Tools for Clearing the Garden

[digitS']

It is a linoleum knife shape ..

. but about 5 to 7 times larger.

Some of these knives look more like what you could use to cut down a tree.

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are sort of specialty knives, developed for a specific task but also developed for a certain method of cutting. I'll use these tobacco knives as an example. The one on the left was used for hacking, like a hatchet or machete. The one on the right is for a slicing motion, instead of hacking you sort of pull it toward you for a cut. Two different motions and you get different muscles sore.

I think what Steve is looking for is a knife you use to hack but the cutting edge doesn't get dull from hitting all his rocks. His possible solution is a curved blade you hack with. You can't make the actual cut too close to the ground and you might have to sort of swing down so the tip is the first thing to hit, you can't swing flat or you'll hit the cutting portion on the rocks. At least I would with a flat swing. For me it's easier to make a swinging cut if I can swing through it instead of hacking into the ground.

Another option is something you slice with, but that would require bending over further and having the strength to pull it. It's slower but you can avoid rocks that way. You are also pulling that sharp point or edge toward your body, not hacking away from your body as long as you keep your feet out of the way.

I don't have any great options Steve, just trying to overthink the problem.

By the way, that pointy thing was called a spear. You drive the tobacco stick into the ground with something heavy then put that over the stick so you could spear the tobacco stalk onto the stick.

 

[digitS']

That's it. At first, I was very apprehensive about hitting the ground. The curve is supposed to catch the stalk so that it doesn't just swing out of the way. But, the curve also serves another purpose.

Cutting close to the ground, the follow through often results in the blade hitting dirt and rocks. It makes little difference if the back of the curve is what hits. The blade stayed sharp through years of flailing around out there!

This would work well too, I bet (from Mother Earth News):

Fiskars garden tools

Steve

 

[Beekissed]

The smallest blade here is about what I use but on the longer handle. I found this photo looking for "billhooks" & that is how these are known in the UK. Sharpened on both sides, I can see now that they would be useful for the livestock owner for chopping feed. Still, I don't find a picture of a "billhook" with a knob on the bill .

A type of sickle? We have the older "C" shaped sickles and also a newer one that looks like this one.....

 

[digitS']

The handheld sharpener, @Ridgerunner . I have one of those that fits in my variable speed drill.

Kinda reluctant to use it but may give it a whirl.

The loose handle is a concern. In my search, I came across a picture of a blade used in Mesopotamia, the caption said 3,000 years ago. I wonder if that was a "flew off the handle" event that resulted in an archeological find ... ... kinda like me finding that net weight in my garden.

Steve

 

[digitS']

@Beekissed , that is certainly an alternative ..

. and, might be an alternative name but it seems to apply to the larger blades in my googling.

We had a sickle and a machete on the farm but I can only remember cutting corn, once. We went over to the neighbor's farm and cut their sweet corn stalks for the cows. That was a truck farm ... something we should have had instead of the dang cows.

Steve

 

[Nyboy]

what is a truck farm ?

 

[digitS']

It produced what could not get around on its own feet but they could put it on a truck and carry it away .

I think that "truck" had a broader definition than we have for it today. We have hand-trucks and we move things onto the loading ramp and truck them out on the transportation systems.

@Nyboy: Mostly annual vegetables and fruits are grown on a truck farm. Our long ago neighbors primarily grew sweet corn and watermelon and other garden truck.

Steve
Keep on Trucking

 

[Nyboy]

Thanks Steve always learning here

 

[ninnymary]

Thanks Thistle, blame that on too much coffee and our first morning with temps in the low 20's. You can build those shocks around posts or poles stuck in the ground but they are pretty lightweight. A wind can move them if they are not anchored.

I'd never heard of corn shocks! Thanks for the education.

Mary