Old garden tools need not to be thrown

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Old garden tools are, in many instances, better than new ones and even if a handle is no longer, even for a trowel, in the best of states there are ways of rescuing them.

This I did recently with a very old garden trowel were the top of the handle had a rather large crack in it and also where at other places the wood was a little, or a little more even, rough and cracked.

Initially I tried to use sugru to fill the crack of the handle and then cap it with the same material but, alas, because of the state of the crack this did not work. So a couple of experiments later I filled it with Gorilla Glue and this entirely repaired the crack and, as the glue hardens to such an extent that it can also be sanded the handle was almost as good as new at that area. I could, I know, have used the traditional method of repairing cracks in wood, such as wood glue mixed with sawdust but I neither had sawdust not wood glue to hand.

Then came sugru into use as a cap over the crack and at the bottom end where the trowel is fitted into the handle and, voila, it is, once again, a useable trowel that is also safe for the hands of the user.

Often all it takes to make an old handle useable again and safe so as not to end up with splinters is to sand it down and wax or oil lit but applying sugru at certain points makes it still better and, at the same time, makes it look a little more colorful and that way it can also be spotted easier when put down.

I could have added also, as the picture below shows, grip improvements but am quite happy with the way it is as it is now though.

I am sure I will find some more tools to repair and improve with use of sugru (and by other means) as there is really no need, in most cases, to ditch those old tools for new ones; none whatsoever.

Old tools often are much better quality and better design than many of the cheap and cheerful modern ones; and the cheap is in quality only and not in price more often than not.

© 2014