Gardeners? Fork Recce

[DorsetDude]

Any gardeners in? Would like to buy a "decent" fork. whether a border or a full sized on Ive no idea. How do you know?

Anyway I dont want to spend £50 on a bulldog one, or £10 on like the last one, a wilkies one that snapped off above the metal bit and the wood was glued in so cant simply replace the handle.

Mainly used for digging out unwanted plants, small shrubs.

Anything decent easily available for £20 or so?

Thanks

 

[andya700]

Our last fork (bought about fifteen years ago) was a Spear and Jackson, which seems to have lasted quite well and cost around £20.

 

[strumstrum]

I have the Qualcast Traditional spade and fork (paid £20.99 each on Homebase offer).. great product spent 2 days digging a pond with the spade and it did a great job and very comfy handle.

 

[arclight]

http://www.garden4less.co.uk/spear-jackson-stainless-steel-select-range.asp

£24 for a fork. That is OK.

Stainless steel is less maintenance.

Check out all the big supermarkets. I got S&J forks and spades from Asda a few years ago for £10. End of season is a good time to buy these tools.

 

[DorsetDude]

Been reading amazon reviews on Spear and J stainless, quite a few people going an about the tines bending with hardly any effort. Similar for Qualcast. Bah.

End of season shop around , good idea. Ta.

 

[andya700]

Been reading amazon reviews on Spear and J stainless, quite a few people going an about the tines bending with hardly any effort. Similar for Qualcast. Bah.

End of season shop around , good idea. Ta.

I can't say that I have ever bent a tine on this fork, and we have quite hard, chalky soil with flints. I have the SS version and unlike my previous fork , which must have been made from chewing gum, this one is nice and true and cleans off easily.

 

[TopBanana]

Our last fork (bought about fifteen years ago) was a Spear and Jackson, which seems to have lasted quite well and cost around £20.

+1 I really like my S&J fork and spade. Although I have not broken a tine on the fork by doing stupid digging in hard, rocky, tree rooty ground.

 

[strumstrum]

seen these down Homebase yesterday http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/searchterm/spear fork very impressive for the current offer, they have a spade too.. handle is large I think to compensate the strength with it not being wooden, but felt very solid.. I think you would struggle to get better for the money.

 

[Keith W]

seen these down Homebase yesterday http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/searchterm/spear fork very impressive for the current offer, they have a spade too.. handle is large I think to compensate the strength with it not being wooden, but felt very solid.. I think you would struggle to get better for the money.

I wish you hadn't posted that link..... I now have £62 worth of stuff in my basket

 

[DorsetDude]

Cheers for those I might have to pop in and try standing on the tines and bending the handle upwards. My "reading" on the subject seems to suggest that stainless steel is quite weak.
"I WANT TO MAKE A BIG AND IMPORTANT POINT

STAINLESS STEEL DIGGING TOOLS ARE NOT THE STRONGEST

EVEN IF THEY COST MORE"

http://www.fredshed.co.uk/forksandspades.htm

 

[Keith W]

I wish you hadn't posted that link..... I now have £62 worth of stuff in my basket

And another £70

£132 in total

 

[snooks]

I'm a gardener for a living, best place for hand tools is charity shops and car boot sales.Buy the old forks,spades etc better quality than most of the new tools on offer

 

[dandeakin]

The Joseph Bentley tools are pretty nice, easy to get on Amazon as well...