On Mar 6, 8:43*am, Stephen wrote:
Hello,

I broke our spade trying to dig out some roots. In the past I have
always bought a cheap fork and spade set from somewhere like B&Q. Are
all spades created equal or are the expensive ones better in some way?

I see some are carbon steel and others are stainless steel. I imagine
stainless steel is less likely to rust but in my experience, the
carbon steel ones have not rusted but perhaps that's because they
haven't lasted long enough to rust!

What about forks? I always seem to bend the tines but as with the
spade, that is user-error abusing them to when digging out roots. Are
there any with more robust tines?

One last question: border spades and digging spades. Is the border
spade just a slightly smaller version of the digging spade? Which do
you use, or do you have one of each?

Thanks,
Stephen.



Have a look round a car boot sale. The heavier the spade, the
stronger it will be. They made indestructable spades back then. Just
watch that the handle is OK.
Failing that, the builders merchant. Again, heavier is better. A
good one is expensive.
I had an SS one. It was crap,it broke after about two years.