Steel for hard-use farming/gardening?

comoha said:
It's ironic, I have a new orange GEC #71 Bullnose, aka "Redneck Farm Tool"
waiting for me in the mailbox today. No way is she getting that one! :D
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th_laugh.gif


~ P.
 
Here in Europe, the Opinel is the market gardener's favourite. There is a special 'Gardener' model too, should be useful.

The Opinel has a lot of advantages in this field: cheap, thin broad enough blade, decent stainless or carbon, lightweight in the pocket, tough. Above all, no liners or backspring to get Messed up with dirt. The thing I hate when using slipjoints in the garden is the very real risk of getting earth/sand in the joints, hideous. The Opinel also has that brilliantly simple lock for added safety- quite important when harvesting tougher crops of the brassica family.

What Carl wrote about maintaining a rough or toothy edge for this work is spot-on, you ally that to an Opinel and you'll have many less worries. workers in vineyards or vegetable gardens would touch up their knives on a stone or stick, not accurate but effective!

Regards, Will
 
I find the inexpensive $10 Martha Stewart chef knife good for around the garden and house. I get mine at the -mart. A folder gets dirty and gums up. Here is a video with the knife and some good info on sharpening. I don't know what steel this knife has but but it is full tang with hardwood handle and enough blade to chop stuff up when necessary. It holds a decent edge but like many farm tools you have to maintain them which in this case means sharpening the knife occasionally. A small pocket sharpener works fine for keeping an edge in good shape. As you know farmers can't afford to be laying out big bucks for basic tools.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgQKgqQEj6g
 
comoha said:
Yeah, you know how that'll go. :D

Great suggestion with the Queen Country Cousin Ed. :thumbup:
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Hey, it was a thought. :D
Does she grow large plants (like corn) too? If so, get yourself an 8 inch Old Hickory butcher knife to chop down the stalks st the end of the season so you can till if you do that every year. They're cheap, relatively easy to find, and work like a charm as a small machete when sharp. They're really easy to get a hair popping edge on with a medium grit stone as well.
 
The coarse sharpening makes sense to me.

+ 1 on the Country Cousin.

If you combined both of those answers, I bet you'd have superb result.
 
knarfeng said:
The coarse sharpening makes sense to me.

+ 1 on the Country Cousin.

If you combined both of those answers, I bet you'd have superb result.
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I did order a yeller D2 Country Cousin yesterday. It was a great suggestion.
I am going to follow the rattail file method for her hawkbill the next time she hands it to me for sharpening. That method just makes good sense.
Thanks all for the wonderful and truly helpful advice. :thumbup:
 
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