Fokin hoe: Author tips

Ploskorez (Fokin hoe, flat-cutter) - permaculture tool from Russia

The most important thing in the original tool is the quality of metal. Jenuine Fokin hoe (ploskorez, flat-cutter) is made of structural spring steel (steel grade 65G), which has undergone special processing - annealing, hardening, tempering and sharpening.

Flat-cutter user manual

* The basic principle of working with a flat-cutter is to move it parallel to the surface of the soil. Quite often this rule is violated, and the gardener rightly resents: "What is the point in it? It's an ordinary chopper, only the price is higher!"...

* The tool should be fitted for yourself, considering your height and working arm (right or left). To do this, change the angle of inclination of the blade - directly or at an angle - using fixing bolts and holes. Proper adjustment of the tool does not allow the gardener to bend over too much, and the tool blade cannot be immersed heavily in the ground.

* The handle for flat-cutter must be FLAT! Flat handle allows you to fit the flat-cutter at different angles for various jobs.

* The blade needs to be sharpened regularly. It is easier and 2 times more efficient to work with a sharpened blade! When sharpening, be careful not to round the sharpening angles.

* Keep your back straight, your body slightly tilt

* Hold handle so that your thumbs "look" up.

Every time you go to the garden - pick up a flat-cutter! To understand the charm of this tool, you need to work with it constantly! Look for the desired and convenient length of the handle, angle of the blade fitting. Watch yourself!

Flat-cutter soil treatment features

1. The main thing you should respect scrupulously is not to walk in the beds. Neither in spring, nor in summer, nor in autumn. Even in winter. You stepped twice in one place - the soil is not what it used to be. The bed for us is a magic tablecloth. A Shrine. 

2. When they dig or plow the soil, weeds fall into the very bottom of the furrow and do not grow for a long time. But closer to the middle of summer they pop up densely and take their own.

When you treat the soil with a flat-cuter, the roots of weeds remain in the upper layer (excepting for wheatgrass and some others). During spring loosening, weeds that protrude earlier than others fall under the blade of a flat-cutter and either are inverted with the root, or are pruned, or destroyed in the "thread" stage. Loosening stimulates the remaining weeds in the ground, and they grow earlier. Thus, the main weed control moves to an earlier period. The rest of the time the land plot is free of weeds.

In the land plot treated with a flat-cutter, the next wave of weeds appears by the end of summer. At that time, they are no longer able to compete with overgrown cultivated plants. After harvesting when preparing the soil for siderat sowing, such weeds are easily destroyed by a flat-cutter.

For more details please check this article.(video available)

The strongest option of flat-cutter (ploskorez, Fokin hoe), made of titanium, so that it can work lifelong. It is rust-proof and 1.7 times lighter than a similar flat-cutter made from iron. Titanium blade keeps sharpening for a long time. And it has one more important feature: the pieces of soil do not stick to the blade, and therefore there is no need for constant cleaning. Place an order here: https://ecominded.net/flat-cutter-titan

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