A propane torch!

I sanitize rather than sterilize mine.

Bleach is indeed very corrosive and it eats your pruners. I choose to clean the blades thoroughly at the beginning of each pruning session with scrubber and liquid dish detergent to get the dried residue of sap off. Sometimes that is all I do.

When I have reason to be dubious about disease, I follow this by wiping the blades with Lysol between plants. If I had an issue with fireblight I would do it between cuts.

The chemical in Lysol is Alkyl Dimethyl Benzyl Ammonium Chloride. This chemical (not sold as Lysol) is used in nurseries to sanitize and prevent the spread of disease, so I feel comfortable using it on my pruners.

I keep rubbing alcohol with my pruners in the garden. Has worked well this far.

Rubbing alcohol or Lysol. And if you lightly oil your pruners after use (WD40), they will not rust.

agree with gal ... but note ..... wd40 is not an oil ...but whatever... thats what i get for hanging out with engineers in the robot club.. lol ..

you have 2 issues .. cleaning and maintenance ... so you need 2 solutions ... no pun intended ...

btw .. mine rusted less.. when i started bringing them in the house.. rather than storing in the garage ... probably just drier in the house ...

ken

If WD40 is not a oil, please tell us what it is. According to its label and MSDS, it is primarily Stoddard solvent (a refined petroleum product), mineral oil (also a refined petroleum product) and carbon dioxide used to aerosolize the mixture.

yeah.. it just struck me i needed to explain further ...

it is a solvent ... to get the gunk out of something.. and after it dries ... you should oil it ... [keep in mind.. i said i was working with engineers.. lol]

which begs the question .. if its an industrial solvent.. why wouldnt it sterilize the blades ...

one thing for sure.. it will dissolve sap and what not .. wonder what could be left ...

ken