Handles are bubinga wood
http://www.postwish.com/viewproduct.asp?iProductID=2885
Guibourtia demeusei
http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.o...sp?SpecID=1680
http://www.bunnybass.com/wood/bubinga/bubinga.shtml
Janka Hardness is a test which measures the pounds of force it takes
to drive a .44" diameter steel ball 1/2 its depth into wood. These
numbers are taken from various publications but principally are from
the U.S. Forest Products lab. The higher the number the harder the
species.

Bubinga Guibourtia, demeusei 1980
Ash, White Fraxinus, excelsior 1320
Cherry, N. American Prunus, serotina 950
Maple, N. American Acer, saccharum 1450
Oak, Red Quercus, rubra 1260
Oak, White Quercus, alba 1360
Walnut, N. American Juglans, nigra 1010


http://www.drumsolo.cc/snare_drums/s...a/bubinga.html
Growing Region: Central to North Africa.

Availability: Currently listed as vulnerable to EXTINCT in parts of
its native Uganda.

Weight/Hardness/Density: Compared to Sugar Maple, Bubinga is 18%
heavier, 88% harder, 28% stronger.

Cost: Twice the cost of Maple.

Comments: The World Conservation Monitoring Center lists Bubinga as
"vulnerable to extinct" in Uganda, but lacks sufficient data to give
more than an "unknown" status in Central African Republic, Gabon,
Liberia, Nigeria, and Democratic Republic of Congo (ex Zaire). After
our current stock runs out, Drum Solo will no longer be using Bubinga,
due to this status.






On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 13:52:06 GMT, animaux wrote:

I wanted to share with any of the gardeners here that I just bought two of the
most beautiful tools from www.marthastewart.com

The URL is:

http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jh...duct2071&site=

There is an additional 10% CODE which is:

MEF0803

I bought the border spade and fork, both stainless steel with beautiful wood
handles. Both, which included tax and shipping came to $51.50. I have no idea
where I could buy these tools for less that fifty dollars each, on a good day.
Certainly not with the bubinga wood (hardwood) handles.

Victoria

Not affiliated, but have never bought a thing from this line which was not
beautiful and above and beyond satisfied.

"As crude a weapon as a cave man's club the chemical barrage has been hurled at the fabric of life."
Rachel Carson



tomj

In article ,
Beecrofter wrote:

More important, stainless steel is very hard, which is why better kitchen
knives are NOT stainless. The material is almost impossible to sharpen
without a machine, and chefs need to touch up knives constantly, using a
steel.

Bullshit, you just have to bear down a little harder.

That's why I use a hammer. Don't have to sharpen it at all, and it's a
tenderizer, too ! Gives my meat an interesting fractal look. Anything worth
incising is worth lacerating, as my daddy always used to say.


billo

On 17 Jun 2003 17:22:20 -0700, (Beecrofter) wrote:


More important, stainless steel is very hard, which is why better kitchen
knives are NOT stainless. The material is almost impossible to sharpen
without a machine, and chefs need to touch up knives constantly, using a
steel.

Bullshit, you just have to bear down a little harder.

I have great cutlery and they are stainless, one piece with wooden handles.
They are the sharpest knives I have. Now and then I have to hone the edge, but
I use a steel to sharpen them and they cut through everything perfectly well.

Others may have other experiences.

On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 10:35:06 +1000, "David Hare-Scott"
wrote:

(...)

In the case of a spade (getting back on topic for a second) you would
want avoid brittle alloys that would break or get gaps through hitting
stones etc as the ability to hold an edge is useless if the edge is
gapped or the blade breaks. Having said that I have no idea if the
alloy used in stainless steel spades would be brittle or not. Do you
have any information on the sort of SS used in spades?

David

David, there are different grades and alloys of stainless. I am certainly not
an expert, but 18/10 is the stainless people desire for cookware. I have a full
set of mirror polish stainless steel cookware and knives.

The reason why I believe stainless steel is such a good material for garden
tools is the ability to glide into any substance without attracting the
particulate and when it stays relatively clean, it can cut better. Stainless is
also much heavier and helps a little by having superior strength and weight.

All of this is not scientific, but I will report back about these tools in
question and give my opinion on them.

So, am I the devil now?


On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 19:06:21 -0700, des weges wrote:


Handles are bubinga wood
http://www.postwish.com/viewproduct.asp?iProductID=2885
Guibourtia demeusei
http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.o...sp?SpecID=1680
http://www.bunnybass.com/wood/bubinga/bubinga.shtml
Janka Hardness is a test which measures the pounds of force it takes
to drive a .44" diameter steel ball 1/2 its depth into wood. These
numbers are taken from various publications but principally are from
the U.S. Forest Products lab. The higher the number the harder the
species.

Bubinga Guibourtia, demeusei 1980
Ash, White Fraxinus, excelsior 1320
Cherry, N. American Prunus, serotina 950
Maple, N. American Acer, saccharum 1450
Oak, Red Quercus, rubra 1260
Oak, White Quercus, alba 1360
Walnut, N. American Juglans, nigra 1010


http://www.drumsolo.cc/snare_drums/s...a/bubinga.html
Growing Region: Central to North Africa.

Availability: Currently listed as vulnerable to EXTINCT in parts of
its native Uganda.

Weight/Hardness/Density: Compared to Sugar Maple, Bubinga is 18%
heavier, 88% harder, 28% stronger.

Cost: Twice the cost of Maple.

Comments: The World Conservation Monitoring Center lists Bubinga as
"vulnerable to extinct" in Uganda, but lacks sufficient data to give
more than an "unknown" status in Central African Republic, Gabon,
Liberia, Nigeria, and Democratic Republic of Congo (ex Zaire). After
our current stock runs out, Drum Solo will no longer be using Bubinga,
due to this status.






On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 13:52:06 GMT, animaux wrote:

I wanted to share with any of the gardeners here that I just bought two of the
most beautiful tools from www.marthastewart.com

The URL is:

http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jh...duct2071&site=

There is an additional 10% CODE which is:

MEF0803

I bought the border spade and fork, both stainless steel with beautiful wood
handles. Both, which included tax and shipping came to $51.50. I have no idea
where I could buy these tools for less that fifty dollars each, on a good day.
Certainly not with the bubinga wood (hardwood) handles.

Victoria

Not affiliated, but have never bought a thing from this line which was not
beautiful and above and beyond satisfied.

"As crude a weapon as a cave man's club the chemical barrage has been hurled at the fabric of life."
Rachel Carson



tomj

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
u...


I know this is getting somewhat off topic but I am interested to know
why we have this difference of view, this is not just to be
argumentative, I am trying to understand your position as I am in the
market for some new tools (spades and knives) of my own. According to
the manufacturers' web sites

http://www.wuesthof.de/EN/default2.htm

http://www.zwilling.com/tg/usa/index.html

the knives that you mention are "The Steel: X 50 Cr Mo 15 Select alloy
of high carbon no-stain steel" and "Blades made from stainless, special
recipe steel" respectively.

Isn't that stainless steel? It sure sounds like it to me. Whether you
want to call these knives "stainless steel" or not the manufacturers
seem to be trying to produce (and advertise as such) products that hold
an edge well (ie they are hard steel). They also sell "steels" (both
traditional steel and ceramic) to maintain these edges, why would they
do that if using one was ineffective?

To me having a blade that is made deliberately soft so to allow quick
sharpening is rather self defeating as you will need to sharpen it much
more often. The side effect is that your blade will not last well as it
will also require more trips to the sharpening stone.

They make two types of knives for two different types of users. Home users
may need the kind of sharpness or precision that chefs need, but they won't
need that sort of quality 300 times in 4 hours on a busy night. If they need
to spend 10 minutes restoring the edge, it's not a big deal. A busy chef
hasn't got the time to screw around with stainless.

What I'm saying here is based on having spent time (frustrating time trying
to learn tricks, but interesting nonetheless) with a half dozen friends who
are graduates of the Culinary Institute, and two of their teachers. None of
them use stainless.

This is an interesting link, in terms of understanding different types of
metal. Click on "technical information", and then look down at the link
"About Stainless Steel".

http://www.bssa.org.uk/nsindex.htm



In the case of a spade (getting back on topic for a second) you would
want avoid brittle alloys that would break or get gaps through hitting
stones etc as the ability to hold an edge is useless if the edge is
gapped or the blade breaks. Having said that I have no idea if the
alloy used in stainless steel spades would be brittle or not. Do you
have any information on the sort of SS used in spades?


Let's not discuss extremes. The fact that a metal is "not that hard" doesn't
mean it's as soft as a lead fishing sinker. I've been using Bulldog spade &
fork for 20-ish years. These used to be sold by Smith & Hawken before it
became a fashion vendor for yuppies. I've hit plenty of rocks with the
spade. I've never actually dented the tool, but it clearly becomes dull
after a while. If I'm re-edging an existing bed, the dullness isn't
noticable or important, at least not in my soil. For other jobs, it is. And,
in some peoples' soil, it might be important.

When the sun's going down, your wife's telling to to get ready for Aunt
Nellie's barbeque (which you really don't want to attend anyway), your
spade's dull and you really want to finish what you're doing before heading
for the shower, the last thing you'll want is to fool around with a blade
that's too hard to sharpen quickly.

The web site I provided makes it clear that there's a wide range of formulae
for "stainless", and I'm not a metallurgist. I can only base my opinions on
experience, and experience indicates that stainless steel is harder to
sharpen than other metals. And, I have not found rust to be an issue at all
for some reason.

On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 13:32:23 GMT, animaux wrote:

So, am I the devil now?


I think the devil is male...she devil maybe? LOL

I was just curious and posted what I found, anal retentive of me but I
found it interesting. Nothing more!
"As crude a weapon as a cave man's club the chemical barrage has been hurled at the fabric of life."
Rachel Carson



tomj

On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 15:22:58 -0700, des weges wrote:

On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 13:32:23 GMT, animaux wrote:

So, am I the devil now?


I think the devil is male...she devil maybe? LOL

I was just curious and posted what I found, anal retentive of me but I
found it interesting. Nothing more!

"As crude a weapon as a cave man's club the chemical barrage has been hurled at the fabric of life."
Rachel Carson



tomj

Well, I don't much believe in a creator or creation so that's a moot point!
I've learned a great deal from this thread both here and over in austin.gardens.
Thanks for making me more aware of these things.

Victoria