Penny_Plinker
06-19-2008, 02:28 PM
I've checked out all the hardware stores in search of a good hoe of the type my mother used to have about the place. What she had wasn't the gooseneck type; she called it a sprouting hoe. But she used it in the garden and as i recall, it didn't bounce around like a light weight hoe.
Beings as i wanted something that doesn't seem to be made anymore, i searched the local flea market. There's a guy there who has lots of old tools. I once bought a corn planter from him, but he didn't have a hoe with him and none with handles but promised to bring one the following week. So i soon had a $5.00 hoe and no handle.
I've made shovel handles before, and had a good thick piece of ash on hand. Husband sawed it into a piece about 54 inches by 1 1/2 thick. Then i set about with a little hand plane and started whittling it down. You just take the corners off till you get the shape you want. Very relaxing, watching those woodshavings curl up, although i worked up a good sweat in the two or three hours it took to make the handle. I wanted it sort of oval rather than round. I worked on the handle portion first which was the easiest. The portion where the eye of the hoe goes in was much harder and i saved it for last. Not that there was a choice.
You have to slide the eye of the hoe down over the handle, so the handle HAS to be made first and of a dimension that the eye will slide over. That comes naturally as the handle becomes round you're able to slip it down over. The end of the handle where the hoe is going to rest has to be big enough to keep the hoe from sliding off the end. The eye of the hoe is tapered something like a mattoc handle if anyone's familiar with that. They're hard to fit. I traced the shape onto the end of the handle and then got the very end to the right shape and then tapered the wood back till i had a fair good fit. The sides were perfect, i could have left a little more wood on the front and back, but wooden wedges would snug up the fit. I used a power sander to get it smooth and then finished up with coarse and fine sandpaper. Put a coat of sanding sealer that had to dry two hours, then i used one coat of Helmsman indoor/outdoor polyurthane.
The hoe head was all rusty when i got it, so i wire wheeled and painted it. After the handle dried overnight i slipped the hoe eye over the handle one last time, tapped it snug with a hammer, and then pounded in a couple of wooden shims and WAL-LA. I'm ready to work. In the garden.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-7/1047863/FiveDollarHoe.jpg
Penny
Beings as i wanted something that doesn't seem to be made anymore, i searched the local flea market. There's a guy there who has lots of old tools. I once bought a corn planter from him, but he didn't have a hoe with him and none with handles but promised to bring one the following week. So i soon had a $5.00 hoe and no handle.
I've made shovel handles before, and had a good thick piece of ash on hand. Husband sawed it into a piece about 54 inches by 1 1/2 thick. Then i set about with a little hand plane and started whittling it down. You just take the corners off till you get the shape you want. Very relaxing, watching those woodshavings curl up, although i worked up a good sweat in the two or three hours it took to make the handle. I wanted it sort of oval rather than round. I worked on the handle portion first which was the easiest. The portion where the eye of the hoe goes in was much harder and i saved it for last. Not that there was a choice.
You have to slide the eye of the hoe down over the handle, so the handle HAS to be made first and of a dimension that the eye will slide over. That comes naturally as the handle becomes round you're able to slip it down over. The end of the handle where the hoe is going to rest has to be big enough to keep the hoe from sliding off the end. The eye of the hoe is tapered something like a mattoc handle if anyone's familiar with that. They're hard to fit. I traced the shape onto the end of the handle and then got the very end to the right shape and then tapered the wood back till i had a fair good fit. The sides were perfect, i could have left a little more wood on the front and back, but wooden wedges would snug up the fit. I used a power sander to get it smooth and then finished up with coarse and fine sandpaper. Put a coat of sanding sealer that had to dry two hours, then i used one coat of Helmsman indoor/outdoor polyurthane.
The hoe head was all rusty when i got it, so i wire wheeled and painted it. After the handle dried overnight i slipped the hoe eye over the handle one last time, tapped it snug with a hammer, and then pounded in a couple of wooden shims and WAL-LA. I'm ready to work. In the garden.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-7/1047863/FiveDollarHoe.jpg
Penny