use? Things your dad would call the “right tools for the job.”

They include:

-- 3-in-1 oil

-- Emery paper (not sandpaper)

-- Rat tail file and other small files designed for metal

-- Metal file.

-- Metal brush

Other tips:

-- Keep a bucket of sand and gravel handy in your garage or near your garden. Put tools into the mix after use to clean off dirt. Add a little scrap oil or motor oil to the bucket, and your tools will get clean and oiled at the same time.

-- You get what you pay for, part 1: Good tools are expensive. For loppers, shears and other cutting devices, it’s helpful to be able to dismantle the tools for cleaning and sharpening. Some will include replaceable blades.

Because of the way it’s manufactured, American-made steel is best for tools. However, you might find it difficult to find such tools.

-- You get what you pay for, part 2: Yes, it’s nice to have the best tools on the market. But if you tend to “bury tools” (lose them in the garden or the yard), it can get expensive.

-- Sharpen the blade edge. This might seem obvious, but people sometimes try to sharpen both sides of a single edge to a point, like a wide “V” shape. The sharp edge is only on one side.