A friend lent me the antique tool shown in these photos. I’d been thinking about renting a rototiller to prepare three garden beds, but this thing tore through them way more easily than I could have done with a shovel, rake, hoe, or garden weasel. It’s really good at clawing up major weeds and clumps of sod.
Our question: What is this thing called? I looked through the catalog at antiquefarmtools.info. It’s full of beet shovels, muck rakes, turnip grubbers, and barley forks, but I didn’t find anything that looks like this artfully blacksmithed and wickedly effective tool.
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May 4, 2009 at 8:43 am
I’ll try and take a stab at it. It’s a variation on a potato cultivator. Only instead of dragging it behind a big iron wheel and pusshing it with two handles, this one is mounted as a hand tool instead. It’s got the spade ends like your modern day potato cultivator.
May 4, 2009 at 9:02 am
It’s a hand tiller.
May 4, 2009 at 9:04 am
Not sure what it was called but my father used to own one. he used it for two purposes. one was to drill 5 small trenches at one go for planting seeds, rather like a small plough. The other was to break ground up and root out weeds. The nearest i can fing today is this http://www.cobrahead.com/cobrahead_tools.cfm
May 4, 2009 at 9:19 am
I think Eric has nailed it. It’s some sort of hand cultivator like this one on eBay http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-garden-tool-hand-cultivator-plow-5-tine_W0QQitemZ170326888528QQcmdZViewItemQQptZArchitectural_Garden?hash=item27a8461050&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50#ebayphotohosting
May 4, 2009 at 10:06 am
Just a long handled cultivator. I have a couple, not antiques. I guess it’s supposed to be a cross between a rake, a fork, and a hoe. I don’t find them that useful for much, except for sometimes working in compost to soil to the depth of the cultivator, but that’s only about 6″ or so.
This is better for taking out weeds: http://ace.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pACE-1039635reg.jpg (I guess it’s called a “stirrup” hoe but I call it a “scuffle hoe”… picked up that term from someone else and think it fits perfectly the action you perform with it.)
And a regular garden fork and/or spade is better for deep aerating/loosening/mixing IMO.
May 4, 2009 at 10:13 am
The first thing I thought of was a harrow. Found this website that has a modern version that appears to have the same function:
http://www.manufactum.co.uk/Produkt/193811/1443498/NarrowGalvanizedSteelHandHarrow.html
May 4, 2009 at 3:01 pm
I would have called this a ‘hand harrow’on the farm (in Scotland) where I grew up.
May 4, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Thanks everyone!
I guess “hand cultivator” or “hand harrow” are the right terms. The modern incarnations don’t seem to be as fierce as this vintage model, though, do they?
September 9, 2010 at 7:51 pm
I’m wanting to sell the one I have. Since it’s antique do you have any idea what price to ask?
May 5, 2009 at 2:49 am
I think this (http://www.cyclone.com.au/products/products-more.asp?productID=120) might share the most DNA with your antique tool. It’s not so much a weeding tool as destroyer of weed worlds
May 5, 2009 at 9:59 am
I’ve got it’s twin, but never knew what is was called. Passed down from my grandfather. Great tool, great work-out.
May 7, 2009 at 4:48 pm
I grew up on the Nebraska prairielands during the mid-20th century (yikes! sounds like ancient history), where it was call a hand harrow.
But, my dad had a special name for it:
The Debil (devil)
Whenever I was using it out back in the garden he would sneak up behind me and whisper:
Here come the debil
Walking ‘long the lebil (level)
Digging up the grabel (gravel)
With his looooooong toenails!
John
just a hayseed from Nebraska
May 13, 2009 at 10:08 pm
[...] Name this antique gardening tool « Jon Udell [...]
June 15, 2009 at 8:01 pm
By the way for a Overweight indivividual like me Gardening offers the perfect Sweat breaker 2 hours of good time weed digging and I am in business
October 1, 2009 at 7:39 am
You all know nothing. This is a back scratcher
November 20, 2009 at 1:06 am
thanks for the post, great to see more ppl joining the cause
December 6, 2009 at 8:09 am
I’m experiencing problems with seeing your site clearly in the latest release of Opera. Looks good in Explorer 7 and Firefox however.Hope you have a nice day.
January 27, 2010 at 12:18 am
Whatever is the name of this vintage sort of tool but it is quite helpful for tinny level gardening, I am going to meet a black smith near by to have a tool like this for me , will be here again to view your new post.
February 3, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Great read. Thanks – from an antique phone enthusiast.
September 11, 2010 at 11:11 pm
That thing looks almost evil lol. You know the old garden tools would last hundreds of years and the junk we get nowadays has to be replaced all the time.
May 20, 2011 at 10:37 am
Hi. The tool looks really evil. I would call it ” The EVIL HARROW”… The creator must be design specific, I mean look at the design. Its rare to see artistic gardening tools. Enjoy farming with your evil harrow.. You can auction it later..lolz.
Regards,
Mac
July 21, 2011 at 8:35 am
I’m 69; my grandfather used this instrument as a ‘lay-off plow’, to dig furrows into which he planted either corn or beans. Because of its sheer weight it could not be used as a hand tool, but rather had to be pulled across a tilled and harrowed piece of ground by a mule, ox, horse. Andy