Tool recommendations - especially forks

[Corris]

I have broken two forks in two days. One was a wooden one from B and Q and cost me about £39.00 and one for £5.99 from QD.

So, price isn't a good variable - cheap and expensive broke, one just broke much sooner than the other! (one day out of the QD one, at least I got three weeks or so from the B and Q one.

So, what makes should I go for? And, I've read about 'trying lots of different ones and seeing what feels right for you' - but I can only ever find one in each place I've been. Where on earth do I go to 'try out lots'?

[rustylady]

Corris, I don't think it's the make of fork that matters so much as what you're using it for. I had a lovely stainless steel one for about five years and managed to break it this year by stupidly using it to try and lever up a UBO (unidentified buried object). Snapped one of the tines, which is still buried on the lottie with the UBO.

[alex-adam]

Hi Corris, probably best to go for a forged steel, rather than stainless, which can be brittle. Bulldog is a reliable make and Spear & Jackson. Both manufactuers have a range of forks from the basic to the professional grades. If you are slightly built, a border fork would be good for most jobs, lighter and easier to handle than the standard size.

a-a

[Corris]

I have to confess I was levering....... I have big shurbby type things near the drive and I had cut them down and was trying to get out the bottom bits left in the soil.

Where would have a large selection?

[VirginVegGrower]

I've changed to a bronze one from Copper Tool Co but it's heavy. Bulldog are supposed to be a good make. Have a new Burgon and Ball ladies fork as Mr VVG snapped a tine on my inherited and ancient fork...sob...but the finish was dreadful and so much sharp metalwork down the shaft I cut my hand in slices several times. He's had to grind it and bash bits back in. The ash split handle just as sharp and that sliced me too. He ended up sanding it down. Fancy marketing but they are a cheap mass produced make to avoid.

[alex-adam]

Well Corris, I bet you wont use your new fork for levering stuff out, and expensive learning curve !!

Here are the webpage links for the two makes I mentioned earlier:


http://www.bulldogtools.co.uk/index....c41ec71cd3f883


| Neill Tools


Now, next time you go to a car-boot sale, look out for a cheap pick-axe or crowbar and keep that in the shed for the heavy stuff.

[Two_Sheds]

Crowbar, or saw the roots up as you go

[SarrissUK]

I use the cheapest fork from B&Q and it's done me well so far this year, despite heavy leveraging of deep set bramble roots across the allotment. I'm surprised it's done as well as it has. I can't help but think it's a bit of a lottery whatever make you buy...

[The Large One]

I've used this one for all sorts recently and put up with all I chucked at it

Garden Light Digging Fork / Digging Tools / Products | Fiskars UK

[Corris]

TLO your linky doesn't work for me.

[The Large One]

TLO your linky doesn't work for me.

Thanks, now changed, too many http's