This second hoe is Japanese and very expensive at over £50 but fantastic quality and more to the point fantastic for me in it's use. It's a hardened steel pressing and if you know anything about Japanese tools they know how to appropriately temper their steel. For fine work in between planting, creating furrows and slicing weed roots this tool is as close to precision as we get in gardening.

I suppose in the case of the first hoe's which are Chillington, i'm teaching my granny to suck-eggs with you lot but it's all new to me and because I can't dig (Poorly back) their range of hoe's are a massive help for me. I also have the three pronged forky-hoe that I haven't photographed but I can.

Pass on by if you've seen it all, I just get so excited by tools that help me. That £50 jobby is fantastic but i'm still hurting from forking out all that money.

http://www.chillingtontoolsonline.co.uk ... handles-c1

Glad you found one that works for you, the quality of steel on a hoe makes all the difference nothing worse than a blunt one makes hard work of hoeing.

It was actually £58, look at the steel, i've been hoeing and raking-out in stony ground and only moving to the more robust wrought-steel Chillington tools when the stone become chunks of rock. The Chillington tools aren't sharp but they are sharp-ish in the case of the small hoe.

Problem is, I can't do deep-digging, not that I want to. Rather raised-beds Eh ?

How do you use these ? Are they more a kind of digging mattock than the sort of hoe for weed control ?

Hello Tony.

In the case of the Chillington hoe, yes, they are a digging mattock. If you go to their website you'll see they have a nice variety. I started at the smaller end because I was worried about the weight at the end of the shaft.

First I bought the fork, that was such a revelation to me compared to a heavy standard mattock that I next bought the shaped digging hoe and what they call the small hoe. I'm now going to buy the bigger digging hoe. I'm not rich, just very good tools for a keen price.

http://www.chillingtontoolsonline.co.uk ... handles-c1

Here is the fork.

I just produced a couple of days of work out of these old-bones that I would never have risked with a spade. Moving soil back-and-forth to include composted material and cow poo.

The Chillington fork has been very good for this work though a longer handle would have helped even more, they do produce a longer handle though i'm not sure which tools it fits.

I don't very often use a spade these days, I have one of those west-country shovels with the long handle and pointy blade that is also a great help for a poorly back.

The Japanese hoe continues to be a very-lovely tool, I could never get on with a traditional hoe but this hook shaped pointy thing is soooo-soo easy to use and precise in it's action, I hadn't mentioned that a smaller version is available for when you're down on your knees.

http://www.axminster.co.uk/japanese-san ... rod857241/

Just noticed quite a few different tools from Japan, i'm spent-up this year.