Carol at May Dreams Gardens recently held a contest to win a new CobraHead hand hoe. The CobraHead company very generously awarded CobraHead Weeder and Cultivators (hand hoes) to all entrants. I received by CobraHead over the weekend. Today I had the chance to compare the CobraHead hoe head to head with two of my old favorite hoes.
This is the CobraHead hoe.
This is my Old Hoe, type and brand unknown, bought cheaply at a big box retailer years ago.
This is my other favorite hoe, the Hand Hoe. Pictured is the left handed version. I usually use a right handed version but this was the one available for photographing today.
First the Beauty Contest.
The CobraHead is nice and new, with an epoxy coating on the blade and a handle of recycled plastic strengthened with flax.
My Old Hoe has a dirty head that has lasted for years and years and stayed sharp with little (or more likely no) sharpening.
I don't have a clue what the handle is made from but it has lasted well.
My Hand Hoe has also lasted for years and is starting to show wear. It frequently has dirty nails (I cleaned it up for the shoot).
The winner here is undoubtably the CobraHead. It's sleek, it's sexy, it's clean!
The Googly Eye Contest (if you haven't seen the googly eye Christopher Walken SNL plant skit watch it here!).
The CobraHead just cried out for googly eyes on the head.
My Old Hoe also looks interesting with googly eyes, both in profile
and face on.
My Hand Hoe does not look good with googly eyes.
The winner of the Googly Eyes portion of the competition? The CobraHead comes in First, with the Old Hoe a close Second and the Hand Hoe a distant third.
Testing for Function.
Fortunately I had a few weeds available for testing. First up, the CobraHead.
My soil is very loose and I found that when following directions I pushed the head deeper into the soil than needed. This may be self correcting with practice.
Next up, the Old Hoe.
Notice how small the hole it leaves is.
Last up, the Hand Hoe.
Notice how little it disturbs the soil despite removing the roots.
Hands down the Hand Hoe worked quickly and efficiently in my loose garden soil, second place goes to the Old Hoe with the CobraHead leaving a lot of disturb soil in its wake.
Next test - grass removal.
OK, so only the Old Hoe works here.
The Old Hoe also works for digging small planting holes and can be used to cut small to moderate sized tree roots.
Final results? I'll probably go on using my hands to pull small weeds, the Old Hoe for removing grass under shrubs and around perennials where I didn't pull enough out before planting and I'll try the CobraHead a few more times before hanging it up in the garage. Maybe I'll figure out how to use it effectively. Maybe not. I suspect this hoe would work much better in heavy clay type soils.
This is the CobraHead hoe.
This is my Old Hoe, type and brand unknown, bought cheaply at a big box retailer years ago.
This is my other favorite hoe, the Hand Hoe. Pictured is the left handed version. I usually use a right handed version but this was the one available for photographing today.
First the Beauty Contest.
The CobraHead is nice and new, with an epoxy coating on the blade and a handle of recycled plastic strengthened with flax.
My Old Hoe has a dirty head that has lasted for years and years and stayed sharp with little (or more likely no) sharpening.
I don't have a clue what the handle is made from but it has lasted well.
My Hand Hoe has also lasted for years and is starting to show wear. It frequently has dirty nails (I cleaned it up for the shoot).
The winner here is undoubtably the CobraHead. It's sleek, it's sexy, it's clean!
The Googly Eye Contest (if you haven't seen the googly eye Christopher Walken SNL plant skit watch it here!).
The CobraHead just cried out for googly eyes on the head.
My Old Hoe also looks interesting with googly eyes, both in profile
and face on.
My Hand Hoe does not look good with googly eyes.
The winner of the Googly Eyes portion of the competition? The CobraHead comes in First, with the Old Hoe a close Second and the Hand Hoe a distant third.
Testing for Function.
Fortunately I had a few weeds available for testing. First up, the CobraHead.
My soil is very loose and I found that when following directions I pushed the head deeper into the soil than needed. This may be self correcting with practice.
Next up, the Old Hoe.
Notice how small the hole it leaves is.
Last up, the Hand Hoe.
Notice how little it disturbs the soil despite removing the roots.
Hands down the Hand Hoe worked quickly and efficiently in my loose garden soil, second place goes to the Old Hoe with the CobraHead leaving a lot of disturb soil in its wake.
Next test - grass removal.
OK, so only the Old Hoe works here.
The Old Hoe also works for digging small planting holes and can be used to cut small to moderate sized tree roots.
Final results? I'll probably go on using my hands to pull small weeds, the Old Hoe for removing grass under shrubs and around perennials where I didn't pull enough out before planting and I'll try the CobraHead a few more times before hanging it up in the garage. Maybe I'll figure out how to use it effectively. Maybe not. I suspect this hoe would work much better in heavy clay type soils.
I wish that I had seen this post earlier since I ordered both the long handled cobrahead and the short one. So far I have only used the long handled hoe with ease as a scuffle hoe, but haven't had the need to try out the little one. Maybe I can regift it to someone ;)
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