Hoemanship - Favorite type of Hoe?

There seems to be endless styles of hoes out there, and I'm not convinced that I have enough experience to figure out which one works best for my homestead.

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Types of Hoe

Which hoes do you prefer to use?

The hoe that gets the most use on my plot is the half moon hoe. It works well for 'detail' work weeding, mixing up chicken coop bedding, as well as breaking up hardpan as it develops. It does not have the widest face for working but it is light and accurate which makes means it gets plenty of time in my hands.

Each hoe has its place in my life.  My favorite is the one that looks like a claw and is name a Claw Weeder.

Maybe next would be the one labelled Claw Tip.

Is the Half Moon on your illustration?

The hoe I use first and most is referred to as an "action scuffle hoe" in the illustration at the top. I have one on a long pole and another on a wheel-hoe.

I also have and use a regular garden hoe, but not much anymore. It's good for moving mulch around in tight spaces.

And I have this wonderful grub hoe: https://www.easydigging.com/garden-hoes/grub-hoe.html -- mostly for breaking new ground or hacking at tree roots if I don't want to go find an axe.

Trick question.    Since going to raised beds, I seldom use a hoe.  When I do use a hoe, it is evenly divided between a long handled claw hoe and a claw tip hoe.

Different hoes are for different purposes.  Mostly I want one for weeding and "dust mulching" (breaking up soil crust and cracks into fine powder which conserves moisture further down) The ideal weeding hoe CUTS weeds, just below the surface of the soil. So for this I like an ordinary shape and sized blade, lightweight, and a long handle.  The motion of the hoe over the soil is comparable to that of a broom over a floor....one should be able to do it for hours on end without tiring.  Sharpening the edge is vital, and needs touching up every half hour or hour's worth of work, moreso if there is gravel etc.  I also use a small pointed blade hoe....made from one tooth of a sicklebar mower....to take out single furrows of various depths for planting seeds.   I've also used what they call a grub hoe in the South, with a heavy wide blade which is meant for breaking up heavy clods, chopping out heavy roots and stubs, and so on....jobs for which many people prefer a shovel and/or a pick.  A thing very like this, with a short handle, is the default soil working tool in much of the Third World, and it has always puzzled me....why people use that so much and not a shovel which seems so much easier on the back having tried both.

The SHW ginseng hoe is one of my favorites.  17 or 18 inch handle, can use with one or two hands. Very versatile for a “small” tool.  

Rogue makes some very heavy duty chopping hoes.  But I like the oval gusseted SHW handles the best.  

I am looking for a long handled ho-Mi.  That’s a versatile tool.  Sharp point, broad sharp edge , and flat tamping side.

Grape hoe with a bent shaft. The straight shafts are ok but prefer the one as pictured. I'd like to try a pointed one, but the flat grub style is a work horse.

My favorite hoe = none at all. I try to keep a nice mulch atop the soil, thus eliminating the need for a hoe.

For spot work, I use a hand held half-moon, though it’s a model with the weld off to one side instead of in the middle of the blade. It slides easily just under the soil surface, cutting the root.  It’s lightweight and easy to keep sharp.

I really like the Ho-Mi, which is based on a Korean tool, I use the hand tool version the most.

Scuffle hoe can be really good for quickly going over small weeds. Very little effort required to use it when done right.

Heavy duty eye hoe is great for bigger weeds and for roughly preparing beds. I also use the back of this to make furrows, and then the bottom of it to lightly tamp the seeds into the soil, and the side of it to cover the seeds.

Lee Valley Grub Hoe

I was gifted this grape/grubbing style hoe from Lee Valley Tools a few years back and haven't used it as much as I should. This next year I'm planning on putting it through some trials. I'm more used to a whole cast hoe head while this one is in pieces and held together with bolts. My assumption is that the bolts may be the 'weak link' and I might preventatively upgrade them to something more substantial. It has a pretty decent bevel right from the supplier on the edge but I wonder how long it will last with my rocky soil.

Hoe Edge

I used to have a “garden hoe” and loved it. I loved it a little too much and its handle broke. I do not have the equipment to fix its handle.

Currently I am using a small, short mattock, which is good, and better at cutting through sod than the garden hoe (would have to tilt side to side to cut it effectively). I also have used a large mattock, which, while very effective, is heavy and exhausting to use. It would be very efficient for heavier, rockier soils. I use hoes not so much to weed growing beds, as to prepare the soil, build earthworks, etc. The garden hoe was perfect for that and made it so much easier.

I would like to get a warren hoe at some point, because it seems like it would be especially good for some of my uses (deep weeding).

Timothy—that one you have looks excellent for pond digging!

Another advantage of hoes over shovels for digging is that they can be used bare-footed without any special affixions. (See  https://permies.com/t/361845/shovel-barefoot)

Grub hoe for the win!!!

It looks a lot like the grape hoe from above but shaped subtly different so that it is more optimized for digging than weeding.




Eric

The Nurseryman's and Warren hoes get the most use on my farm.  I like to use a sharp trenching shovel to loosen larger weeds before pulling them by hand, and also for cutting along the edges to stop grass creeping in under my beds. Whatever the hoe, keep it sharp and oiled.

Oh boy, I get to share something unique here.  I won't go  into the whole story, but I was introduced to this tool while in Hawaii.  It is a Norwegian Krafse Hoe and absolutely nothing beats it for moving and flattening loose gravel. I've attached a picture of one.  

Notice the curved blade and curved handle on this quality tool.  This is what you want.  There are cheap knock offs.  I've seen them with a flat blade and straight, small round handle.  Pass.  Not really the same tool at all.

This link leads to a description better than I could give you.  https://www.norwegianamerican.com/norways-little-known-tool-trio/

My favorite hoe is from easydigging.com...It has a heavy duty 5' handle and the pointed blade weighs 2#...It sounds heavy but, the weight of the tool does all the work.

John Duffy wrote:My favorite hoe is from easydigging.com...It has a heavy duty 5' handle and the pointed blade weighs 2#...It sounds heavy but, the weight of the tool does all the work.

Are you talking about their pointed hoe? https://www.easydigging.com/garden-hoes/pointed-hoe.html

Scott—

Why is the krafse blade curved? How does that benefit or how is it used? Most hoes are not like that so it is interesting to see one that is.

I hate the standard garden hoes. They're too heavy for me, and too big in the heavy soil I usually work in. I do better to do multiple passes to dig trenches than try to force a heavy hoe through heavy soil. I can see how they would be good if you had more arm strength.

Lately my most used tool is the hand Korean Ho Mi Digger. Bought it this spring and feels like an extension of my hand, perfect for digging holes to plant things, creating a furrow, hilling, weeding, etc. I love it, but it isn't ideal for longer rows. I have used it for everything from planting bulbs in my lawn, to planting tomatoes to moving mulch, to weeding between onions.

For long handled hoes, for planting, I most often use what that image calls a nursery man's hoe, but sometimes also a Warren hoe.  

The nursery man's hoe is my favourite, very versatile and much lighter than my 'normal' garden hoe. I like to make a narrow furrow with the side, and it also is good to scrape up small-ish weeds and is weirdly my favourite tool for dragging wood chip mulch into a wheelbarrow, and for spreading it.

For strictly light weeding, I had an onion hoe I loved, and I also use what they are calling an action scuffle hoe, which is only good if you don't have rocks, and really struggled in the heavy till of my last garden.

I haven't been impressed by the Dutch scuffle hoe (mine is a garage sale find might need sharpening).  All but 2 of mine were garage sale finds (the Ho Mi and the oscillating scuffle hoe).

I prefer the Russian ploskorez or Fokin hoe. It's a great all around hoe. However, I do like a good heavy field hoe for grubbing out dandelions and yellow dock.

Marvin Weber wrote:I prefer the Russian ploskorez or Fokin hoe. It's a great all around hoe.

The Fokin hoe is pretty great. I use it for small jobs like keeping the trails cleared in our "jungle" (the wild part of our backyard).

For big jobs where I'm digging in hard clay earth, I use a mattock. I hardly ever use the pick end, but it's what I have so I use it.

When I've done trail work, I absolutely love using a pulaski.

Mattock. The kind with an adze on one side and a claw cultivator on the other. I have a hand size one that is the go to for almost any job I need to do. I've tried to find a larger one with a longer handle for tougher jobs, but have yet to find one that isn't a ridiculous price.

M Ljin wrote:Scott—
Why is the krafse blade curved? How does that benefit or how is it used? Most hoes are not like that so it is interesting to see one that is.

Perhaps it's curved to contain more material as you pull it towards you.  If you drop the handle, it really digs in and if you raise it, it smooths the material.

They do call it a hoe, but I think of it as a material handler.  Good for working with gravel and such, not for weeds.   And if the picture doesn't give you the scale, it's about 18" to 24" wide, so it moves a lot of material.

4 and 6 inch  stirrup hoes for weeding and this for most other things:


https://www.amleo.com/ez-digger-garden-tool-forged-7in-blade-54in-long-handle/p/EZ2

I love all the different options to substitute for the typical thin, flat, flimsy piece of sheet metal attached to a wooden handle that you see at a typical big box store.

Broadly speaking, I like the hoes that are forged of heavy iron or steel.

I like the grub hoe if I want to dig or break soil.  If it is heavy clay, a triangular hoe is perfect.

Grape hoes are fantastic if I need to weed an extremely weedy area consisting of plants with thick roots and lots of mass—it can really cut through heavy stuff.

Once I have a bed established, I like a triangular scuffle hoe.  If I have established plants to weed around, a collinear hoe is ideal.

And of course hand hoe is the tool for working with one’s hand in the soil, setting plants in their place to grow.

In any case, make certain that the hoe is sharpened razor sharp.  It makes cutting into soil so much easier.


And I like seeing all sorts of different types of hoes that I had never seen before.



Eric

I favor eye hoes for serious digging, including pick mattocks. I will, if given a "hoe" which is a piece of bent rod with a bit of steel sheet cut out to be a blade I will sell it or donate it. Not worth wasting space in the shed. A pointed warren hoe, shaped like an arrow head, is usefull for making furrows in soft ground. I've got a few big broad hoes, made in Salvador or elsewhere in Latin America. They can till a sofa-size garden bed ultra fast: just choke up on the handle to your liking, get in a bit of a crouch, and DON'T raise the blade up high, (less control, more work) Aim to cut around as deep as the blade, and pull towards you body. Go ultra easy the first week, and do a few shorten sessions the first day to avoid lasting soreness. Once you're getting used to it, alternate breaking ground  in an area, go over it again getting the big clods chopped up. I jude the soil's condition and try for thinner slices rather than whacking out big cubes: they're easier to chop fine on the second pass. The second pass is also when I sift some compost on the bed as I go.  For really tough ground I'll use a pick mattock, depending on the first pass, I may irrigate and fine chop the next morning, when it'll be softer (ma'suave verdad?) I have some no-longer made pick mattocks, one a prized US Army entrenching tool head on a longer handle I made, and two larger ones made in South Africa and one ol' American one I use for things like removing concrete slab that's been ravaged by a pneumatic jack hammer. If you've got the heavy work done, you can get mini versions of many of these shapes for one-handed use, like planting two-inch pot starts or dividing a clump of chives. Any good Japanese hardware has them; Hida Tools in Berkeley (I think) is the most recent one I've patronized'

Rick,

I agree completely.  I probably have at least one “donate hoe” in my garage, but I hardly ever use it.  I guess it is good for gathering a small amount of material, angling it to make a furrowed row, but not much else.  I certainly wouldn’t use it to till earth.

Having experienced a grub hoe, I realized just how good a solid, forged hoe really is.  Now I want a collection of all types of other forged hoes, but I don’t want to get greedy—my grub hoe serves me very well.


Eric

I have one that I've had so long I can't recall where or how,  mail order or travelling, but I think it's Japanese. two-ended eye hoe, one blade about 3.5" x 8", the other side  a bitshorter, a "U"profile with the curve at the eye, and two flat tines, finger-narrow, @6" long. It's a light tool, but the steel has lasted about 35 years so far. I mostly use it working on weeds around young trees, or opening planting holes for ground covers in established beds. For working in soft garden soil for planting, I tend towards an azadon I brought back from Oaxaca (just the forged head) It'll work up a bed to plant potatoes real quick if the soil has no rocks or solid clay. I've never purchased a blade as big as some, but a Guatemalteco a foot shorter than I am can till whole plots for planting corn in a day. If I'm trenching in soft soil that's what I use. If I am only using one tool, or the site is a long walk, I have a surplus GI entrenching pick mattock I've used for at least 50 years. (they don't make 'em no mo') I did put a longer handle on it. (I can see that the stock short-handle is what you want if you're in a foxhole under fire) But for ripping a channel for a drip line, long handle is da kine. Hit a rock? shift to the pick and pry it out. I  have one stock, and another I put a stand-up handle on it. It is not easy to find good hoes; go to a hardware section in a box store ? fuhgeddabout it. My new fave is at my fave neighborhood "home improvement center" It's a long handled double-ended chisel mattock forged in El Salvador: I tried one, and it's da kine, long handle, round-eye, one side a flat blade@ 8" long by 1.25 wide, the other end is @2.5 wide, same length. I recently found out I can chop out some weeds with the smaller width, then chop the dirt clumps with the wider end, smooth the area sideways as if it was a scraper. (you can assay the quality of a forging by tapping it with about any metal handle, rod, or spike: that little double-headed hoe rings! when you're assessing a possible acquisition, tap the steel: the more musical it sounds, mo bettah.
I confess to being fond of hoes; I have tined eye-hoes, solid forged, that can rip up hard-pan, and arrow-head shaped Allen hoes that can make a neat furrow for planting. Another I have, an eye-hoe from Japan with four flat tines is my go-to for working up a row to plant potatoes. If you have rocky soil- glacial till, say,  use picks or a heavy-tined eye-hoe. In most of the world, the most important farm implement is a broad eye-hoe (azado'n se llama) I come back from a trip with tools in my pack...
Find one that looks good, buy it, try it out. Hida Hardware in Berkely, Catalogs, Travel, Yard/estate sales at homes with big gardens, wherever you can find 'em.
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Christopher, yes, that's the one. Sorry for my slow response. I didn't see your question on the first go-round

Any love for wheel hoes?
They're crazy fast at what they do but mostly I'm using the 6in ezdigging grub hoe because i don't weed frequently enough and i have to till by hand

Martin,

A wheel hoe can be a very, very useful tool depending on its context of use.  If you want to cultivate long rows of crops and need to keep the spaces between free of weeds (and assume that weed-free=bare earth), then a wheel hoe is pretty amazing.  You can run all sorts of attachments from them (look at Hoss wheel hoe--I will find a link in a bit).  At one point I gave them some serious thought.

If this is your style of gardening, then by all means, get a wheel hoe if you think it is worth the investment--personally I do think it would easily worth the investment!

I diverted from this path when I started to keep a mulch on my soil surface at all times.  At that point, a wheel hoe made little sense.  And even in a larger context, I am thinking about how I can have a living mulch that will  not interfere (in fact, it will enhance) the crop plants.


Short version--a wheel hoe is a valuable tool depending on use.

I am staying in grub hoe territory




Good luck whichever way you decide!!

Eric

In the right soil, in the right garden, wheel hoes are great. In Minnesota I used a wheel hoe to good effect in sandy soil in a conventional garden. I presently am in clay soil with raised beds.  So, my weapon of choice is my Hori knife.

I got the valley oak wheel hoe last winter in lieu of a rototiller for aisles.  Tbh, i only used a handful of times but it was exceptional for what it does, just as you guys say.  Its one of those things you can't believe aren't more mainstream

How are you producing mulch?

I cut hay with a sycthe for rabbits and sometimes i use the low quality stuff to good effect but I've never done the whole garden that way