Is it worth buying good quality garden tools - forks!

Just the other day, I wrote about secateurs, and was it worth buying expensive ones. (In a word - "No.")

Then look what happened this week!

So much for the Wilkinson Sword 25 year guarantee, eh?

And I wasn't even doing anything extravagant with it.

What's particularly annoying is that, prior to this one, I bought a Wilkinson Sword (now bought out by Fiskars) border fork, the one with the five year guarantee.

It lasted two months, and the handle broke.

And it's not as though I'm a hefty six-footer: so I took it back and the garden centre gave me a new one.

Six months later, the handle broke on the new one.

Embarrassed, but determined, I returned to the garden centre and yes, the garden centre refunded my money. 

Well, technically, they didn't refund it, but they offered to replace it. Instead, I did a part-exchange for this one, which was more expensive (still Wilkinson Sword), but came with a 25 year guarantee, on the grounds that as I'd already broken two 5-year tools, I clearly needed a better quality one!

I hear this a lot, actually, especially from male gardeners, who tend to use strength rather than technique: modern spades and forks have quite weak handles, and the generally accepted view is that the manufacturers used to use seasoned Ash wood (no jokes about fork 'andles, please) whereas now they are using cheap wood, often not properly seasoned, and they tend to break rather than bend.

But I hoped that the more-expensive, 25-year guarantee one, would have a better quality handle: and yes, I do admit that these days, I do take care not to use too much strength when levering shrub roots out with the fork, specifically to avoid stressing the handle too much.

 In case you are interested, the reason that seasoned Ash wood is traditionally used for tool handles is that it "gives" a little, under stress: it will bend, slightly, rather than snap. So now, when forking with gusto, I am always aware of the handle, and when I feel that slight springiness, that "give", I take care not to force it any further.

And now look, one of the tines has broken. OK, this one has lasted a few years, and yes, the handle has survived (although it worked loose within a year, and now it has an ugly great screw through the plastic part, to hold it firm), but honestly! A broken tine? I am simply not "that" strong!

Of course, now I have to decide exactly how embarrassing it will be, to take it back to the garden centre yet again.....

 

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