Tips to help you have the sharpest tool in the shed

Whether your tools are used in the house or garden, a blade should be sharp in order to do the best job.

You don't need to have a green thumb to know that your landscape and other projects will look like you hired a pro if you use good tools. Here are some tips for keeping your blades, especially your garden tools, in good shape. Maybe they will help make up for your lack of a green thumb.

You should get into a regular routine of sharpening your tool blades. One of the best, and fastest, ways to do this is with a multi-tool like a Dremel. There are several good manufacturers of these gadgets, and they work great for this project. Use for grinding tips and sharpening shovels, clippers and even hedge trimmers.

You also can employ the old-fashioned way of using a sharpening stone or a file to get a nice edge. This takes a little practice but will do a great job, and the cost is minimal. Try to replicate the original angle of the blade. And if you put the blade into a vise, it will be much easier to work on.

If you have trouble doing this yourself, many hardware stores have people who can do this. They will either come to the store once a month, or you can drop your tools off and they will send them out for sharpening.

Many blades can just be replaced. Check your hardware store, home center or owner's manual to see if a replacement blade is available for your tool.

While you are at it, use a good lubricant on all of the springs and other working parts. This will protect them from rust and corrosion, and will keep them working smoothly. Don't forget to coat the newly sharpened blade with some oil to keep it from rusting.

Now if people say, "You're not the sharpest tool in the shed," it won't hurt so much!

Got a tough nut to crack?

Have you ever run across a real tough nut to crack? Well, there is a way to safely remove a nut that has rounded edges or one that is just stubborn. If you can find a second nut the same size and run it down the bolt and right up next to the stubborn one, you can grab both nuts with a wrench and remove them together. This might be your best bet to remove a tough nut. And you can replace the rounded-off nut with the new one.

Super workbench addition

One super addition to the average workbench would be a paper towel holder. You can buy one for just a couple of bucks and mount it directly on the side of your workbench. It takes only a couple of minutes to do, and it sure does come in handy. If you feel like you don't need a whole paper towel, then cut the roll in half and have both halves handy for when you need a smaller wipe for your greasy hands.

Super hints

• If you use carriage bolts on an outdoor project, make sure you go back and tighten them after a month or so. The wood will start drying out, and the bolts will become loose and should be tightened down for the best hold.

• Spray lubricants are handy, but if you don't have one, or your favorite lube doesn't come in a spray bottle, make your own. Just buy or reuse an empty spray bottle, fill it with your oil and keep it handy.

• Before you throw away that old wading pool, why not fill it with leaves and drag them around to the front to load into bags for pickup? You can fill a pool with yard debris and get the whole load moved much quicker in one of these old pools. Maybe your neighbor is throwing one away. It can wait a week before going to the dump!

Q. My deck gets a lot of use, and we love having it, but it has started to get really light gray. Can I bring the original color back? How is that done?

A. Yes, a deck wash or brightener will bring the "new" wood look back. It will look like you just installed the deck. But if you want it to be a certain color all the time, you probably should apply a penetrating sealer. Otherwise, it will just fade to gray again. Make sure you apply a water seal if you decide to let it weather. This won't prevent it from fading but will keep the wood from molding, cracking and other problems related to moisture. Most penetrating sealers will include a water seal, so you won't have to do any more work after the stain has been applied.

Q. I would like to install some peel-and-stick vinyl tiles in my enclosed patio. What do I need to do to the current slab to make sure the tiles stick?

A. Make sure you resolve any moisture issues on the slab first. Next, make sure the surface is perfectly clean and dust-free. Then just follow the instructions with the tiles, and you should get good results

Q. Our home doesn't appear to have any vents along the eaves. Are these hard to add? Our ceilings are vaulted, and there is no way to get into the attic. Can we install them from the outside?

A. You could add them from the outside by just tracing around them, cutting 1 inch inside the line and attaching them to the eaves, making sure insulation isn't preventing them from functioning. But if you have attic space and no top vents or ridge vents, you might not need any. If the space is that small, there might not be enough room to worry about, and the insulation there would be a more important factor to maintain.

Reader tips

• Our bathroom shower seems to get clogged up quite a bit. I've tried a lot of things, and the last time was a real mess because I couldn't find the plunger when it happened. I grabbed my wet/dry shop vacuum because I knew it would at least pick up the water that had accumulated in the shower. I pulled the drain cover off, pushed the hose into it and flipped the switch on. It drained out the water and then must have pulled the clog up the drain because I heard a loud noise and then the drain cleared. Whatever it was got sucked out by the vacuum, and we have had no more problems.

• I found a local salvage company in my city. They take parts of old houses and buildings and sell them to people like me. They had tons of cabinets, windows, trim and the sink and toilet that I needed to redo my bathroom. I saved a bundle on these fixtures, and they look incredible because they are old and fit in with my older home style. I even found a couple of cabinets, which I have put in my game room to store items in and set the TV on. If you have one of these companies in your town, you should check it out. You never know what you might find.

• You'll love my faux masking idea. Our home has a lot of windows and, when I painted the trim, I found a better way than using masking tape. I just went around the edge of each window with a little petroleum jelly. This prevented any paint from sticking to the edge of the window as I painted. I just used a clean cloth and some window cleaner to clean it off when the painting was finished.

• Our kitchen table was a wreck. We cleaned it and then sanded the top smooth before putting on a couple of layers of polyurethane. We did the legs too, and even put down a dropcloth to protect the floor. What we didn't count on was the dropcloth sticking to the table legs. The only leg it didn't stick to had a rubber bumper of some sort stuck into the bottom, which kept it off the plastic cloth. (That explains why the table always wobbled.) The next time we do anything like this, we will add a bumper to the bottom of each leg to keep them from sticking to the floor or the dropcloth.

• Our son moved back home for a few months, and we had to create some additional closet space for him. We added a second closet rod under the first. We bought a plain closet rod, drilled holes through it near each end and ran a cord through each end and knotted it. Then we tied the cord to the rod above it. The new rod hangs midway in the closet between the top rod and the floor, so there is plenty of room for T-shirts and jackets. It works so well, I might just leave it after he leaves, as it surely will come in handy again.

Shop talk

• Liquid Nails, a favorite of do-it-yourselfers, is offering new, smaller packages of its most popular adhesives. An Adhesive Variety Pack includes three glues - a multipurpose glue, super glue and an epoxy adhesive. Individual packs also are available, and the new, easy-to-read labels make choosing the right glue faster and foolproof. The newly patented multipurpose glue has earned the GreenGuard Children and School Certification because it is solvent-free and safer to use. Look for all Liquid Nails products at your hardware store or home center, or online at liquidnails.com.

• The new Daredevil spade bit from Bosch is faster and offers cleaner cuts and smoother finishes. The patented design has a cone threaded tip for faster feeding and smoother cuts. And the contoured paddle speeds chip removal as well as helping speed up the work. A patented spur-and-reamer design also scores the wood for a cleaner hole going in, and with less breakout on exits. Look for the Bosch Daredevil spade bits in a variety of sizes at your hardware store or home center. For more information, visit the company online at boschtools.com.

• Write to Al and Kelly Carrell in care of the Daily Herald, P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights, IL 60006 or visit the Carrell's Web site at thesuperhandyman.com.