๐ One Useful Gift: Hori-Hori Weeding & Digging Knife
A special holiday issue of One Useful Thing.
One Useful Thing is a weekly newsletter of well-designed and helpful things.
A Japanese Hori-Hori, or soil knife, is a great gift for the gardener in your life. Itโs also a good gift for those of us who grudgingly do yard work.
The Nisaku Hori-Hori has a 7 1/4โ stainless steel blade that is concave, making it ideal for digging and prying. The edges, one smooth and one serrated, are sharp for cutting and sawing.
This thing is fun to use. I enjoy strolling around the garden hunting newly sprouted weeds, coffee (or wine) in hand. I poke the Hori-Hori into the soil near the weed and tilt it back. The weed pops right out.
This fall I planted one hundred tulip bulbs around our yard. The Nisaku Hori-Horiโs inch markings made it easy to plant them at the right depth. With a few jabs into the soil, I was able to make larger holes for groups of bulbs.
A Hori-Hori is useful for much more than weeding. It is perfect for digging small holes, cutting small branches, removing plants, and splitting perennials. Iโve even used it as a makeshift hand axe for chopping tough roots.
I have the $22 US stainless steel model and itโs held up well. Nisaku also has a hardened HRC58 steel option for about twice the price.
Keith Monaghan writes the One Useful Thing newsletter and is a researcher who works with creative teams on projects for companies like Nike, The CW Network and Upworthy. Just reply to this email to get in touch or follow him on Twitterย @keithmonaghan
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