Which Garden Tool?

[Cider Boys]

You have probably discussed your favourite garden tool before, but I wonder if you could only choose one tool which that would be.

For me it would be my Mattock, it was my Father’s and I have used since a boy for about fifty years. I have only seen a similar tool with a pick spike on the opposite end to the blade for sale now. Mine has a blade about 9’’X 4’’and you can cultivate land, hoe, earth up potatoes and chop with it and I cannot understand why gardeners do not use them today.

Barney

[oldherbaceous]

Barney i would be torn between two tools, one a mattock that sounds just like yours.
Has yours got the lovely shaped handle, unlike the modern ones with a straight handle.
And also a lovely old flat tined potato fork, they are both really old.
I was given them by a gardener who said he had no use for them anymore, they belonged to his grandad so why he gave them away i don't know, but i treasure them.
They both get regular use.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

[Johnboy]

Hi Barney,
I have a such an implement as you describe and it is one of the remaining tools handed down the family.
It was my Great Grandfathers and he died in 1860 so this tool dates from long before then. He was a Market Gardener at Bocking in Essex and it is a 'Blacksmiths Tool' obviously made to design.
It has a handle made from a shunters pole off the Railway which was purloined by my Grandfather.
It is a tool that is exceedingly well used here.
The other tool that I wouldn't be without is a double wheel hoe which is made in New Zealand and doesn't appear to be on sale in UK any more.
It is great simply as a hoe but also very useful when preparing a final tilth prior to sowing. I have had the Hoe for well over 30 years and it's as good as the day I bought it. You had to buy the head and buy a handle seperately. If I remember rightly it cost £1.5s.6d which was quite a high price for the day probably today around £20.00. Worth every penny!

[Cider Boys]

Hello Johnboy and Old Herbaceous

I’m pleased to know (but not surprised) that you both recognise the old Mattock.
As to a potato lifting fork, mine has recently been severely bent at the tines by my oldest son who used it to lever up some heavy rocks, I relentlessly lectured him about care of tools and the follies of youngsters of today but omitted to tell him that it was me who broke the original handle of my Father’s Mattock by using it to lever up some heavy steel.

All the best

Barney

[Zena]

Ok, time to make myself look stupid (again)

What's a mattock?
and what's the difference between a potato fork & an ordinary fork?

Have I ever mentioned that I have a lot to learn?!

[oldherbaceous]

Zena, you stupid, how could we think such a thing.
A mattock is like a pickaxe, except it has one wider blade instead of two points. A very useful bit of kit.
And a potato fork has flatter wider tines than a normal fork, thus helping when digging potatoes.
But i still manage to stab the biggest ones.
Don't tell the others that though.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

[Allan]

A 'ladies spade' with a hoe handle fitted. It's an Elwell spade bought in the sixties, not stainless but keeps its shine when used regularly and the thiclness is graduated top to bottom so it self-sharpens with wear, the bottom edge is like a knife, ideal for turfing, breaking clods, weeding, digging post holes, trenching,cutting up cabbage stalks etc. for composting. The long handle means you can hoe or dig standing upright, shift muck etc. from one place to another while standing in one spot. I suspect that production was stopped partly on cost but also becaise it is dangerous for inexperienced users, you could injure yourself severely with such a sharp tool.
Allan

[richard p]

all the mattocks ive seen have two blades and no points. one blade is set along the shaft like an axe and the other is at right angles like a strong hoe. we used them for grubbing out tree roots .

[Johnboy]

Hi Richard,
What you have described is a trenching tool which, I believe, was first introduce in World War 1 when troops were digging 'The Trenches.'
There is also a Mattock Pick which has a flat blade one end and a spike the other.
The one I am describing, and I think Barney is as well, is just a single blade (quite a pause which you are sure to have noticed 'cos I went out to measure it) 41/2 inches wide and almost 12 inches long an a 51/2ft pole.

[sandersj89]

Do you guys mean something like these:

http://www.chillington.co.uk/northafrica.html

I have heard lots of positive feedback on these but not tried one yet.

On the farem we used to use these:

http://www.thecedartree.co.uk/ornamenta ... pf1002.htm

for forking spuds into the riddle prior to bagging, we still have 5 or 6 in the workshop.

Jerry

[richard p]

if you stuck an axe blade on top of the chillington 2966C and fitted a pickaxe handle youd be about there.

[Cider Boys]

The Mattock that I am describing is as Johnboy's, it has a single blade as shown in Jerry's link and resembles 2966c and 6158c.

I have just looked at my Mattock and it says it was made by Knapman and Sons Best Steel and is 3 1/2'' X9''.

I still maintain if you were to be restricted to only having one garden tool, then this is the Jack of all Trades and the Master of some as well.

Happy Mattocking

Barney

[lizzie]

One of my neighbours in the street used to use a mattock on his lottie. Said it was the best bit of kit he'd ever used and the pice of kit he used most cos it was so multi-functional. He doesn't garden anymore and gave his to his son.

He said you can do any bit of gardening with it. The tool is both hefty and gentle, depending on the job in hand.

What do others think. Would they recommend that all gardeners have one to go with their spade, fork and secatuers as an essential gardening tool?

[Johnboy]

Hi Jerry,
The Potato Fork looks remarkably like the standard Muck Fork. The potato fork that I am familiar with has 5 flattened tines. Round tines are a disadvantage because the roundness actually damages the Potato surface but the flat tine is kinder on the surface of the Potato.
Hi Old Herby,
If Potatoes are earthed up properly and they are "lifted" across the row rather than dug down the row much less damage will occur.
When earthed up properly the crop is in the 'earthing up' and you go underneath that and "Lift" and those wonderful tubers just appear on the surface (teaching grandmother to suck eggs.)

[oldherbaceous]

Johnboy, i remember when i was about twelve years old, the head gardener stood there watching me lift a root of potatoes, first fork i stuck in the top of the ridge, on lifting the root i had stabbed the two biggest potatoes on the root. I reckon he swore at me for nearly five minutes, and i'm sure he didn't use the same swear word twice.
After his initial outburst, he spent about ten minutes showing me the correct method of lifting them.
I think the only time i ever stab one now is if i'm helping lift someone elses and they have not earthed them up. But i would still tell a begginer to gardening that i stab the odd one, just to make them feel better.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fools like them old fools.

P.S Hope you got your leak sorted.