I need a new garden fork

[hellymedic]

Our little-used Stanley (I think) fork, lost a tine digging sun-baked clay soil today.

Would like a strong and sturdy replacement and would value recommendations.

[Canardly]

Few and far between. Lots of people recommend the second hand market for mid century uk made tools.

[T42]

Yup. Plenty of lookalikes and nothing made to last.  All my planes & most of my chisels date from before 1960 and a couple are pre-WW1. Trouble is that folk are getting wise to this and prices are rising.

This might help: http://www.fredshed.co.uk/forksandspades.htm

[Little Jim]

Have a look at Bulldog Tools.  They used to make a strapped digging fork, but it looks like they no longer do.  I did break one of their strapped digging forks but it had done a lot of work and had a bit of abuse but they replaced it free of charge under their lifetime warranty without any quibbles.  The current digging fork that they do is a standard socket joint to the handle but still has the lifetime guarantee.  They are not light so can be tiring to use, but they are strong.

[BrianI]

Insert obligatory reference to The Two Ronnies "Four Candles" sketch? 

[Ham]

A while back I bought a S&J "Neverbend" fork when I needed to dig over our newly acquired overgrown allotment. Needless to say, I managed to bend a tine, being fair it had a hard but short life, there is no fork on earth that can survive earnest application of force against one tine. I took it back to B&Q, showed them it said "neverbend" on the side, showed them the bent tine and they replaced it   

[Kim]

I suppose for anything that consumers are likely to use once and then neglect (which is probably most tools, these days), it's ultimately cheaper to replace a few broken products than to engineer them so they don't break in the first place.

[T42]

I suppose for anything that consumers are likely to use once and then neglect (which is probably most tools, these days), it's ultimately cheaper to replace a few broken products than to engineer them so they don't break in the first place.

Yeah. Conversation with Casio about LCD printers on Hanover Fair in 1986:

- How about spare parts?
-
- Spare parts?
- Aooh! You order hundred printer, we send hundred four.
- Can we order fifty?
- You order hundred.

[Ham]

I suppose for anything that consumers are likely to use once and then neglect (which is probably most tools, these days), it's ultimately cheaper to replace a few broken products than to engineer them so they don't break in the first place.

Not entirely fair, the tines - the single most vulnerable part of a fork - need to be malleable as you REALLY don't want a fork going SPOINGGGGGGG! on you.

[hellymedic]

Which is precisely what happened yesterday.

Nobody was injured so things could have been MUCH worse.

[Kim]

Nobody was injured so things could have been MUCH worse.

That's the thing with gardening, there's all sorts of nasty things that can go wrong.  Much safer to go for a bike ride (as the state of my garden will testify).

[hellymedic]

Nobody was injured so things could have been MUCH worse.

That's the thing with gardening, there's all sorts of nasty things that can go wrong.  Much safer to go for a bike ride (as the state of my garden will testify).

WTF could David do after Party Guest brought Big Rose in Small Pot?

Gardeners take almost a week to come after we email them!

[offcumden]

Can't offer positive suggestions, but I'd certainly avoid Spear & Jackson stainless steel. The one I bought a couple of years ago looked the business, but bent like a hairpin. It's not as if I'm a mighty-muscled ton of soil.

I suspect s/s is not the right material for the job?

[Bledlow]

Bit soft, I think. Good for light stuff & being left sitting outside on the allotment. Well, as long as there are no thieving scrotes around . . .

My 30 year old surprisingly-cheap-forgotten-the-brand-from-Homebase fork has never complained about anything I've done to it*, but the handle somehow managed to get woodworm. Killed it as soon as saw it, but some years later the handle broke - & the internal holes told me why. Replacing a handle is a right bugger, but I really, really, don't trust cheap forks, & do I want to leave a solid & expensive one on the allotment?

*I bent another one, & broke a tine off a third. And I have a thin-tined old one for light stuff**. I want something fairly tough.

**None of these was paid for. Neighbour moving house & taking his gardening business with him was buying more upmarket tools (he was doing well) & gave away his old ones. The last was one of a bunch of tools left outside a just-sold house, labelled "Help yourself".

[pcolbeck]

I bought Mrs Pcolbeck a planting spade from a car boot sale this summer. Its early 20th century and far better than anything I have seen new. surely there must be a market for good garden tools for professional gardeners if nothing else ?

[Wowbagger]

My dad was a very keen gardener. He tried out some stainless steel forks around the time that he retired and broke the tines. He concluded that they were not worth the money.

His suggestion to me when I did gardening was that I buy women's forks and spades because you are lifting far lighter loads when you dig. It might take a bit longer but you end up aching less.

[hellymedic]

I think the Old Man Next Door gave David his fork as he was no longer able o use it.

[HeltorChasca]

Dakota forks are utterly supreme. Dutch.

https://www.rutlands.co.uk/sp+gardening-garden-tools-forks-sporks-digging-forks-digging-potato-fork-900mm-ash-handle-dakota+gd1016

[sojournermike]

Do you know, I would pay 80 quid for a fork that I couldn’t bend or break. The allotment has extracted a heavy toll this year.

[rogerzilla]

My dad once put a fork through his foot.  I assume his tetanus was up to date.

[Manotea]

My colleagues presented me with a S&J Stainless Steel Fork and Spade set as a wedding present.
I cannot claim they've beein in constant use but 35 years later they are still as good as new.

[offcumden]

My colleagues presented me with a S&J Stainless Steel Fork and Spade set as a wedding present.
I cannot claim they've beein in constant use but 35 years later they are still as good as new.

Fings are obviously not what they used to be. Stainless Steel might have remained stainless, but what S&J now use is about as resistant to bending forces as a stick of rhubarb.

[Ham]

Somewhere here is the story of me and my "Neverbend" Spear & Jackson. After a short but intense life doing the duty taming an overgrown allotment it was suffering from an excess of welly (in so many ways), a prong had well and truly pronged. Just for a larf I took it back to Wickes. "See here where it has got writ on the side 'Neverbend'? Well it has, hasn't it" They changed it.

[pcolbeck]

One thing I might suggest is to get a mattock. Its probably the most under looked gardening tool these days but its far superior to a fork for all the levering and getting under things duties.The chances of bending or breaking a mattock are zero (well using muscle power alone). Mattocks are cheap as chips as well.

[MikeFromLFE]

One thing I might suggest is to get a mattock. Its probably the most under looked gardening tool these days but its far superior to a fork for all the levering and getting under things duties.The chances of bending or breaking a mattock are zero (well using muscle power alone). Mattocks are cheap as chips as well as well.

Seconded, sort of.
I've got an azada, which is a mattock-with-a-difference, it's very long handled, with the business end loosely fitted on, broader than a mattock, and sharp. Brilliant for breaking up clay.