Azadas ??

[Tail End Charlie]

Anyone use one ? What are they like to use ?
Have seen them on the TV and in some mags, or are they just a fad ?

[Regulator]

I think 'azada' is just a fancy name for a square bladed hoe.

They're good for big plots.

[clarion]

Looks quite like a type of mattock to me.

[Wobbly John]

my new, 'haven't a clue' neighbours used one on their allotment, with little success. 

[clarion]

These trendy gadgets come round on a regular basis, it seems, from reading my dad's old gardening magazines.  I can't see any advantage over having a stainless steel spade & fork, and a good hoe.

Actually, hoes is somewhere I do have a gadget - fed up of blunt & bent hoes, I use a Swoe, which you can use both ways.

[Ian H]

...I use a Swoe, which you can use both ways.

Invented by Wilkinson Sword - there's still an early prototype in my father's shed.

[Regulator]

Looks quite like a type of mattock to me.

You call it 'mattock'
I call it 'square bladed hoe'*
Let's call the whole thing off....

 




*Also sometimes known as a 'grub hoe'.

[clarion]

  Fair.  I Gewglimaged 'mattock', and a lot of what I'd call 'picks' came up as well.  I wonder if the name is a mangling of 'adze'?  I do recall that, when I was last interested in these things, as a plotholder about ten or so years ago, there were a couple of 'ethnic' tools like this available, so (wealthy) hippies could play at being African subsistence farmers in their back garden

[Tail End Charlie]

Thanks for the replies, they were my views aswell. I have a mattock which is good for breaking up really hard ground, in effect like a pickaxe but it is so heavy I cannot use it for very long at all.

[Ian H]

Looks quite like a type of mattock to me.

You call it 'mattock'
I call it 'square bladed hoe'*
Let's call the whole thing off....

 




*Also sometimes known as a 'grub hoe'.

'Mattock' is one of those words invented by the Kenneths*.



*Horne and Williams; see also 'futtock'.

[RJ]

Looks quite like a type of mattock to me.

You call it 'mattock'
I call it 'square bladed hoe'*
Let's call the whole thing off....

 




*Also sometimes known as a 'grub hoe'.

aka "digging hoe" - made in the Midlands, used by subsitence farmers world-wide.

I've been recommended this tool so strongly by someone I trust that I think I'm going to get one.

AIUI, these are generally lighter and longer-handled than a typical mattock.  You should be able to use the weight of the hoe head to do most of the work by using little lift-and-drop movements, rather than full-blooded mattocky swings.

[Wobbly John]

To be fair, they are probably OK on light or sandy soils.

On our heavy clay they appear to fail dismally.

[pcolbeck]

Hoes are good. People think they are hard work because 99% of people have a blunt one. Sharpen it and it will be transformed. Only takes a couple of minutes with a file and then a sharpening stone. Once you have done it once you should only need to use the stone unless the edge gets a serious nick.