Farm tools and equipment: names, pictures and uses

Why farm tools fail

Almost nothing here fails from cutting or digging. It fails at the join between the handle and the head, because that joint takes every bit of leverage you apply and spends its life getting wet. A tool that survives ten years on a farm is one where that joint was made properly.

The second cause is being left where it was used. A spade in long grass over a winter is a rusted spade with a swollen handle, and a hay fork left in a bale is a hay fork nobody can find. More farm tools are lost to habit than to work.

How to tell a good one from a bad one

You can judge most of this in the shop, by looking at how the tool is put together rather than what it costs.

Look at the socket, not the blade

A solid socket, where the head wraps fully around the handle, outlasts a tanged one held by a single rivet. On a digging tool this is the difference between a decade and a season.

Ash handles for anything you lever with

Ash flexes and absorbs shock instead of shattering. Fibreglass is fine and lighter, cheap softwood splits the first time you use the tool as a lever, which you will.

Forged beats pressed

A forged head has been beaten into shape and is denser. A pressed one is stamped from sheet and bends when it meets a stone, which in most soil is immediately.

Length is fitted to you, not the job

A handle that makes you stoop will hurt your back within an hour. Long handled tools should reach roughly to your chin when stood upright.

Stainless is easier, carbon steel cuts better

Stainless resists rust and slides through soil cleanly. Carbon steel takes and holds a far better edge on anything that cuts, which is why scythes and sickles are still made from it.

Buy the boring brand

Farm tools are one of the few areas where old designs are already optimal. A plain forged spade from an unglamorous maker will outlive anything with a marketing story.

When a hand tool still wins

Machines have taken over most of the heavy work, and there is no romance in pretending otherwise. But hand tools are still the right answer more often than people expect.

In tight and awkward ground

Between established plants, along a fence line, on a slope. Anywhere a machine cannot reach or would do damage getting there.

When the job is smaller than the setup

For twenty metres of edge, a sickle is finished before a strimmer is fuelled, started and put away again.

When you need to feel what you are doing

Lifting seedlings, splitting clumps, working around roots. A blade you control by hand does not tear what you meant to keep.

When nothing else is running

No fuel, no charge, no starter motor and nothing to service. On a wet morning that is not a small advantage.

What to buy first, in order

For a smallholding or a large plot, this order gets you working soonest and wastes least.

Stage one: ground and carrying

A digging spade, a garden fork, a shovel, a draw hoe, a garden rake and a wheelbarrow. Add stout gloves and boots, because everything here punishes bare hands. That set moves soil, clears ground and carries what you cut.

Stage two: planting and cutting

A hand trowel, a dibber, secateurs, a sickle or grass hook, loppers and a watering can. This is where the work turns from clearing land into growing on it.

Stage three: fencing, livestock and the rest

Post hole digger and rammer, fencing pliers and a wire strainer if you are keeping anything in. Hoof pick and drenching gun if that anything has feet. A knapsack sprayer, a scythe, a soil test kit, as the work demands them.

Mistakes that cost money

Buying a border spade for real digging

The smaller blade looks manageable and simply takes more passes. Match the tool to the ground, not to what feels light in the shop.

Using a fork as a lever on stone

Tines bend and never come back true. A crowbar or a mattock is the tool for anything immovable.

Leaving cutting tools blunt

A blunt sickle or scythe tears grass and doubles the effort. Ten minutes with a stone restores more performance than any new tool would.

Cheap fencing pliers

They round off, then slip, then let go of a strained wire under tension. That is the one failure here with a real chance of injuring you.

Storing tools in the ground

A spade left standing in soil wicks water into the handle. It swells, then shrinks, then the head is loose and the tool is finished.

One size of glove

Thorn work, wire work and handling stock all need different gloves. A single pair means you either shred them or stop wearing them.

Making them last

Farm tools live outdoors and still last decades, provided two habits are kept.

Clean the soil off before putting it away

Soil holds moisture against steel and that is where rust starts. A scrape and a wipe takes seconds and prevents almost all of it.

Oil the steel and the joint

An oily rag over the blade and into the socket keeps water out of the one place that actually fails.

Sharpen digging tools too

A spade with an edge cuts roots instead of bouncing off them. Most people never sharpen one, and it is the single easiest improvement to make.

Keep handles out of the sun

Wood dries and cracks in strong sun as surely as it rots in wet. A shed wall is better than a fence post.

Hang them up

Tools stood on their blades or piled in a corner damage each other, and a hung tool is one you can find in the dark.

Frequently asked questions

What are the basic farm tools every smallholding needs?

A digging spade, a garden fork, a shovel, a draw hoe, a garden rake and a wheelbarrow, plus proper gloves and boots. That handles moving soil, clearing ground and carrying. Planting and cutting tools come next, and fencing kit only when you are keeping stock.

What is the difference between a spade and a shovel?

A spade has a flat, straighter blade for cutting into soil and slicing turf. A shovel has a curved, wider blade with raised sides for scooping and moving loose material. Digging with a shovel is hard work, and moving gravel with a spade spills most of it.

What is the difference between a hoe and a mattock?

A hoe has a light blade for slicing weeds at or just below the surface. A mattock is heavy and swung, with an adze blade for breaking hard ground and often a pick or axe on the other side. One weeds, the other excavates.

What are the main types of farming tools?

They fall into groups by task: ground breaking and digging, weeding and cultivating, raking and levelling, cutting and harvesting, pruning, planting, watering, carrying, fencing, livestock handling, and soil testing. This page is organised in that order.

Do I need a scythe if I have a strimmer?

For small areas or awkward corners, a scythe is often finished before a strimmer is fuelled and started, it makes no noise, and it lays the grass down neatly enough to gather. For large areas repeatedly, the machine wins comfortably.

What is a hori hori used for?

It is a Japanese digging knife with a sharpened, often serrated blade and depth markings. It plants, weeds, divides clumps, saws small roots and cuts twine, which is why many growers carry one instead of a trowel.

How do I stop farm tools rusting?

Clean the soil off before storing, wipe the steel and the socket with an oily rag, and keep the tool under cover rather than standing in the ground. Soil against steel holds water, and that is where nearly all rust begins.

Should farm tool handles be wood or fibreglass?

Ash is the traditional choice because it flexes and absorbs shock, and it can be replaced. Fibreglass is lighter, does not rot and does not need oiling, but when it does fail it fails suddenly. Avoid cheap softwood handles on anything you lever with.

What fencing tools do I actually need?

A post hole digger or an auger, a post rammer, fencing pliers and a wire strainer. The pliers are the one place not to save money, since a cheap pair slipping off strained wire is the most likely way to get hurt on this list.

How often should I sharpen a sickle or scythe?

A scythe wants a few strokes with a stone every ten minutes of mowing, which sounds excessive until you try it. A sickle needs it far less often. Both tear rather than cut once dull, which doubles the work and damages the grass.

What is the difference between a garden fork and a broadfork?

A garden fork is used one handed to lift and turn soil and manure. A broadfork is much wider with two long handles, and you stand on it to loosen deep soil without turning it over, which keeps the soil structure intact.

Are stainless steel farm tools better?

Easier, not better. Stainless resists rust and slides through soil cleanly, which matters on digging tools. For anything that cuts, carbon steel takes and keeps a sharper edge, which is why quality scythes and sickles are still carbon steel.