Nice Old S&J Spade

[AndyT]

But was it a Spear and Jackson "Neverbend" fork, CC?
If not, why not!

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Good question! I know his spade was by C.T.Skelton, but not sure about the forks. It had four tines, though, one of them no longer in line with t'other three.

By the bye, there was another specialist 'clay fork' having only two tines - many made in the midlands, where they know a bit about clay. Example here - http://gardenandwood.co.uk/product/vintage-clay-spade/

Edit to add - more here, including a very similar clay spade to BB's example - http://gardenandwood.co.uk/product-cate ... nd-spades/

 

[Bm101]

that's a fair point BB, I have never set eyes on a 'clay spade' let alone used one. The pointed end makes a lot of sense, but what is the purpose of the removing the two sections of metal from the blade?

Its to reduce the amount of metal that the clay can stick to Nabs I think. I used to dig holes for a living when I was hard landscaping, footings, fence holes etc. I once spent about 3 weeks digging London blue clay out of a garden in Crystal Palace for a new retaining wall. Heartbreaking work. Longer the day went on the deeper you went, the more tired you got the higher you had to handball the waste out. And it rained constantly. By the time we got on to the actual brickwork it was like we were on bloody holiday.
I stand by one method. Sharp sparkling clean spade and a bucket of water. Wet, slice, toss. Wet, slice, toss. Repeat ad infintum for hour upon hour until you are bone weary and soul dead.
Love to try one of those old spades though. They make a lot of sense.
(ed: same as Hoes btw, they should be smashed on the grinder, they are designed to be sharp. :wink: )

 

[DTR]

Grinder sounds a bit aggressive, we do ours with a file?

 

[Bm101]

I'm cheap Dave.

 

[bugbear]

that's a fair point BB, I have never set eyes on a 'clay spade' let alone used one. The pointed end makes a lot of sense, but what is the purpose of the removing the two sections of metal from the blade?

Friction. Clay SUCKS. it sticks to the blade. But it can't stick to nothing.

Same as the cheese knives. You can easily cut a clean slice of mature brie with the design I showed, whereas
a razor sharp cooks knife will just make a mess.

BugBear

 

[Rhyolith]

Grinder sounds a bit aggressive, we do ours with a file?

I'm cheap Dave.

Yes I use a draper gardening tool file that you can get from many DIY stores, it costs £3 Main issue with using a grinder is its harder to keep it neat and there is a risk of taking off too much. At the end of the day I would just go with the tool your good at using.

The Soil here is a mixture of course sand, clay and the odd bit of flint. I have put the S&J to work digging an approx 3 x 7 metre pond and found it to be very suited to this soil (relative to other spades I have used).

 

[yetloh]

Soon after I got married in 1966, I bought an Ellwell garden fork from the local hardware shop. I'm sure it wasn't "top of the range" because we were skint, but it is wonderful and still in very regular use on my clay soil. I've had several stainless steel forks with prententions to quality but none have been a patch on the Ellwell. I have had to give it a new ash handle once, but fortunately we stll have a shop a few miles away that sells traditional fork handles in various lengths. I put on a longer one than the original which, for me, has made it an even better tool. A lot of woodworking tools from the sixties were absolute rubbish (the Stanley no. 4 My sister bought for my 21st for one) but Sheffiels was clearly still making some very good stuff in other fields.

Jim

 

[AndyT]

Jim, weren't Elwell still in production at Wednesbury, in the West Midlands, in the 60s? I know Sheffield was dominant, but it didn't make all the good stuff!

 

[nabs]

Good to see Elwell getting a mention - I have two Elwell spades and a fork which I use as my main gardening tools. The ladies spade, which I got from a car boot about 10 years ago, is easily the best garden tool I have ever owned.

the forge at Wednesbury operated for over 400 years:

http://www.academia.edu/334383/Five_cen ... bury_Forge

 

[bugbear]

Good to see Elwell getting a mention - I have two Elwell spades and a fork which I use as my main gardening tools. The ladies spade, which I got from a car boot about 10 years ago, is easily the best garden tool I have ever owned.

If you want to be all butch about it, you can call it a "border spade" instead of a "ladies spade".

BugBear

 

[nabs]

well, my view on this is based on the fact that Alan Titchmarsh still calls them 'Ladies's spades' and he is also an unexpected *** symbol. Until someone comes up with some compelling evidence that these two things are not connected, I will be following suit.

 

[Racers]

I have always known them as border spades and forks.

I am after a border fork!

Pete

 

[ED65]

well, my view on this is based on the fact that Alan Titchmarsh still calls them 'Ladies's spades' and he is also an unexpected *** symbol. Until someone comes up with some compelling evidence that these two things are not connected, I will be following suit.

Good point well made!

 

[yetloh]

Jim, weren't Elwell still in production at Wednesbury, in the West Midlands, in the 60s? I know Sheffield was dominant, but it didn't make all the good stuff!

Andy,

Yes, I took a punt on Sheffield when I wrote the post but when I went to the shed today to get it I saw that it simple says "Elwell, England" so guessed it probably wasn't Sheffield. Either way, they clearly made some great tools and good to see their quality is well recognised here.

Jim