Half Moon Hoe Long Handle

Most draw hoes have a rectangular blade that is pitched at a compromised angle--midway between the 5 degree optimum for weed slicing and the 90 degree optimum for scraping and rearranging soil. The rectangular shape enables the blade to be sharpened along its sides, in addition to its bottom. The more narrow sharpened sides are used for weeding the wider bottom edge. Onion beet and nursery hoes are good examples of their compromised design.

Half Moon Hoes, long common place in Europe, are draw hoes with semi-circular shaped blades pitched over so as to be nearly co-linear with the ground. This makes them excellent weed slicers but useless for scraping or rearranging soil. This is because their blades lay almost flat on the ground. The edge is sharpened on the upper or inward surface instead of where most draw hoes are sharpened. The edge is also sharpened at the most acute 15 degree angle rather than the 30 to 45 degree levels of most other draw hoes.

Because Half Moon Hoes are optimized for a single function they outperform other draw hoes by a wide measure. The 9-inch model is for gardens with average to wide inner-plant spacing. The 5-inch model is for tighter plantings, such as bio-French or Chinese-intensive gardens. The medium size head option ends up between 6-7" and is hand cut to size.

There are three ordering options:

• Choose a handle length based on your height or order the solid socket head with no handle.
• Choose style of connection: forged solid socket (riveted) or tang and ferrule (riveted)
• Choose head size: standard small (same size as hand tool, 5 1/2 to 6" wide), standard medium (slightly larger 7" in width, less common), standard large (typically 9" in width). Custom head sizes available, please get in touch for more information.