Your description and analysis of the curved tool in action is darn near perfect. As I read your comments my muscle memory kept saying, Yes, Yes, Yes.

The reason for the poor quality of some modern tools, I think, is that they are designed to be replaced often, creating a need to periodically purchase a new one thus contributing to a steady stream of income for the corporate entities involved. ‘Planned obsolesence’ is another variation on this theme. Oh My, Sounds like we are getting into politics here, and I seem to recall that dirt farmers with their hand tools were no match for the corporate police…

Hmmm, perhaps we ought to change the subject.

On a back street in New York’s China Town I once found a black iron sickle forged from a backyard foundry. It is ‘J’ shaped, 14″ from stem to stern, with only a subtle curve at the gracefully tapered end. The blade has a thin serrated cutting edge flowing from a slightly thicker fluted shaft. The tang slips through a palm sized wooden handle and is secured by a simple crimp at the end. Stamped into the metal near the handle are two chinese characters and the cryptic, “MADE BY” and “ANIHC”. (CHINA backwards) It is clearly a hand made tool of proven design. It cost a dollar some thirty years ago and instantly became my favorite sickle.

Although it can be used with the wrist flick motion, I love to use it for coarse vegitation like the spent peony in autumn. By grasping the plant material with my left hand and pulling the sickle through the stems at ground level the stronger muscle groups of my back and arm work with ease and with this beauty I can do a row of peony quicker than my neighbor can start up his weed wacker.

I often wish I could personally thank the maker for providing me with his design. The balance, the heft, the sweep is poetry of museum proportion. To see it is to want to hold it, and to hold it is to want to use it. With tools like these, who needs toys?

Bill

Great article. I too use old tools inherited from by grandfather. Many of them are a superior solution to the modern way. One of my favorites is grandpa’s hand sickle instead of a string-line trimmer. One day my trimmer ran out of string. To finish up the trim, I decided to try the hand sickle. It worked great! It’s been at least 10 years now and I’ve not used a string-line trimmer since.

You note that your Granddad’s hoe has a curved cutting edge and modern ones have a flat one. Try both on the same work and you’ll find the curved blade will cut through roots and tough clods with less jarring by concentrating the force closer to the center of the blade. Hit a rock with the corner of a straight blade and the tool will try to twist in your hands. Hit the same rock in the same way with the “corner” of your curved cutting edge and it just glances off the rock and bits into the surrounding soil. This is perfect. Less jarring, and loosening the surrounding soil will make the rock easier to extract.

The blade’s gentle curve back toward you also reduces handle shock. When you hit something hard and the blade wants to stop sharply, the curve places the point of impact just enough closer to you that the angular momentum of the tool becomes balanced over the point of impact. Modern tools will likely not curve properly, probably because it makes for more stress on the tool and therefore needs more material and cost. But use the modern version for a couple hours and the advantages of the old one become clear.

Old tools are a treasure. They were made by people who used the tools they produced. Modern tools seem to be designed to be cheaper to make, faster to assemble, or easier to ship. The goals of quality, durability, and ease of use just don’t seem to be represented in today’s modern tools.

One of the organic nurseries here in town has a nice large selection of tools. I hope I’ll be able to find my very own Italian rototiller there.

Thank you for the information!

Thanks for your comment.

To my mind too the most beautiful of our human inventions are those which simply and with elegance sculpt the form to function. I suspect that is why these are retained, passed down from generation to generation and share world-wide acceptance.

Even so, it seems to me, there are subtle cultural differences. The Chinese hand tools that have found their way into our collection , for example, all seem to use a slightly different curve from the European designs. (Perhaps some reader can tell us why/how.)

And there is something deeply familiar about those cutural shapes that run in our own families, qualities that resonate quite deeply and speak to our personal heritage.

I notice that my Grandad’s hoe has a curved edge but the newer ones I see are almost always square. This may have occurred due to decades of wear under use, and if so that has to be the influence of the forces of nature upon the form due to the function, the laws of physics improving upon a human design. But for whatever the reason, my personal preferance is for the curved design. I see the arc of my own families legacy reflected on its surface, and my heart melts with that rememberance.

Bill

Ali