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.

I like the looks of the stainless fork.. let us know how these tools perform..

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.

Martha Stewart stuff ... can't you pick these up at K-mart (or Super K-
mart)?

animaux wrote:
I bought the border spade and fork, both stainless steel with beautiful wood

They are indeed nice looking, but will they be strong enough?

--
Victor M. Martinez

http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv

"Victor M. Martinez" wrote in message
...
animaux wrote:
I bought the border spade and fork, both stainless steel with beautiful
wood

They are indeed nice looking, but will they be strong enough?


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. This relates to spades because they get dull quickly, and should be
touched up with a flat file kept in the garage. The performance difference
is amazing, in case you've never tried this. It takes about a minute to put
the spade in shape to cut through soil like butter (almost).

On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 14:36:05 +0000 (UTC), (Victor M.
Martinez) wrote:

animaux wrote:
I bought the border spade and fork, both stainless steel with beautiful wood

They are indeed nice looking, but will they be strong enough?

For me they will. I did most of the heavy work in the prepared beds and now
will have to maintain them with a wiggle of the fork from time to time to
aerate. I have another stainless steel fork for doing the initial cultivation
in new beds, but what I've done is to remove the grass and put a layer of
compost, topped with several inches of mulch and in a season the soil becomes
much softer. I do keep it watered and the worms to most of the work.

On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 14:40:35 GMT, Salty Thumb
wrote:

Martha Stewart stuff ... can't you pick these up at K-mart (or Super K-
mart)?

No. These are available only through her catalog or website and in Texas where
I live there are no Kmart stores.

The message
from animaux contains these words:

I bought the border spade and fork, both stainless steel with beautiful wood
handles.

Digging/forking with stainless steel tools is appreciably easier; they
don't get so much soil stuck on them. It's worth taking extra care of
wooden handles to keep them equally smooth and sleek..if they are
finished with varnish, re-do it before it wears off. If they are oiled,
re-oil them occasionally with warm linseed oil, let it soak in overnight
then buff off any stickiness with a cloth.

Janet.

On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 20:16:48 +0100, Janet Baraclough
wrote:

The message
from animaux contains these words:

I bought the border spade and fork, both stainless steel with beautiful wood
handles.

Digging/forking with stainless steel tools is appreciably easier; they
don't get so much soil stuck on them. It's worth taking extra care of
wooden handles to keep them equally smooth and sleek..if they are
finished with varnish, re-do it before it wears off. If they are oiled,
re-oil them occasionally with warm linseed oil, let it soak in overnight
then buff off any stickiness with a cloth.

Janet.

Yes, I do that with all my wooden handle tools. I don't mind spending the added
money to get them because in my efforts, I have finally learned to take care of
my tools. These were too good a price to pass up.

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
. net...
"Victor M. Martinez" wrote in message
...
animaux wrote:
I bought the border spade and fork, both stainless steel with
beautiful
wood

They are indeed nice looking, but will they be strong enough?


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. This relates to spades because they get dull quickly, and
should be
touched up with a flat file kept in the garage. The performance
difference
is amazing, in case you've never tried this. It takes about a minute
to put
the spade in shape to cut through soil like butter (almost).



You use a soft material so that it can be easily sharpened but loses its
edge quickly?
And you don't use a hard material that keeps its edge longer than a soft
one because it is too hard to sharpen?

By this logic there would be no use for hard steel at all.

Not all stainless steel is especially hard. Most chefs' knives
(including the better ones) in the specialty equipment shops around here
are stainless steel and this does not stop them being polished on a
steel or sharpened with a stone. If fact some of the "better" chefs'
knives are ceramic which is so hard that they cannot be sharpened at all
except in the factory. All of whcih probably has nothing to do with
spades.

David

David Hare-Scott wrote:
Not all stainless steel is especially hard. Most chefs' knives
(including the better ones) in the specialty equipment shops around here
are stainless steel and this does not stop them being polished on a

Actually, the better chef's knives are not stainless steel.

--
Victor M. Martinez

http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv

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


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. This relates to spades because they get dull quickly, and
should be
touched up with a flat file kept in the garage. The performance
difference
is amazing, in case you've never tried this. It takes about a minute
to put
the spade in shape to cut through soil like butter (almost).



You use a soft material so that it can be easily sharpened but loses its
edge quickly?

You use a "soft enough" material so it can be resharpened quickly. The
reason is speed: When chefs are working, they don't head for a sharpening
machine or a stone. They grab the steel (the rod-shaped abrasive tool) to
touch up their blades in under 5 seconds so they can go back to work. Trying
this with stainless steel is like ****ing into the wind. This is why carbon
steel knives like Wusthof and Henckel are found in the hands of most
professional chefs.

And you don't use a hard material that keeps its edge longer than a soft
one because it is too hard to sharpen?

When knives (or spades) lose their edge in a major way, it's usually because
of accidental contact with items which damage them, like rocks (for spades),
or metal objects like sink edges or cooking pans (for knives). This will
happen just as easily to stainless steel as it will to normal steel spades.
What matters at that point is speed. Is the average busy gardener going to
go find the drill, the abrasive wheel (if he/she even has one), or haul the
shovel into the basement to the bench grinder (which most folks don't own)?
No. You want a soft material that you can sharpen quickly with a file, which
is hanging next to the garden tools, and requires to extension cord or setup
time.


Not all stainless steel is especially hard. Most chefs' knives
(including the better ones) in the specialty equipment shops around here
are stainless steel and this does not stop them being polished on a
steel or sharpened with a stone. If fact some of the "better" chefs'
knives are ceramic which is so hard that they cannot be sharpened at all
except in the factory. All of whcih probably has nothing to do with
spades.

Well, everyone eventually mangles the edge of their spade. And as I said,
not everyone has a grinding wheel (the garden equivalent of the chef's
sharpening machine or stone). Based on my experience, the ability to sharpen
a spade quickly is important, especially when trying to cut clean lines to
remove turf, while creating or expanding garden beds. Otherwise, you end up
shoving the grass down into the earth, rather than slicing cleanly through
it. And, a sharper spade allows you to slice UNDER portions of turf, leaving
more soil in place.

On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 06:12:56 +1000, "David Hare-Scott"
wrote:


You use a soft material so that it can be easily sharpened but loses its
edge quickly?
And you don't use a hard material that keeps its edge longer than a soft
one because it is too hard to sharpen?

By this logic there would be no use for hard steel at all.

Not all stainless steel is especially hard. Most chefs' knives
(including the better ones) in the specialty equipment shops around here
are stainless steel and this does not stop them being polished on a
steel or sharpened with a stone. If fact some of the "better" chefs'
knives are ceramic which is so hard that they cannot be sharpened at all
except in the factory. All of whcih probably has nothing to do with
spades.

David


In my experience having used stainless steel tools before, including our chef
knife set, it takes quite a while before it loses it's edge. The whole trick of
using any sharp edged tool in clay is to be sure it is properly irrigated and
not too dry or wet. My rusty spade cuts like budduh! I have a steel, to
sharpen my knives and a electric grinder which has many different type tools to
sharpen many different materials.

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.

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
et...

You use a "soft enough" material so it can be resharpened quickly. The
reason is speed: When chefs are working, they don't head for a
sharpening
machine or a stone. They grab the steel (the rod-shaped abrasive tool)
to
touch up their blades in under 5 seconds so they can go back to work.
Trying
this with stainless steel is like ****ing into the wind. This is why
carbon
steel knives like Wusthof and Henckel are found in the hands of most
professional chefs.


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.

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