Japanese Weeding Sickle Very Sharp Edge Quick Work (Full Size)

I have been organic gardening for 50 years and this is by far the BEST tool I have ever used in the garden !!!would give this TEN stars if I could!! It has just enough weight that the tool does most of the work. It slices weeds down like butter and you can use it to chop and pull up large dandelions! I weeded a 12 ft X 5 feet section in about 30 minutes! with little effort! You can use it with a slight swing to the left or just pull back. Hardly any pressure is needed as the edge is sharp but not sharp enough to cut your hand! Terrific invention! It actually makes weeding FUN as it is so easy and everything looks so great after! Try one and you won't be sorry!

Ok, this saved me at least another hour of cutting through St Augustine sod and digging it up with a flat shovel to create a border around wooden garden bed. Before I ordered this I would use an edging tool to cut a line parallel to the garden bed, then come in with a flat spade and jam it under the sod to try and save the sod so I could transplant it elsewhere that needed it. With this tool, I just cut the line with the edging tool, then came in and sliced under the sod and rolled it up. Not only was it way faster, less effort, and gave me a more consistent result and depth, it was actually a lot of fun. The handle length was just right for what I was doing. I could see how a standing height version of this tool would be great too, but that’s ok. Great garden work requires getting down in the dirt! It’s very light weight and sturdy, I had no issues. I will say that it’s rained for several days prior to me using it… I see a lot of people using it on bone dry dirt or dirt with rocks… I wouldn’t. Just pre-water a day before and maybe a few hours before your work to soften the soil and this will save you a lot of effort. I could hear a few rocks I hit and I cut through a bunch of roots about 1/4” thick with ease but the blade edge held. I’m going to be getting this guy professionally sharpened for sure. For the price, this is a very handy tool to have in your lawn arsenal. I can’t wait for the weeds or st Augustine to intrude into the edging so I can go touch it up. Don’t use it to cut big roots, don’t swing it… just drag/slice. Rocks and blades don’t mesh, common sense stuff. So for a rocky dry patch, you’re going to damage the edge and just cut the plants off at the base. This is a fantastic tool for a moderately good soil conditions. I uploaded a video. I make it look harder than it was because I was focused on the camera. Update: After using this to cut the sod from a 7’ diameter flower bed around a tree, I can say that I wish it had a more aggressive angle between the handle and blade. The handle/blade angle is such that the handle is mostly vertical (maybe 45deg) but this makes it difficult to pull and impossible to push. Two handed operation is ideal, but if your trying to cut sod you’re probably using your other hand to fit up the sod… I’d like a version of this that as your cutting allows you to PULL instead of this weird side motion you have to do. Like make me worry about my knuckles dragging on the ground kind of pulling angle. It was exhausting work, but I still prefer this and the cleaner results to trying to shovel the sod up.

Very sharp blade. It will slice through soil and roots like butter. I've used it to quickly clear out grass or weeds to create new garden areas. The only con is that the handle is so short. I have to be on my hands and knees to use it.

We have clay soil so weeding is much more of a pain for us. We both gave this a try and this is now a treasured tool. It is the angle of the blade, the sharpness, the weight, the balance, the size, the shape of the handle, and especially the effectiveness. It is delight to use, and every time I use it I am reminded of the pleasure in experiencing the fundamentals of refined tool design and craftsmanship. By the way, we have also found it EXCELLENT for selectively "pruning" undesired moss from our pavers, flagstones, segmented retaining wall blocks and concrete walls. Highly recommended!

I have a big garden plot on a friend's farm. I've been having a big problem with crab-grass and sedges growing around my vegetables. I was clipping the roots off with a pair of corona pruners, which was taking forever, but I couldn't use my hoop-hoe too close to my plants without hurting them. My friend's been experimenting with different implements for managing his farm and recommended that I try some of his wide assortment of Japanese hand hoes. This was the one I liked. The shape was the best for me to get close around my plants and efficiently slice under the weeds. It worked really well, so I ordered one for myself. When it arrived, I wasn't particularly impressed with the edge (it claims very sharp edge). That being said, I am a student of sharpening, and not much short of a razor impresses me. It had a slight bur on the beveled edge that informed me of a tiny, nearly invisible bevel on the tip of the flat side. That little grind might have been put there in an attempt to take the burr off from grinding the secondary bevel on the first side (it has a double bevel on the beveled side). They seem to have not done a good job of it, because they put a little burr on the other side. It's a fairly amateurish mistake in sharpening. That little bur might have rubbed off in the sand anyway, and it was kinda sharp, but not up to my standards. A quick couple of very light strokes with my extra fine diamond file and the bur was gone. I'm thinking of ordering one of those DMT diafold things to keep in my pocket while using this hoe, since my regular set of diamond files is way too bulky. So I took it out to my garden and hoed up a mess of weeds. It didn't take long to get dull, maybe an hour or less. I used one of my friend's little sharpening doohickies to tune it up again, and went back to slicing through weed roots. It takes a little practice to develop techniques that work well. You want to slice kind of diagonally for best effect. Both forwards and backwards work. It doesn't cut anything woody or real big. This is for small weeds. It's a good hoe, and I'm glad I got it. I wish it would stay sharp longer. Perhaps they could have used a harder steel to keep the edge longer. I don't know a whole lot about metalurgy but I figure any blade shoved through sand all day is going to dull pretty quickly, so I'm not upset about it. I don't think I'd ever find a better tool for light weeding in close spaces, even if I can imagine one existing (same thing with a harder steel blade). It would be nice if it came with a sheath too.