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Toss: Ames hoe/cultivator combo

Thin cheap steel with welds next to a stress riser does not make a good garden tool. The Ace Hardware tool is better and cheaper.

I bought this three-prong garden tiller-cultivator to help rip out the vine roots in my back yard. The tines can get under the clumpy rhizome root. Most time I use the flat spade side, but I do remember using the tines. I don't remember ever bending the tines past their elastic limit, so I am pretty bummed this thing broke after a few years.

On the Home Depot website people do complain about the handle breaking. My solution was to get a better product from Ace Hardware. And the Ace Hardware one is six bucks cheaper. Ace, the helpful hardware man, ahhh, person, ahhh, human, ahhh bag of protoplasm.

The tool was nice since the spade side could chop the vine roots up, while the tines can pull them up. I had 28 years of these to dig up.
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I did a "Keep" blog post about the Bond tool.

You can see the tines are bent badly.. . A Cheeze Alert has been issued. The Ace Hardware product is all metal, with better welds and much more solid.

It looks to be a classic fatigue crack from thin metal of poor quality. . You can see the older rusted crack and then the fresh metal crack where it just gave out. . It is just so sad to see the tines bent over and failing. I never put a foot on this in abuse. For big vine roots I got out the pick-axe.

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A guy in the comments at the Home Depot says the UPC label says it's made in China. Some would say it is made from Chinesium. First wave Chinese stuff is junk, but modern designs are much much better.
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I would not print my name on this tool.
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Here is the Home Depot Ames tool (left) next to the Ace Hardware Bond tiller (right)..The Bond tool is heavier, and feels much more solid, despite being over six bucks cheaper.

A side view of the two tiller-cultivator-hoe-gizmos. The Bond tool is longer, I prefer it. . The vine roots are gone, I was digging up some ferns when the Home Depot tool broke.. . No saving this junk, good riddance.

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Toss: Ames hoe/cultivator combo

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