On 30/06/2013 18:04, David.WE.Roberts wrote:

Just broke a stainless steel Spear and Jackson border fork.

It broke where the stainless steel handle joins the fork head.

This is the second SS fork I have broken - the other was from Screwfix
where I broke a tine.

SS is hard to weld correctly and the designs S&J sell are crap and fail
at the fork head when used as intended. I also destroyed one before I
realised that SS garden tools are a pointless waste of money.

Mine failed digging up nettle roots. YMMV

Now I don't recall any similar failure with non-SS tools.

So I assume that SS is very good at stopping soil sticking, and also rust,
but this is at the expense of brittle steel.

Not so much brittle as poor quality welding. I will never buy another.

Just checked and my only remaining garden fork (a really old Spear and
Jackson non-SS one) is down at the allotment.

So a purchasing opportunity, I suppose.

Anyone recommend some really robust garden tools?

Any half decent steel ones and remember to look after them.

Cosmetic rust on steel tools seems to be far less likely to result in
catastrophic failure than welds on exotic materials that were never done
properly in the first place. Not having the soil stick is no use if it
breaks too easily. OK it might be handy for hand tools...

--
Regards,
Martin Brown