Garden Article: Selecting and Caring for Quality Garden Hand Tools

A well made, high-quality gardening tool is a joy to garden with and reduces the amount of time and effort involved in performing gardening chores. When you’re ready to buy your garden tools purchase the highest quality tools that you can afford. Construction, materials and design are the three elements that make up a quality garden tool. In the section below each of these elements are discussed in full. If you purchase cheap tools, typically those brands found at box-stores, they will not last very long and you’ll end up spending more money replacing them than if you’d purchased high quality garden tools to begin with.

The 10 Basic Garden Tools for every Gardener:

Every gardener’s tool shed needs at least these 10 basic, quality garden tools to garden.

Garden Spade: A garden spade is your basic digging implement; use it to make holes and to dig sandy or loamy soil.

Garden Fork: Garden forks are indispensible for every perennials garden. Garden forks are perfect for digging soil that’s stodgy, such as clay, or full of stones; moving and spreading organic matter; and breaking down clods of soil.

Garden Rake: Use a garden rake with short, parallel metal tines (teeth) - for final soil leveling, making a ‘tilth’ (a fine, even soil surface for sowing/planting into). A fan rake with a wide fan of springy wire or rubber tines is used for raking leaves/clippings off the lawn, and gravel paths.

Long Handle Hoe: An English long-handled hoe is ideal for cultivating soil and is designed to prevent dirt from building up on the blade while in use. Hoe are also ideal for weeding in and around large shrubs and vegetable beds.

Garden Shovel: Every gardener needs a long-handled shovel for basic chores around the garden. Shovels are ideal for lifting and throwing gravel, compost, soil and san. Shovels are also useful for digging up and transplanting large shrubs and small trees.

Garden Hand Scoop: The garden scoop makes quick work of removing potting soil or compost from sacks without spilling. Garden scoops are also useful in kitchen herb gardens and indoor gardens.

Garden Hand Hoe: The hand hoe’s broad, thin blade is capable of light weeding, chopping and digging. Use a hand hoe in vegetable gardens, perennial gardens and large planters.

Garden Hand Trowel: Garden trowels are perfect for weeding, planting small plants and tinkering with pots on the patio. Stainless steel garden hand trowels are best since they do not rust and the soil slips easily off of the tool. Burgon & Ball are the premier manufactures of stainless steel garden trowels since 1770.

Hand Pruners: Felco #2 are by the far the most popular garden pruners with gardeners worldwide and for good reason! Pruners are your basic tool for pruning, cutting back, and trimming stems 1.5cm to 2cm (0.6in to 0.8in) thick. There are two types of hand pruners: ‘bypass’ – where two sharp blades cross each other like scissors; and ‘anvil’ – where one sharp blade cuts on to a flattened base.

Garden Hand Weeder: Use a weeding finger to remove material from smaller spaces, such as between cracks and crevices. Garden hand weeding tools are useful necessities in the garden that make keeping your garden weed free a joy. Garden hand weeders are also handy for cleaning between deck boards and paver crevices. .

Buying Good, Quality Garden Tools:

When shopping for well made garden tools first decide upon the task that you want to accomplish to narrow down your tools choices; then make your buying decision based upon materials, construction and design of the tool. Remember that well made, quality tools well cost more than box store, Chinese-made tools, but a well made tool will last a lifetime, spare you injury from improper tool design and make your gardening tasks easier to accomplish.

Garden Hand Tool Construction, Materials and Design:

Materials:When buying any tool with metal parts you want to purchase only forged steel, not stamped or tubular steel. Polished stainless steel is the best choice for garden tools but will typically cost 40% more than inferior metals. Polished stainless steel is corrosion resistant and will hold an edge. Beware of garden hand tools made from cheap thin metal that have been epoxy powder coated. The epoxy powder coating will not add any strength to the metal and once it bends or breaks, the garden tool will rust.

Construction: Just as important as the metal in the gardening tool is the construction used to attach the hand to the blade or implement head. Choose garden tools with forged metal that wrap all the way around the handle (also known as solid-socket construction) or one that has strips of forged metal bolted onto the handle ( also known as solid-strap construction)

What not to buy: Do not purchase a garden tool if the metal wraps only part way around the handle of the gardening tool. This type of inferior construction known as open socket will leave the wood shaft of the gardening tool handle exposed to mud and water which will lead to rot. Also avoid garden tool construction where the handle is poked onto a spike at the top of the metal portion of the tool, the surrounded with a metal band to keep the handle from splitting. This type of construction typically found on Chinese made box store brands will only last a season or two.

Design: Well made gardening tools are balanced for ease of use and ergonomically shaped to reduce fatigue. Steer clear from trendy garden tools with over-designed handles and instead opt for traditionally designed tools that have stood the test of time.

Handles: If you decide to purchase garden tools with wooden handles look for ones made from white ash or other fine grained premium woods. Stay away from garden tools that have painted handles as this often hides inferior, low-quality wood that will crack and split. Fiberglass handles are now a widely available alternative to wood handles. Nearly unbreakable and maintenance free, fiberglass is gaining popularity with gardeners for their hand tools.

Grips: Grips are a personal choice among gardeners. Check to make sure that if a synthetic grip is attached it is securely fastened to the hand, not just slipped over. Be wary of dripped handles as they tend to split and crack with use as does foam

How to Care for Gardening Tools:

Once you have purchased quality garden tools it is worth the extra effort to keep them in good shape. Well cared for garden tools will reward you with a lifetime of service.You can add years to the life of good garden tools by keeping them indoors out of the rain, keeping them clean, and oiling their wooden handles.

After using garden tools, clean the worst of the dirt off with a stiff brush and soap and water if necessary. The best way to keep the blades of garden tools clean is to keep a small sandbox-a sturdy wooden box filled with sand and a little bit of old vegetable oil-inside the door of your tool shed. Whenever you bring a tool into the shed, plunge the blade into the sandbox several times until the dirt has been worn off and the blade is once again preserved with the rust-inhibiting oil.

Once a year, coat the wooden handles of your garden tools with boiled linseed oil. Found in most hardware stores, it can be applied with a brush or rag. Oiling the wooden parts of your tools is a good winter project that adds years of life to your tools. Make it an annual habit.

How to Sharpen Garden Tools: Kitchen knives, axes, hatchets and pruning shears are not the only tools that should be kept sharp. Hoes and shovels should also have an edge. Using a blunt hoe or shovel is a complete waste of time, not to mention frustrating. When using a hoe, you might make as many as 1,000 strokes in the course of an hour's work. Even a moderately dull edge cuts efficiency in half and promotes procrastination. The best way of weeding is to prevent weeds from seeding, and a sharp hoe makes it easy.

The easiest way to sharpen a hoe or shovel is with a vice and a file. Mount a vice, waist high, somewhere along a workbench in your shed. Situate your work space to sharpen your garden tools with plenty of room to maneuver the longest length of your garden tools handles on both sides. With a vice easily in reach and space always available it is easy to just clamp the garden tool into place and bear down with your file and sharpen your tools quickly and routinely. You might think a grindstone is faster, but the heat generated can take the temper out of the metal, making it permanently soft. If your tools are sharpened routinely, it isn't difficult to keep a "hair-shaving" edge on them. Before sharpening your garden tools, examine the shape of the edge and check for scars and notches-places where you've hit a rock when digging or hoeing. Always keep to the original angle of the edge of the blade. If you find a nick that is deep you might have to use your file to blunt the entire edge of the gardening tool in order to get an even edge again. Afterwards, use the file to create an angled, sharp edge. If your filing has been dramatic, you might have a burr on the backside. Simply pass the file a few times-without much pressure-over the backside of the edge. As you file, make sure you knock the metal shavings from the file. As you work, tap the file onto your workbench to freshen its shaving and sculpting ability.

Ergonomic Stainless Steel Gardening Tools from Burgon & Ball.

Burgon & Ball began manufacturing in 1730 in the industrial heartland of Sheffield and for the past 275 years have produced some of the finest shears and gardening tools in the world. The metalworking skills of their workforce are some of the very best in the world and the skills have been passed down through generations. Passionate about quality – many of the most important product attributes are the ‘hidden qualities’ that only emerge when a tool is used. Qualities such as ensuring an edge tool cuts months and years down the line, not just when it’s brought home from the shop. The secret behind this lies with the hardness of the metal – all Burgon & Ball edge tools are made from high-carbon steel, heat treated to the optimum hardness (measured in Rockwell values) for that tool. These good looking and hard working stainless steel gardening hand tools provide every gardener innovative solutions to accomplish a huge variety of gardening tasks with ease.