Tomita Nisaku Sickle Hoe (NejiriKama)

There are some things that just get you so excited you just can't wait to tell random strangers all about it. And so you do, and maybe your wife pretends she doesn't know you. Was it you I was babbling at while you were just getting coffee? Sorry. I just got so excited, and no-one in the house wanted to hear about it any more.It turns out that there's nothing as mentally and spiritually clarifying as a few hours in the garden spent weeding. I was using a Japanese kama (sickle), not exactly an approved use, and was very happy with it. But I wanted something really intended for pounding away with, so I got this.The thing that you notice about this immediately is the quality of the construction. Take a look at the weld between the stainless shank and the hoe/blade: VERY clean, very uniform, no crapola git-r-done impatience. That's one very skilled and patient human welder at work, or the company has invested in high-quality robot welders. I care because this means this tool is going to STAY together.The second thing that hits you is the quality of the edge. Many tools are shipped with a 'factory edge' that depend on a skilled user putting the spit-n-polish on the final dressing. Not so with this one. ONE swing into the earth and roots and....the roots just sort of disappear, you know? Stuff just pops up. A little pull and you get the nasty little freeloader right out of your tomatoes!I was working in my in-laws' New England garden. The soil is mixed and very rocky. After a full weekend of work, I had a couple of nicks in the blade. That's to be expected, and no detraction from the tool. It's a working tool after all, not a fetish object to be coddled and displayed: you gotta sharpen your tools.I would buy this again in a heartbeat and would recommend it to anyone.

The media could not be loaded. The Tomita Nisaku Sickle Hoe is a great little tool for quickly clearing out weeds in smaller gardens. It has a very sturdy feel and the blade is razor sharp. The product came with a clear plastic blade cover with metal snaps to hold it in place. If you are hoping to clear out large garden beds I would recommend a similar product with a longer blade and handle but for smaller jobs this will definitely do the trick.I used it after a period of rain and even though soil started to clump around the blade it still managed to slice right through grass and weeds both small and large with thicker stems without disturbing the top soil too much.Time will tell how durable this garden sickle is but at first glance the weld holding the blade in place seems to have a strong bond. I chose this product after reading reviews from competitor brands complaining of small weak welds with the blade falling off after moderate use. I will update my post if I encounter any issues however as of now I would certainly recommend this product.

I can't say enough good things about the Nejiri hoes! I've tried three different brands offered on Amazon and each one of them proved to be worth 5 stars!! This particular one I thought was well-weighted as a hand tool and when you're using them for any length of time you know why that's important. I'd say it's quite comfortable for my little hand.The reason I purchased different ones is because our dayliy club has raffles at our Regional as well as our regular club meetings and each time I bought one I ended up bagging it up to raffle off until finally I decided to keep one and actually got to use it! Wow--this tool cuts underneath the weeds like a hot knife through butter and I've said the same on another review because I want you to get the visual as it's more than accurate as to what this hoe can do!! The blades are "super-duper" sharp so be careful! What I do when I'm in the garden and not using it at that moment is to drive the point into the soil so there's no accidents. It's not meant to be left lying around so be mindful of that if you have any little ones or inquisitive pets like my two puppies, although they know they're not allowed in Momma's flower beds...Honestly, I am thrilled to have found these Nejiri hoes and I can't imagine anyone who gardens with any frequency not loving them too!!!Happy Gardening!!

This is one serious weed assassination tool. It is small, easy to handle and built for close quarter weed combat. You can work tight in around your good plants and clean out your unwanted weeds. It has become an instant favorite in my weeding tool arsenal along with my Tomita Triangle Hoe. They are both capable of sub-surface scraping but this little guy is for the really close in soft soil cleaning around plants. If you only want or can only justify one of the two, then I'd go for the Triangle Hoe, but if you can, get one of each because they are both different enough and useful enough to justify the extra cost. I added a screw eye to the end of the wooden handle because I like to attach leather strip hanging loops on my small tools. The Triangle Hoe has a hardware loop on the end of it's wood handle from the manufacturer, but this little guy doesn't. One important note: this specific tool is for right handed gardeners and a lefty would not be able to comfortably use it. It is a function of the handle placement and the direction of scraping which is toward the user.