Good luck with Fiskers brand of tools

I'm also a fan of Fiskars tools. They just seem to last longer and even stay sharper.

I use my tools for a living. I use Corona bypass shears. I cringed at the price when I bought them. And evidently I did not by the Big Box Store version because every time I see "those ones" they just do not look like the quality that I have, even though they are the same brand. And as far as other tools like shovels and such, we have broken many handles. My guys can tear up a bulldozer with a powder puff! They are EXTREMELY HARD on my tools. So if a tool can outlast them, it's a keeper! Kobalt I think makes the best wooden handles and believe it or not, Truper makes the best fiberglass handles. But it has to be the red fiberglass handle that is triangle shaped with rounded corners. Or else my guys will break it.

Trust me. I have a graveyard for yard tools! Ha Ha!

As far as the metal in the shovels and rakes, I think it is all about the same. As long as it is not an import brand. (Yes I know everything is made in China. I mean do not buy the one that is called Import or SuperHawk or any of the ridiculously obvious names) And you HAVE to buy a file and keep your tools sharp. That eases the workload on the cutting edge, the shovel, and you. You would be surprised how many folks do not know that you can sharpen a chain saw chain. They just run it till it is dead and buy another one. Same with shovels and hoes and pruners and ???

Scott would know'!!!!!

Here are links for my favorites. I wouldn't be without the little hand hoe that Johnny's Selected Seeds sells. But I do have to mention that the wooden handle isn't as durable as I'd like. I usually, after a couple of years, take them in to a machine shop and have them weld a piece of pipe on, for a handle.

Lee Valley Tools amazes me! I purchased an English made garden spade in 2009. The handle broke on my last fall. (Okay, so the rock I hit, while spading turned out to be a boulder!) Anyway, I chalked it up to my own mistake. But this spring I needed to get another fork. I didn't want to keep using my daughter's. I actually called their customer service, as I wanted to be sure to get the sturdiest fork, and they no longer carried the one I had lost. It turns out that they guaranteed that fork! So, they refunded me for the broken one and directed me to a newer one, one with stainless tines and a plastic coated handle. This one is EVEN STRONGER than the first! And, it cost less, so I actually received a refund! I will always look, first, at Lee Valley, before buying anywhere else.

The Japanese hand hoe I use most is the long handled version. I have the short handled version.. But the truth is, that Johnnys hand hoe works better. I would not, however, be without my long handled Japanese Draw Hoe. It is my #1 most used tool. I even use it as if it were short handled, at times, choking up on the handle. It's what I carry with me when I am not sure just what I'll be needing.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Johnnys Hand Hoe

Lee Valley - Homi/ Korean hand hoe

Japanese Draw Hoe

I'm with George, I like Lee Valley tools. Today is the last day for free shipping on $40 plus.

I LOVE my cobra head hand tool!

http://www.amazon.com/CobraHead-001-Weeder-and-Cultivator/dp/B000JKONAO

my pruners come from Germany (Wolf brand), and they are just the right size for my hand... and work GREAT.

I've been a fan of Lee Valley for many years, and if y'all miss the current sale, don't worry....another one will come along soon if you aren't ready to make a buying decision today. They have frequent sales, a great online catalog, a guarantee they actually honor (as George mentioned) and also sell woodworking tools and supplies if you're into that sort of thing, and cabinet hinges and hardware as well. Lee Valley also sells cooking and canning supplies too.

You cannot go wrong with anything from Johnny's Selected Seeds either. Their primary market, above and beyond home gardeners like us, is small market growers who have a few acres and who sell their produce either at Farmer's Markets, on-the-farm direct sales, or via a farm-based CSA. Most of their target market consists of organic small farmers who do a whole lot of work with hand tools to avoid compacting the soils and to remove weeds without using herbicides. Thus, the hand tools get a lot of use and are expected to hold up to such heavy use. Johnny's hand tool prices are high, but that's because they are high quality.

I have some pretty high-quality hand-tools that are stainless steel and virtually indestructible and cannot imagine life without them. However, because I'm bad about misplacing a trowel now and then and losing it in the mulch, or in the jungle of the garden at mid-summer, I've purchased several Fiskars trowels over the years and have been happy with them too. That gives me extra trowels to use after I've misplaced one. Eventually I find them all again, and then it looks silly to have 4 or 5 trowels lined up on the tool rack in the potting shed, or floating around in my tool bucket, but that's what I do to ensure I always have a trowel on hand when it is needed.

I have a Cobra-headed weeder similar to Moni's that I've had for about 15 years and I am impressed it has lasted so long, and a dandelion weeder bought at the same time that is useful for digging out many more weeds than just dandelions. I use hand forks a lot too.

I have found over the many years I've gardened that it pays off enormously to buy high-quality tools in the first place. Our first few years here, in attempting to break up red clay, we broke a lot of the lesser-quality shovels, digging forks, pickaxes and mattocks that you buy at big box type stores and we didn't stop breaking tools until we started buying tools that were very high quality with sturdy handles. We still might have to occasionally replace a broken handle here and there, but it isn't a constant thing like it was in the early days.

When it comes to pruners and loping shears, most of the ones I've seen in stores are junk. We bought a couple of good ones a few years ago that came with their own replacement parts (woo hoo!) so you can fix them yourself if they break (they haven't) and we do keep them sharpened. I'm shocked by how many people I know that will throw out loping shears and pruning shears when all they really need is to be sharpened. Scott, I didn't know people were dumb enough to throw out chain saws when all they need to do is sharpen them. That amazes me. We have become such a throwaway society, I guess.

I love my Wolf-garten tools from Germany. They were an investment I've never regretted. You can purchase multiple handle lengths to swap out with various tool ends. I purchased mine locally at Smith Farm & Garden at 10th and Portland.

Ha Ha! No no Dawn. Not the chain saw, i meant the chain saw chain. And I agree about Lee Valley. But I really am never in a mail order frame of mind. I was just thinking of the better locally available tools. Not big box store tools, but farm and garden stores or nurseries usually have higher quality, it seems.