Grafting Knife Sharpening Workshop and Feijoa Tasting

It’s time to start preparing for spring, isn’t it? Well, maybe that’s a bit premature, but in the meantime we will be holding a workshop November 12 to learn how to sharpen our grafting knives. This will be a hands-on workshop, the purpose of which is to enable all who are interested (not just knife geeks!) to learn principles and practices of knife sharpening and to have a properly sharpened grafting knife blade as we head toward the scion exchange and spring grafting. The skills we learn will also be transferable to kitchen knives, helping all attendees to be more self-sufficient with knife maintenance.

Our workshop leader will be Andy Wilson, who many of you know as a member of our group.

Workshop Details:

November 12, 2022 – Outdoor Event

Location: Santa Cruz Grange, 1900 17^th Ave in Santa Cruz

Time: 2:30 p.m.

Bring: Your grafting knife

Materials Needed:

You will need to bring your own grafting stone(s) for this class – this will enable everyone to be hands-on as well as ensure you can continue to keep your grafting knife sharp for years to come. Recommended stones (you are only required to have one of these):

• Diamond stones, which are generally for dry sharpening, and can be used at home or in the field. Also good for kitchen knives. Here are two links from Amazon for this type:
  https://www.rockler.com/diamond-hone-sharpening-set?country=US&sid=V91046&promo=shopping  about ~$16.Or alternatively https://www.amazon.com/DMT-W7EFC-Diamond-Whetstone-Stone/dp/B00004WFTD/ref=psdc_328182011_t2_B000UVS62S, which is a bit more expensive ~$24
• For folks who would like to use oil stones, which could be useful for other sharpening purposes as well as the grafting knives:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006NDPLW/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&%2AVersion%2A=1&%2Aentries%2A=0, ~$28

If you feel your knife is really dull, an additional stone might be useful, such as: <https://www.amazon.com/Norton-Crystolon-Combination-Oilstone-Coarse/dp/B0001MSA5Y/>. ~$34.  This is a “nice to have” but is not “required” for the workshop.

At the conclusion of the knife sharpening workshop, we will have a feijoa tasting. These can be grown in our area; for more details check out the CRFG Fruit Facts.  Among the varieties we will be tasting are some from Mark Albert’s collection.