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).

In article ,
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?

I was just impressed that someone is able to use finer tools than a
pick-axe around here. :-)
--
Marc Stephenson IBM Systems Group - Austin,TX
T/L: 678-3189

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.

On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 15:23:33 +0000 (UTC), (Marc
Stephenson) wrote:

I was just impressed that someone is able to use finer tools than a
pick-axe around here. :-)

I'm fortunate in that I have no rock and our soil it at least 4 feet deep. We
are about a thousand feet up from Brushy Creek, so this homestead having been a
huge farm at one time has wonderful soil. The builders never removed it to sell
in bags. I put that in the contract.

Marc Stephenson wrote:
I was just impressed that someone is able to use finer tools than a
pick-axe around here. :-)

Ahhh... so I take it you live west of MoPac?
I live close to Shoal Creek, that's probably why we have such deep soil (well,
clay, but it's better than rock).

--
Victor M. Martinez

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

In article ,
Victor M. Martinez wrote:
Marc Stephenson wrote:
I was just impressed that someone is able to use finer tools than a
pick-axe around here. :-)

Ahhh... so I take it you live west of MoPac?
I live close to Shoal Creek, that's probably why we have such deep soil (well,
clay, but it's better than rock).

Yeah - I live in Lost Creek, a couple of miles northwest up 360 from
Barton Creek Square (Mall).

Here's an old (and not that great) picture (circa 1995) of the front.
Basically, all the plants that go on this slope (~30 degrees) are punched
through a thin layer of dirt on the way to the rock. Occasionally, I
punch holes in the sprinkler system at the same time!

http://home.austin.rr.com/adkinsstep...Sedgefield.jpg

The bottom section of the slope was planted originally with Asian jasmine. It
was pretty much completely eaten away (deer) and I've replanted it as a
mostly deer-unfriendly perennial bed.

I do know about the soils to the east - I was sort of laughing at my
situation. No way I can get a 20" blade shovel into my ground. Well, if
I start banging it with a sledge hammer maybe.

I grew up with soil that slurped as you pulled a shovel out (east of
Houston), so this is a bit different.

The shovels look nice enough - maybe I'll order some for my dad.
--
Marc Stephenson IBM Systems Group - Austin,TX
T/L: 678-3189

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

[...]
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

[...]

They are very handsome. The possible tradeoff between the higher
polish and difficulty in sharpening is an interesting question. Maybe
you will let us know how it turns out. Personally, I would prefer to
see hickory or ash handles from sustainable N. American hardwoods
rather than an African hardwood that was very likely poached and all
but certain to have helped the bushmeat trade. If hickory works well
enough for blacksmiths, it would probably do for the garden.

but certain to have helped the bushmeat trade. If hickory works well
enough for blacksmiths, it would probably do for the garden.

Yes, but then it would be ordinary, unworthy of bearing the Martha Stewart
label.

--
Victor M. Martinez

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

On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 14:06:34 -0500, B.Server wrote:


They are very handsome. The possible tradeoff between the higher
polish and difficulty in sharpening is an interesting question. Maybe
you will let us know how it turns out. Personally, I would prefer to
see hickory or ash handles from sustainable N. American hardwoods
rather than an African hardwood that was very likely poached and all
but certain to have helped the bushmeat trade. If hickory works well
enough for blacksmiths, it would probably do for the garden.

I had no idea the wood poaching supported the bush meat trade. Now I feel
awful. I do have other stainless tools and they maintain their edge as long as
I keep them cleaned up and not use them to go through rocks...which I don't
have.

"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