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Quality hand tools for gardening
- To: market-farming,permaculture
- Subject: Quality hand tools for gardening
- From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflondon@mindspring.com>
- Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2000 02:08:48 -0400
- Newsgroups: permaculture
- Organization: Venaura Farm
- Reply-to: lflondon@mindspring.com
See:
Garden Handtools Sourcelist
http://www.ibiblio.org/london/documents/gardening-hand-tools.faq
Also:
You can find three variants on the Japanese eye hoe (from S & H in
past years) available in hardware stores and mail order:
A nice shart handled Portuguese-made eyehoe from Lee Valley Tools -
two types of heads & less than $20 each - excellent quality cast steel
head, well designed with a good heavy duty handle
Several eyehoes from Hida Tool Co., Japanese-made:
Farmer Hoe - like the old S&H but lighter duty - still a beautiful
tool - same proportions on blade and with the usual slight tapering of
blade thickness from edge to eye
Farmer Rake - this is one of the most beautiful tools I have ever seen
- heavy duty - three flat 1" wide, very long, tapered (in thickness)
tines in a wide configuration, heavy Japanese oak handle - a
lifetime tool to do real work with - there is no other tool like it
on the market today - its not a rake but is a digger/tilther/earth
mover/weeder - a serious tool for the serious gardener
Ridge-Making Hoe - This, too, is a serious heavy-duty large hilling
hoe for prepping raised beds and rows and generally moving dirt. .
From:
Hida Tool and Hardware Co.
http://www.hidatool.com
hidatool@hidatool.com
1333 San Pablo Ave. Berkeley, CA 94702
510-524-3700 (telephone) 510-524-3423 (fax)
9:00 to 5:00 (PT) Mon to Sat
1-800-443-5512 (telephone) 1-888-524-7473(fax)
Hand tools
Japanese Woodworking tools
Handcrafted Japanese Garden & Bomsai Tools
(there's no pix of these tools & you'll probably have to call them to
get a price (about $45 each) Get the Hida Tool catalog to get the
price sheet
The Ames or Seymour versions that are made in Austria - lots of
different head configurations, nicely made forged
but none as functional or heavy as the Japanese version - not pricey
and available from AE Leonard mail order and many hardware stores
Get a "MUTT" from Lowes or Home Depot, heat and bend the blade to make
it into a hoe; has a socket for a long handle - beautiful tapered
blade, heavy, long -- has lots of potential - comes in two versions:
long/narrow, short/wide - all have 1/4" steel or better - heat treat
and temper it for better edge-holding and weed/turf slicing