![]() They are also used in other sectors including construction. I soon noticed that farmers used them for everything from cleaning between the grapes, digging irrigation ditches to planting a wide range of crops. I first became familiar with these tools when I lived in Spain and Portugal, involved in agriculture and soil surveying. ![]() Finally, you find you are working from a much more upright position instead of lifting and straining while bent double and subjecting your back to such appalling strain. Instead of the jarring of impact being transmitted up through wrists, elbows, shoulders etc., it is absorbed almost entirely by the tool. Instead of physically ramming the blade into the ground, it enters under its own impetus using an easy swinging motion. ![]() The action of these tools radically differs from that of, say, a spade. On a little reflection the logic becomes apparent. Suddenly much of the effort disappears, the pushing, the jarring, the bending and lifting along with the dreaded backache. Try one of these tools and you soon see why. America to Europe, from Africa to China, the everyday tool they reach for is not the spade but a very different implement rather like a broad bladed mattock. “Who is this upstart who dares to challenge the supremacy of the good old English spade? What would become of England without all those stalwart figures bent double, grunting and sweating as they do battle with the soil in allotments and smallholdings all over the country?” Well, in reply, let me pose another question: “Why do millions of people in countless countries all over the world do it so differently?”įrom S. “So what’s all this rather heretical talk leading up to?”, I hear you asking. Why do we accept unquestioningly that the only way to work the soil is to spend our time bent double subjecting our bodies to the most appalling mistreatment and then complaining about our bad back and aching joints?Ĭould the reason possibly be that deeply ingrained in our subconscious we harbour the conviction that if it hurts it must be good for us and that a good Englishman’s back, like his upper lip should be properly stiff? But how many people ask themselves whether that spade, fork, hoe or whatever is the most efficient tool for the job? Many people by now will have been along to their local hardware store or garden centre eyeing up the rows of seductively gleaming tools. I am thinking I will try to source the handle locally to avoid buying a screwy handle sight unseen.Well, as they say, Spring is here again. ![]() I am not positive where it is made but I think I could get it in head only form pretty cheaply. Not surprisingly, the Seymour is pretty widely available but the quality looks to be just kinda so so. I do see one company that sells the Falci in the USA but I don't know if they are reputable. The Chillington looks really nice but isn't available in the USA. I don't know if it is or not but I would like to try one! I am very open to suggestion of other manufacturers to look for but so far I see about three well known manufacturers: Seymour, Chillington and Falci. It is said to be easier to use than a shovel for trenching. Some people say that there is an easier way, using a grub hoe/eye hoe. I have sharp shovels and a trenching spade, which I have heard is just for clean out following a machine trencher. I need to dig a shallow trench (less than 2 feet deep) for a new rain water drain pipe.
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