+2 Im also interested about your tools.

For tight spaces I use a reciprocating saw. It's not easy to use. I have some lilac trees that need yearly thinning. I also took out some bushes with it. I use a chain saw more than anything else. I have a lot of old growth trees on my property. Darn things keep falling!

This post was edited by Drew51 on Mon, Jan 13, 14 at 10:10

Interesting topic Cousin. I hope to learn something from it too.

You mentioned shovels and grafting blades.

There was actually a pretty good thread on shovels a couple years ago (see link below). In that thread, I mentioned my favorite shovel was a shovel which had a very small head and a normal handle. I liked that shovel then and grew more passionate about it with time.

I had never seen anything like it because the head was pretty small and the handle strong. I bought it for a couple bucks at an auction. The reason I like it so much is that I can dig all day with it without getting too worn out. With the small head, it cuts through sod/dirt very easily and easily lifts the dirt out. Even if it gets a little mud caked on it, it doesn't wear you out like a big shovel.

I used to think large shovels were the way to go. I'm a taller than average guy and generally like bigger heavier duty tools.

What really changed my mind about the size of shovels was when I installed a field tile with a couple other guys. The two other guys did excavation for a living. One guy was on the hoe, and the other guy and myself were in the trench grading with gravel. We shoveled gravel all day long. I was wearing out much faster than the other guy and he told me it was my shovel. His had a smaller spade and a simple lightweight wooden handle. Mine was a bigger head with a heavier fiberglass handle. He let me use his shovel and the difference was very noticeable. I could move more gravel and was less worn out.

After that I came across a very small headed shovel at an auction and started using it to plant trees. I loved that shovel. Just so handy to work in a hole. Plus, I sometimes pry dirt out of a hole and the small spade head with the normal handle is much less prone to break. It's too easy to get too big a bite with a large spade head and break the handle.

The shovel looks like you wouldn't be able to do much work with it, but it's faster and easier than any other shovel for my ground and the way I plant fruit trees.

Then something bad happened...

My wife was using this favorite shovel to pry a large rock and broke the metal spade head. Not a good day. I had always protected this shovel from abuse and weather because I'd never seen another like it. I considered welding the broken head, but the break and thickness of the material didn't look conducive to successful welding.

Amazingly she found another one brand new (she's an amazing woman) and so I got my shovel back. She found it at True Value. It's called a floral shovel.

Re: Grafting blades

I've used a grafting knife, but my favorite tool is again something cheaper and lightweight. I like the cheap razor blades you break off when they get dull. They are always razor sharp without ever having to sharpen them.

Here is a link that might be useful: What's your favorite shovel for transplanting

Interesting Olpea. Good point about a lighter shovel.

I usually only transplant 1-5 trees at a time. That is not moving too much material.

I really like my Fiskars heavy duty shovel that I was contemplating in the thread you linked. It may not be the best tool for shoveling the loose dirt back into the hole, but for penetrating the ground and making the hole, it is excellent.

Its very sturdy and stable when standing and rocking on it with all of my body weight. Unless it is rocky, I can usually get the full head buried.

I like Bully tools, especially their standard round point shovel. They are all built to last. Gemplers caries them but their might be cheaper sources. Gemplers at least will likely make good on the lifetime guarantee they offer for their handles.

For a round point shovel as strong as this it is surprisingly light and has a slightly undersized blade.

I love my medium tooth Silky Pocketboy and Tsurugi saws. For pruners I like Felco or Corona equally. I avoid Fiskars products nowadays since they always seem to fall apart on me. As far as shovels and whatnot, I have not tried any high quality products and look forward to reading reviews here.

"I really like my Fiskars heavy duty shovel that I was contemplating in the thread you linked. It may not be the best tool for shoveling the loose dirt back into the hole, but for penetrating the ground and making the hole, it is excellent."

It looks super tough Murky. I doubt you'll ever have to buy another.

I really like my Friskars loppers. They are gear reduction loppers. I've used other non-geared loppers and they don't cut as easily as my Friskars. Plus, I've had other loppers bind when cutting bigger stock (You know how sometimes you close the loppers and it doesn't cut through the material but instead the last part of the wood gets caught in between the blades. I hate that.) My Friskars don't bind like that.

However, I have a pair of Friskars hand pruners and they are the worst pruners I've ever owned. Really worthless.

I've also owned a pair of Corona hand pruners, and contrary to Voyage's experience, they didn't work very good for me (i.e. they would bind easily).

Parafilm.
King of Spades long-handled tree-digging spade.
Porter-Ferguson heavy-duty forestry pruning shears (1.5" caliper)
Victorinox dual-blade grafting/budding knife. Yes, E, a single-bevel blade will make a difference.

I have a love-hate with my Silky Pocket Boy saw. I love how it folds and I keep it in an extra Felco holster I have (fits perfectly) so its always with me but not hanging down. It also cuts like a dream. The hate part is I have broken two blades on it; the blade is quite bendy and if you get too close to the tip on an out stroke, the in stroke can bend and sometimes break the blade.

My biggest problem is with pests so my favorite tools/supplies these days are pest proofers. Contech Scarecrow motion-activated sprinklers for deer control. Bird scare tape, cheap and easy to deploy. Tanglefoot to keep ants off aphids off trees (and I am going to start using it at the bases to control peach tree borer, heard that works well). Kania traps for squirrels.

Scott

"I really like my Friskars loppers"

I only ever bought one pair and they are Friskars. Yes, I could even cut with one hand! I was impressed! I needed it more to reduce the size of trimmed branches to dispose of them easily. I'm in a suburban setting, so no where to throw the wood, or burn it. At my cottage, yes, I burn them. I put one handle on a steel table, and feed the wood into it with one hand, and push down with the other. Like cutting through butter!
I bought a pair of "Dirty Gardener pruners" as they looked nice and were cheap! And they are very nice! Lifetime warrenty too! Most of my cutting is light, but I have to fight the forest back at my cottage so the loppers and pruners are used a lot.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dirty Gardener pruners

I like my long handled wolverine spade and king of spades grub hoe. They weigh a lot but are very heavy duty compared to most things on market and don't have to worry about breaking them.

My favorite garden aid is my nephew !!!

You all have helped convince me to buy a King of Spades spade and a one-sided bevel grafting knife, but I'm still trying to figure out some details.

On the spade, do you all prefer a long handle or a D-handle? I did use a King of Spades brand spade once digging bamboo at someone else's place. He had the kind in the link below. I just showed the picture to my wife and explained how it worked, saying it was kind of like a built-in T-post driver, to which she asked why one couldn't just drive a long-handled metal spade with a regular T-post driver. I suppose the feasibility of that idea might be obvious if I actually had a regular, long-handled spade in hand, but I'm curious now. But apart from that idea I would be leaning toward the D-handle as it would seem less likely to bend/break since I wouldn't be able to exert as much leverage on it as with the longer handle. Or should I go for as much leverage as I can get, because these things are so heavy it won't matter?

On the knife, I saw a one-sided bevel knife at a local hardware store this week that they call a "floral knife." I almost bought it, but then I remembered the orchardist that taught the grafting class that got me started recommended carbon steel over stainless steel, and this knife was stainless. What's the practical difference between stainless and carbon steel, and which would you want for a grafting knife? Also, with a one-sided bevel will it be like a chisel such that I need to start paying attention to which way the bevel is facing when I make cuts, and if so, which way should I turn it?

Here is a link that might be useful: bamboo spade