CobraHead® Original Weeder & Cultivator Garden Hand Tool – Forged Steel Blade – Recycled Plastic Handle – Ergonomically Designed for Digging, Edging & Planting – Gardeners Love Our Most Versatile Tool

This tool is the closest thing to make weeding fun. Why does it work so well? What makes a weed a weed? It’s because of a root system that is larger than most plants, that is why it is so invasive. It hogs the ground. This tool makes it easy to snag the root system of a plant and pull it out of the ground. Fortunately it is well made. It is so effective, I often use it to tackle much larger jobs such as removing small tree roots and clumps of guinea grass around 10″ in diameter. For the latter, I work the tool head around the periphery of the root clump, breaking roots inward, until I can use the tool as a pry bar to pull the root clump out of the ground. Here are the pros and cons of this tool:Pros:1. A simple design, which is the most effective for weeding. I tried conventional weeding tools, but this is my go-to tool.2. Forged tool head is strong. I work in soil with a lot of rocks and the steel is high quality and the spade head resists chipping and marring when I accidentally hit rocks. I also have not broken the shaft when tacking larger jobs although I can feel it bend. The super sharp, high carbon steel Japanese imports also work well, but they are designed for the perfect soils in Japan: rich and loamy, with nary a rock or stone in it. Using those finesse tools in the soil I have will chip and dull the tools in no time.Cons:1. Using this tool is really hard on the back. For most effective use you have to bend your back at a 90 degree angle to your legs to allow you to hook and pull up weeds as you move around the yard. After 45′ of weeding, my back is killing me! They do make a long handle version so you can stand upright but I prefer to get closer in for more control while weeding.2. The manufacturer really should make a larger version 2x the size of this tool. There is a long handle version but guess what? It uses the same size head as the single hand tool. A larger tool head would make it much easier when users inevitably tackle larger jobs due to the effectiveness of this tool.3. The manufacturer seems unaware of something known in the metalworking industry as ‘threadlockers’. To prevent the set screw on the long handle version from working loose frequently you can use a medium threadlocker such as LocTite Blue. It is used in the automotive industry to prevent nuts and bolts from loosening due to vibration. If you do need to break it loose for repair, it can be done with some effort, but nothing unmanageable (don’t use LocTite Red, as that requires heating the part to 200 degrees F to loosen).4. The tool is a bit pricey (but worth the price).Update: I am glad Cobrahead uses good steel in this tool, because I don’t know how many times I’ve hit rocks in the soil when using it. I also had to pry out fiddleback fern growing between stones in a stone wall (to transfer to soil). I hit the stones so hard trying to get under the roots, that I saw sparks on several occasions. Despite all this, the tool head still holds it’s edge well.