A short line of tools for a small plot.

Yard Loam sells hand tools for a plot you can reach without a shed: a balcony, a yard, an allotment strip, a raised bed behind a kitchen. The bench holds twelve pieces and no more. A forged hand trowel at 280 g. A narrow transplanting spade at 420 g with a brass ferrule over the socket. A bypass pruner that closes on a 20 mm green stem. A three-tine weeding fork, a five-tine rake, a deep soil scoop, a turned ash dibber with rings every 2 cm, garden scissors, a galvanised 5 L can with a brass rose, a mesh trug, a tin twine dispenser and a pair of seed trays.

Carbon steel, not stainless

Most heads are high-carbon steel. It takes a keener bevel — we grind a single bevel at roughly 20 degrees — and it holds that edge through grit and clay instead of skating over the surface. The trade is rust: carbon steel will spot if you put it away wet. Stainless appears only where a thin, springy blade matters more than keenness. The garden scissors carry a stainless blade; the pruner carries an SK5 blade in an aluminium body. Neither is a substitute for a sharp carbon head in soil.

Forged heads and the socket

A forged head is hammered to shape and then ground. A pressed head is stamped from sheet and bent. The difference shows at the socket, the collar where the head takes the handle. Forged steel is thicker where the load lands, so a trowel can be levered through heavy soil without the neck opening up or the tang working loose. The transplanting spade adds a brass ferrule over that socket for a second bearing surface. Every head is weighed at final inspection; a tool that drifts more than 10 g off the approved sample goes back to the bench.

Ash handles and re-handling

Handles are ash, oiled and sanded to 320 grit, with FSC hardwood where the drawing calls for a denser grain. Ash runs long and straight, which lets it absorb a shock load instead of shearing at the tang. The tang is pinned into the socket, not glued, so a handle can be drilled out and replaced. We hold blanks for the trowel, fork, rake and scoop; write with the SKU and we will quote a replacement. A tool you can re-handle is a tool you keep.

How a lot is approved

Stock is bought in small lots. Three samples arrive first. We weigh them, measure the bevel with a protractor, fit the handle and cut wet and dry stems before any lot runs. At packing we check 200 pieces per lot for socket play, ferrule tightness and handle straightness, and every carbon-steel head is oiled. Surface rust on a stored tool is a maintenance question. A cracked socket, a snapped tang or a detached ferrule is a fault, and we replace it.

The seller, and what we refuse

This site is operated by XiNUo-D Trading Co., Limited. We do not hold a season of stock back to call it scarcity, we do not drop-ship from a third party, and we do not sell unbranded tools under a Yard Loam label. Nothing on this site takes a card: you enquire, we confirm stock and price in writing, and the invoice follows.

What to expect

Enquiries are answered within one working day, Hong Kong time. Tools are wrapped in oiled paper, heads sleeved, and boxed so an ash handle is never levered against a steel head. The returns page carries the 14-day window and the return address. If a blade lands blunt or bent, or a handle arrives split, photograph it the day it arrives and we replace it.