Please could you lovely peeps recommend a decent digging fork, mine has just given up the ghost and my Father Christmas is being all humbuggy and says I have to get it myself.
Thank you as always
I'm not going to be much help here, sorry.
Do you want a border fork or a full sized one?
My "Go to" garden fork is a heavy duty Cougar, probably from some DIY place rather than a garden centre. I bought them (a spade and fork) to leave at the allotment, maybe 20 years ago, whilst my bright shiny stainless steel forks nestled in the comfort of the garden shed.
Over the years, the wooden shafted ones have snapped, the tines on some of the cheaper ones have broken but Cougar has stood up to levering out tree roots, lifting paving slabs and all the heavy duty stuff I wanted to do. It has a metal shaft and, despite being left out in the rain many times, has never rusted.
I only use forks for levering stuff out and the spade is just for digging holes for planting - but I do a lot of levering out.
I’ll have a look what mine is, when it stops raining. It’s not too big or heavy. It is given a fair amount of stick at times and it still going strong after 6 or 7 years. Which is good because Bob said it wouldn’t last.
I use a wooden shafted stainless steel boarder fork for loosening the soil I also have a larger wooden shafted garden fork which I used when I did heavy digging, found a fork better than a spade, I also bought a long wooden shafted stainless steel fork out of lidels but the metal is to soft and some tines bent when trying to lever out boulders but still in use when required to lever up heavy objects the long shaft makes the work that bit easier
After finally remembering to have a look at my fork. The label has worn away. So I still don’t know what make it is. I’m leaning toward spear & Jackson at a guess.
The oldest one I could find at a car boot sale would probably be the best and the cheapest!
I am a fan of Kent & Stowe
The best fork and spade I have, I pinched off my wife's uncle as he didn't need them when he died. They are well worn but still solid. The fork is quite dangerous as the tines are very pointed now.
I am a fan of old tools my first fork was my FiL's and that is now an ornament in the veg patch and the one that has recently died I gained when I moved here 8 years ago, so not bad for 20ish years of gardening. I have gone for a kent and stowe as there are complaints of the item itself, however there are quite a few comments that show they do honour their 10 year guarantee - so fingers crossed. Thank you for all your responses
I have had my digging fork replaced 2 times over the last 10 years, no questions asked