DoubleDogFarm
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Ok Eric, you so don't count.
:cry: My Dad calls me number 4, :lol:

I think my hands are pretty handy. :wink:

Eric

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rainbowgardener
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I do have a sledge hammer. Don't usually think of it as a "garden tool." But I did use it pounding in the rebar when I built the raised beds, so maybe it is.

tomc
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Bigger toys

By the time your using pallet forks, stone boat, on or attached to a tractor, its not really a 'hand' tool any more.

We may be jealouse of your industry, but its sorta past a people-powered tool.

tomc
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Scythe, sickle, brush cutter

Most folks yards have been graded and maintained enough to not want these pre-industrial tools.

"Mow with it, if ya' got it"

There are places that grass becomes, um, er, hayfeild. There are modern weed whackers and brush cutters for folks who garden with power tools.

IMO both powered tools and people powered tools to collect, cut down, or reduce under growth, are fine. These are at best less used than a shovel or rake. Again these are tools to size up in the aisle, before buying.

Knowing which are two-cycle vs four cycle gas powered tools before firing your new toy up out in the back fourty, is probably a prudent idea.

I'd hate to cut an acre of hay with a sickle, Putting a yard sale find of one up on the peg-board at $2, against needing to chop the 'stuph' behind the compost bin every other year, seems like a bargain.

tomc
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Forks

some people like the little half-long clam forks to rummage around in the garden. I like one with a longer handle to pull compost closer to me in bins and while sitting in-garden.

A manure and potato fork round out the forks I use. I'm not sure the potato fork will stand up to Ohioan clay so a shovel is getting more use here.

Manure fork is my weapon of choice in the compost bin.

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I agree about the manure fork (actually what I have is a metal 4 tine pitch fork -- I think of manure fork as the extra-wide closely-tined fork typically used for cleaning horsestalls) vs. garden fork. Garden fork is narrower and tines are too close and flat -- and the handle is too short for good leverage -- for turning the compost pile. It's an exercise in frustration when I'm too lazy to take the few steps needed to get the thing out because I happen to have the garden fork handy. I don't have the ... Clam fork?... But have two long handled D-handle garden forks and a hand fork as well as the long, straight handled pitch fork.

When shoveling OUT semi-finished compost to use, pitch fork's tines are too wide apart.

--

I have a Japanese hand sickle that I use often to cut/harvest overgrown weeds and grass for mulch and for compost GREENS. I would like a scythe but am not ready to spend the money yet... And end up using the sickle in a larger area than is practical or good for my back.... Have tried pruners, long-hadled hedge scissors, and a large chef's knife for the same jobs and have found the hand sickle to be vastly superior. I use any old smooth rock and water to sharpen the sickle edge as I work.

tomc
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By-pass and anvil pruners

I forget and buy a new pair of by-pass pruners about every decade or so. I am just about always unhappy I did because they warp and don't cut anymore (read at all).

As a result about six weeks after buying a by-pass pruner I trudge back to the hardware store, and buy an anvil pruner...

The by-pass pruner then gets relegated to use trimming roots of bonsai...



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