Re: Japanese digging knife was: Where are the Gardening Presents for Father's Day?
- To:
- Subject: Re: Japanese digging knife was: Where are the Gardening Presents for Father's Day?
- From: M* T*
- Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 18:22:32 -0400
Have to disagree here, my Japanese digging knife is my right hand in
the garden, next to my Felco secateurs - both live in my back pocket.
Knife handle is held together with duct tape, I have abused it so
much for so many years. I use it in lieu of a trowel - don't do much
actually cutting with it, but it is a tool I cannot live without.
Got mine from Smith & Hawken years ago and most I see advertised
aren't quite the same; some even have (shudder) plastic handles! -
same with a Japanese pruning saw I have had for donkey's years that
cuts both on the forward and backward motions and is finally getting
dull and needs replacing and I can't find it anymore.
Mine is not curved, but straight. Do not find it fat-handled nor
clumsy...really is an extension of my hand for so many things I do in
the garden. It will dig up a rock or a brick or lift the edge of a
paving stone; it will dig a hole for a plant, it will dig up a small
to medium sized plant. It makes holes for planting bulbs. It will
mix amendments with soil - even solid clay that a trowel will not
penetrate and that will bend the tines on any hand fork I've ever
had. It digs in gravel where a trowel would not go at all. I've
used it to hammer in stakes:-) It will sever small roots when
removing saplings and underbrush in the woods. It cuts slugs in half
very nicely:-) Like I said, can't live without it and I am female,
not male and my hands are not overly large...
Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor: Gardening in Shade
-----------------------------------------------
Current Article: Deciduous Flowering Shrubs - Part 1
http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/222
------------------------------------------------
Complete Index of Articles by Category and Date
http://mtalt.hort.net/article-index.html
------------------------------------------------
All Suite101.com garden topics :
http://www.suite101.com/category.cfm/gardening
----------
> From: margaret lauterbach <mlaute@micron.net>
> Date: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 11:05 AM
> >
> Most of the garden mail order catalogs carry them, but they are NOT
for
> women. They're crude, fat-handled and clumsy. But a late friend, my
husband
> and a guy who helps me with the computer absolutely love them. They
have
> thick blades, one side serrated so it will saw through small roots,
etc.
> Jim, my computer guru, wore the black finish off the day I gave it
to him.
> It's not for women to use, and I'm not being sexist here, but most
men just
> have larger hands. It's a great present for a male gardener. Wish
they'd
> make something similar with a handle to fit women's
hands...Margaret L
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
