North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[david.maxwell@dal.ca]

> ('Til a workshop last spring, all the grafting I've done has been with
> my knife, but we're trying to limit the flow of blood.  And some folks
> do not process well the instructions on how to avoid cutting their
> fingers.  So a dedicated grafting tool gives us more options.)

I too am doing a grafting workshop this spring, and got a marvellous 
suggestion to avoid 
blood-letting.  Make up little discs (or squares) with a hole in the centre.  
These slip over the 
stock or scion while one is making the cuts, (between one's hand and the 
cut), so that if the 
knife slips, it simply hits the disc rather than flesh.  (In practical terms, 
the knife slips happen 
when one is cutting the "tongue" in a whip-and-tongue, because that is when 
one is cutting 
towards oneself rather than away.)
I stand to be corrected, but it appears to me that the grafting tools work 
well only if the stock 
and scion are very close to the same diameter, while grafts made with knives 
are much more 
tolerant of differing diameters.  Any comments?