permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Fw: "Women in Farming"
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003 23:04:58 -0800
From: Lawrence F. London, Jr. <lfl@INTREX.NET>
Reply-To: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group 
<SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
Organization: http://market-farming.com  --  Venaura Farm
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Kathy Carter-White wrote:

> Jane,
> I've thought (not too long, though) about creating a line of womens'
> tools.  Like carpentry, farming is a part of the "Secret Society of Men"

Farming is for anyone willing to go and do it. Plenty of men who will only
do labor intensive farming; I for one can't get near any fossilfuelpowered 
equipment
because of fuel & exhaust fumes. I contract out any tractor work on my land 
but I own the implements I want used on it.
My latest experiment is putting a double set of hilling discs on a 7' 3 pt. 
hitch toolbar and am thinking of addding a pair pf Yeomans
Keyline plows on either side between the hilling discs - all for wide/deep 
raised bed formation - usually created in 3 successsive passes.
I then have permanent no till biointensive raised beds requiring little or no 
further tractor work. Its hand labor from that point on.

I have been thinking about designing and fabricating conventional and special 
purpose hand tools for working such raised beds but of very
high quality and durability. I have seen and own most of the best hand tools 
currently offered (see my gardening hand tool sourcelist
for more info: http://market-farming.com/gardening-hand-tools.faq. Many of 
these tools can be made better with greater functionality and
durability with much better ergonomics.

What special features, if any, would be worth incorporating in the following 
gardening tools so they would be better suited for use by women?

digging fork
garden fork
spade fork
border fork & spade
garden spade
tools for making small furrows for seed planting
digging spade
hoes of all sorts, especially eye hoes
ridge making hoe
hoes with prongs or tines
digging bars
planting bars
dibbles
hoedad (tree planting bar)
potato digger
manure hook (like a big potato digger)
hay fork
manure or compost fork
tilthing fork

Are there any other types of handtools that could be redesigned so as to be 
more useful,
or any new designs worth refining and fabricating?

Lately I have been thinking about making:

1) a new wide bed digger/tilther, like the conventional U-Bar digger
   milled and heat treated tool steel tapered, flat bladed, replacable tines
   fastened to stainless square tube stock bar with stainless handles
   rustproof, almost unbreakable and as lightweight as possible
   could be made in a variety of widthts and tine lengths; the smaller 
versions could be
   as useful as 4 or 5 tine digging forks (like the Bulldog available from 
England)

2) digging bar (for tilthing/prepping hard ground)

3) various sises and shapes of dibbles made of high carbon, tool or abrasion 
resistant steel
    that can accept a variety of wooden handles, short, medium, long, 
straight or curved

4) eye hoes of milled, ground tempered tool steel - various widths and 
tapered down to edge
    - swaged socket (eye) to receive a standard 1 3/4" railroad handle, long 
or short

5) small hand scythes of tempered high carbon or tool steel, wooden handles;
   similar to ones used in Indonesia & the Phillipines for rice harvest to 
coconut opening
   and more - amazing designs, worth reproducing


LL
--
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech