Winter tools need a wipe and a film of oil
I have pulled a fork out of a shed corner in March and found the tines orange and the shaft grey with mould. That tool was put away wet after the last autumn dig. I told myself rust was a finish. It was not. The edge was gone and the socket had started to pack with scale. I spent the first dry day of spring cleaning a tool I should have wiped in November.
Once the heavy jobs slow down, I would clean what I own before I hang it. Sap, soil, and leaf stain are still fresh on the blades then. Wipe sap off secateurs and loppers with a rag. A bit of white spirit on the stubborn film, then dry. Soil off the fork and spade with a stiff brush, not a wet dunk you leave to drip. A dunk feels thorough. It is how you store water in the socket.
Wooden shafts need to be dry before you oil them. A damp handle under linseed or any wiping oil just seals the wet in. I would leave the tool in a dry room for a day, then a thin coat on the shaft and a thinner film on the metal. Blades need a light oil so they do not flash rust. I would not soak them. Oil in the pivot of the secateurs is enough. Wipe the excess so dust does not cake there. That pair is the one I wrote about in Secateurs that stop cutting are usually blunt. Winter is when you decide whether they will cut in March.
Sharpening is a separate pass. A file is for a spade, a hoe, or a nicked blade with a long edge. You push the file along the existing bevel and stop. A stone is for secateurs and knives, where you want a finer edge and more control. I would not run a coarse file down a good bypass blade. I would not try to stone a square spade edge to a razor. That is the wrong finish for a digging tool. A spade needs a keen edge you can push, not a knife you will chip on a stone.
I have over-oiled. The shed smelled like a garage and every tool picked up grit. A film you can barely see is enough. If it drips, you used too much. I have also used cooking oil because it was in the kitchen. It goes gummy. Use a light oil you would put on a hinge, not a salad.
Do not store wet in a shed corner. Hang them, or stand them blade up on a dry rack. A bucket of tools with soil still on the heads is a rust trap. The heads knock, the edges nick, and the moisture sits. I did that for a year because the hooks were full of things I did not use. That is the other winter job. Take the filler off the hooks so the tools you will pick up can hang.
Skip a winter kit that is just a tin of mystery oil and a toy stone. I would use a known light oil and a file or stone I can hold. Skip anything sold as a "tool bath". Soaking a wooden shaft is a way to swell it and then watch the head loosen in spring.
This is a late autumn and winter job, and it pays in February. A spring prune kit is smaller than the catalogues say because the kit is the pair you already cleaned. If you skip the wipe, you start spring with a stuck pivot and a shopping list. Hose fittings leak at the washer, not the hose is the same season. Take the connectors off the tap before a frost. A watering can still earns its hook next to a hose. The can can stay. The hose should be empty.
I do the metal first, then the shafts, then I hang them where I can see the heads. If I cannot see a tool, I will not remember it is rusty. Seeing it in December is cheaper than finding it in March.
If I later add a buy link here, it will be a paid promo.