Monday, August 31, 2009

Hori Hori R.I.P. #1

I'll start off with one of the more unusual applications I have discovered for the Hori Hori: hedging-residue-buildup-scraper.
During hedging season, the only enemies standing between myself and a successful day of clipping hedges are sharpening and cleaning. Sharpening for obvious reasons: even the best made hedge shears will succumb to hours upon consecutive hours of blade-dulling action and nothing is more frustrating than making a series of well-placed cuts only to find out that nothing has, in fact, been cut.
Less obvious is the not-so-slow buildup of mashed leaf bits (I could wax plant-physiological here and throw out some speculations as to which cell parts are most likely to stick to a blade, but ultimately it's just mashed, smashed plant matter) which accumulates along a certain axis of each cutting blade. This accumulation is somewhat sticky and serves to slow down the speed of my cuts, to mess up the timing and placement of my cuts (thus messing up the shape of a given hedge) and to reduce me to a livid, cursing, anthropomorphizing singularity of gardening rage.
There is no way to traditionally "clean" this residue off of the shears, it responds only to physical force (steel wool, wire brush, etc.) and even then only moderately. One day, when my steel brush was bent and flattened beyond all use, I decided to try scraping the flat edge of my hori hori knife against the blade of the shears and, lo-and-behold, gunk gone! Score one for Hori Hori!

2 comments:

  1. Is there a Hori Hori giveaway at the end of this series?

    I just tagged you in a meme; read my current post for more info and compliments.

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  2. DP - There would be a Hori Hori giveaway, but since I was stupid enough to lose the one with which I was entrusted (owned by my company, not by me) I am forced to purchase a replacement out of my own pocket and these babies aren't cheap. Instead, maybe I will giveaway one of those toy plastic trowels as a symbolic reminder of how inferior all other weeding implements are.

    p.s. Thanks so much for the tag, as always I appreciate your publicity and generosity.

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