Hi All

I have lost 2 garden tools this weekends - one was an edger. As I put it
hard into the edge of the front lawn, the blade has snapped horizontally. I
think it hit the concrete of the builders - yes we live in a newly built
house, and under the lawn they put down, it is concrete and rubbles.
Wondered how the grass managed to stay green.

So I went into theback garden, and tried to do some hoeing, and again, it
hit rubbles in the soil, and the blade snapped off where it was joined to
the handle. I was in utter disappoitment and frustration. Both tools were
Yeoman make - price was great, but I mean is this due to inferior quality
tools, or is it due to concrete and rubbles covered with top soils left by
the builders.

If it is poor quality tools, which makes reliable toos which last years?
Or is it just the way it is with the gardens of new housing these days, and
it would have happened with any other make of tools?

cheers

Dan

"DLee" wrote in message
...
Hi All

I have lost 2 garden tools this weekends snip If it is poor quality
tools, which makes reliable toos which last years?


I bought myself a set of stainless Spear & Jackson tools as a retirement
perk.
The fork snapped off at the joint with the shaft - it's just a stainless
sheath over a mild steel stub.
The spade is a right pain to use after the rivet holding the handle dropped
out. I was left with a jagged stub which irritates my palm.
My "stainless" edging tool is pockmarked with specks of rust.
The anvil sheared off my expensive Wilkinson geared loppers.....

The best tool I've got? A long-handled traditional spade bought second-hand
at the Royal Welsh Show. It must be decades old, but is clearly going to
outlast all this modern tat.

"Sad Sid" . wrote in message
...
"DLee" wrote in message
...
Hi All

I have lost 2 garden tools this weekends snip If it is poor quality
tools, which makes reliable toos which last years?


I bought myself a set of stainless Spear & Jackson tools as a retirement
perk.
The fork snapped off at the joint with the shaft - it's just a stainless
sheath over a mild steel stub.
The spade is a right pain to use after the rivet holding the handle
dropped
out. I was left with a jagged stub which irritates my palm.
My "stainless" edging tool is pockmarked with specks of rust.
The anvil sheared off my expensive Wilkinson geared loppers.....

The best tool I've got? A long-handled traditional spade bought
second-hand
at the Royal Welsh Show. It must be decades old, but is clearly going to
outlast all this modern tat.

A sound rule is to buy only the cheapest hand tools you can find and throw
them away when they break. They are in any case likely to last as long as a
fashionable stainless steel tool.

I have a friend who (thirty years ago or so) had the policy of never buying
any car which cost him more than eighty pounds. When his car needed
servicing, he used to trade it in for another one in which the transaction
cost him eighty pounds or less.

Franz

"DLee" wrote in
:

So I went into theback garden, and tried to do some hoeing, and again,
it hit rubbles in the soil, and the blade snapped off where it was
joined to the handle. I was in utter disappoitment and frustration.
Both tools were Yeoman make - price was great, but I mean is this due
to inferior quality tools, or is it due to concrete and rubbles
covered with top soils left by the builders.

I think if you are hoeing so vigorously that you take the head off your
hoe, you are either hoeing too hard, or you have been unlucky.

You should not have to shove hard with a hoe to chop through the roots
of weed seedlings in the top inch or so of soil. If you bump a rock
while you are gently hoeing, the head should not come off. You got a
dodgy one: return it and demand another: it will probably be OK.

If you were shoving the hoe deep into the soil, and hit a rock, stop
doing it that way, and use a spade or a fork instead.

Or stick a thick layer of compost as mulch on the top of everything -
you can then hoe that very gently, as weed seedlings are a doddle to get
out of a thick mulch. I use a light rake for this sometimes.

The lawn edger is a different matter. That does sound to me like you
need to remove the rubble before it will be a suitable area for using
that tool. If the edger hadn't broken, you'd probably have knackered
your shoulders trying to shove it through that lot.

Alternatively, you could edge the lawn with a mowing strip and forget
the edger altogether.

All my tools are cheap and old, so that's how I'd do it. Someone with
super-duper tools will probably post now and reveal I could do it
another way if I had his tools...

Victoria

In article . 10,
Victoria Clare writes:
| "DLee" wrote in
| :
|
| So I went into theback garden, and tried to do some hoeing, and again,
| it hit rubbles in the soil, and the blade snapped off where it was
| joined to the handle. I was in utter disappoitment and frustration.
| Both tools were Yeoman make - price was great, but I mean is this due
| to inferior quality tools, or is it due to concrete and rubbles
| covered with top soils left by the builders.
|
| I think if you are hoeing so vigorously that you take the head off your
| hoe, you are either hoeing too hard, or you have been unlucky.

What is needed is a grub-axe. A pickaxe with a 4" blade on one side.
Heavy, but designed for digging rubble.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.