Every gardener learns the hard way that cheap garden tools just aren’t worth the hassle. Sure, they don’t initially cost as much, but when you go through 2 or 3 of anything in a season, or when they break at 5 PM on Sunday as the closest nursery is closing, it’s just not worth cheaping out. Reliable, solid garden tools, made from quality materials, usually last for many years and get the tasks done faster. Breck’s has two excellent tools you should consider adding to your garden toolbox: their Rosewood Bypass Pruners and the Hori Hori Knife Ultimate Garden Tool.
Breck’s Rosewood Pruners
Breck’s Rosewood Pruners is a superior bypass pruner.
Breck’s Rosewood Pruners feature a beautiful, old-school look (I felt so English holding them!) with smooth Rosewood handles. They’re also very comfortable to work with – I used them all day reducing yard waste for my compost pile and had no blisters on my hands at the end of the job. This bypass pruner features a springless design which means the spring won’t pop out at the absolute worst time, rendering your pruners useless. The locking latch is made of brass and is positioned at the bottom of the handles, not near the blades like many other pruners. Having the locking latch at the bottom makes it easier to operate when your gloves are thoroughly muddy or your hands are full of prunings.
But of course, pruning is all about how well the blades cut and these stainless steel blades are really sharp. The strength and edge of the blades is a critical feature in a set of pruners because you want a smooth cut on your pruned plant – a pruner that leaves a rough edge or tears the plant tissue encourages insect infestation and disease. Sharp blades like these, made of stainless steel, can be sharpened regularly, which is not something you can do with pruners made of cheap materials. These blades easily bite through anything up to about 1/4″ in diameter, which makes them perfect for most pruning tasks.
Breck’s Hori Hori Knife Ultimate Garden Tool with Sheath
The Barebones Hori Hori Knife from Breck’s is truly an all-purpose garden tool.
This Japanese-style garden tool digs, plants, hammers, cuts, cultivates, and trenches. I love tools like this – one tool that does many things is a gift when you’re on the move in the garden and discovering thick weeds, loose nails, bricks sunk into mud, a plant that needs to be moved, or any number of other things.
The Hori Hori knife is sharp as a razor, well-balanced, and solid as a rock – one piece of steel runs from the tip through the handle, so it should stand up to years of heavy use. The walnut handle is very comfortable in your hand even after hours of use; the serrated edge can be used as a small saw or to quickly cut through plant roots; the end pummel can be used for light hammering; the hook near the handle can be used to cut twine or rope or as a bottle opener; and the tip can be used to cultivate around small plants and aerate soil. For quick measurements, there are one-inch gradients on the underside of the blade, which is handy for planting or measuring. The Hori Hori Knife is also great for hacking through brush and chopping small branches from tree limbs as I did in the picture below. Between this and my trusty Cobrahead weeder, I’ll need few other garden tools in my bag.
How great is the Hori Hori Knife? I used it to hack through this pine tree limb that’s been in my brush pile since January. It took about 3 minutes and now I have a rough-hewn pole for trellising peas.
Hello Todd, I really enjoyed reading your article about the garden tools, I found it very helpful. Thank you, Richard