• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Hori Hori

Woodbloke

Woodbloke

Sequoia
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
7,067
Reaction score
925
Location
Salisbury, UK
As Spring is finally here and the clocks have moved forward, it's time for me to sort out the garden. I never touch a blade of grass until April and the clocks have changed šŸ˜ but one of the 'must do' jobs this year is to cut round the creeping turf on our 'Japanese' slabs in the lawn:

IMG_4738.jpeg

I did it a couple of years ago with a small kitchen knife (very cheap one) and it was agony; the turf is incredibly tough to cut. I'd looked all round for a suitable knife and finally settled on a Hori Hori with a serrated, really thick blade. It arrived the other day via a very careful RM postie who not only scoped me for a few seconds but wanted my DoB and signature:

6A06B87A-724B-40C1-A0D4-CF6236509C11.jpg

I suspect an old bread knife would do the job but it would either bend or break and the handle is nowhere big enough to get a decent grip. The HH is also easy to sharpen as the back is concave so I just need to run a diamond stone across the back - Rob
 
I think you will thoroughly enjoy your Hori Hori. I use mine quite often. Together with my Japanese sickle it is probably my most-used garden hand tool.

I see yours has no finish on its handle. It's better that way. I had to improvise some finger guards on mine because its handle can become slippery when dirty and/or wet. I once almost cut my fingers and decided to do something about it before it actually did happen.

IMG_20250405_113151.jpg
 
HdV said:
I think you will thoroughly enjoy your Hori Hori. I use mine quite often. Together with my Japanese sickle it is probably my most-used garden hand tool.

I see yours has no finish on its handle. It's better that way. I had to improvise some finger guards on mine because its handle can become slippery when dirty and/or wet. I once almost cut my fingers and decided to do something about it before it actually did happen.

View attachment 32816
Click to expand...
I agree about the hilt...I may have to see what I can do as it's already drawn blood! However, it's the right tool:

IMG_4739.jpeg

Takes about ten minutes even so to chop round the paving slabs. Once all the encroaching turf has been cut back they're a lot bigger! Only about twenty to go...... - Rob
 
I made my own from scrap I had to hand (thread back in sept 22).

Itā€™s certainly my most used gardening tool. Use keeps it rust free and sharp enough.
 
Just got a hori hori as weā€™re doing no dig on our new allotment. Brilliant for deep digging / cutting off of weeds. Was surprised quite how sharp it is, I have exactly the same one as HdV. I remember seeing some had hilts and now youā€™ve explained it makes perfect sense why!
 
Maybe the police in Manchester should have a look at this thread so they can learn about gardening tools.

This report is about how a young man coming back from his allotment with a hori hori was arrested by armed police

www.theguardian.com

Man carrying home his gardening tools arrested by armed police in Manchester

Samuel Rowe, who was returning from allotment, seeking to overturn caution for possession of offensive weapon
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
It is really sad it has come to this. But, as a foreigner, I read often enough about stabbing incidents in de UK that I do somewhat understand the police when they see someone with a hori hori and a kama walking about.
 
I think he could have made his life easier and popped them in a bag! I carry one to our allotment but we are in a rural village. However he did nothing illegal; he could prove he was carrying them for a purpose and was within the law. His caution should be removed and compensation given by the Police.
 
Oh, that would definitely have been the wiser thing to do! I fully agree. I just thought it was kind of sad that nowadays the first thing people think of when they see such tools is "Dangerous" instead of "What are those for?". Having a family member working for the police also causes me to reflect on how things are perceived from their side.
 
I made this one for my wife. She was a bit reluctant to use it in the front garden where it could be seen by passers by :)

20221003_110120 (1).jpg
 
The initial reaction by the police was entirely acceptable but poor follow through. If the police had been open minded, they could have easily have checked the blokeā€™s story on the internet.
I noticed that the police spokesman described it as a dagger, so even after the event there was still closed minds.
 
AJB Temple said:
They are very useful. Recommended by Sir Monty of Don.
Click to expand...
Very handy! We have a meandering path made from 'Japanese' cast irregular slabs which goes to the terrarse at the bottom of the garden. The slabs are set into the grass so it's then easy to whizz the mower over them, but every year I have to hack the turf back when it encroaches on the slabs. I tried various knives which were worse than useless but a Hori Hori with a serrated edge from Niwaki (just up the road from us) did the job - Rob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top