"Dwight Sipler" wrote in message
...
paghat wrote:

... And such UGLY tools with garish yellow or
orange handles...


In general I agree about the quality of current tools. However, for
those of us who are relatively careless about our tools, those garish
orange handles do stand out amid the foliage when we lay it down
somewhere in the garden and walk off to do something else and come
looking for it an hour later. The bright colors serve a function.

Some cheap tools are cost effective. I am death on shovels (or shovel
handles, anyway), so I generally buy the $7 versions. One time I bought
a $30 shovel, fiberglass handle, etc. The fiberglass didn't hold up well
in the sun and after a couple of winters it was all split and hard to
hold. It lasted less time than the wooden handled $7 versions. PS: I
paint the shovel handles bright red so I can find them. Adds another
dollar to the cost (the paint wears off and has to be renewed
occasionally). The red handled shovel makes a good marker to let me know
where I left off working in a row. I can see it 400' away.

I keep two sets of tools. One set for me and the other for the wifie and
kids. Mine are cleaned after each use, kept in the shop, sharpened each
winter and oiled for winter storage. I still use my grandfather's long
handled hoe. My sharpshooter shovel is older than me. I bought my manure
fork used when I was in high school

Theirs are fiberglass handled, spray painted orange, kept where ever they
were last used, rained on, rusty and luckily almost indestructible. Give my
wife a wooden handled tool and it will be useless in two seasons. Her set
of orange uglies is about eight or so years old and going strong.

Keeps the house a little calmer.