Last year Matt complained about one of our hoes not holding up to our gardening demands in a video. Several folks suggested we check out the garden hoes made by Rogue Hoe Distributing.
The company was started by Larry and Phyllis Pierce and is located in the Missouri Ozarks. Since 2006 they’ve made quality hand-crafted hoes that are supposed to last a lifetime. They also make implements for fire fighters and trail builders.
Here’s a bit from their website.
“Each hoe is hand-crafted – 100% made in the USA – from recycled agricultural disc blades. Each tool boasts a high grade tempered steel and most models are sharpened on 3 sides. They DO hold an edge! From garden, field, and scuffle hoes to trail-building, firefighter, and flooring tools, Rogue Hoe offers a distinguished selection sure to please. Thousands of Rogue Hoes are used by cotton growers and sugar beet and grape producers throughout the US and Canada. They’re also used on large commercial vegetable farms, college research farms and backyard gardens.”
Matt picked out the two garden hoes you see in the photo. He wanted to try a smaller size head and I’m sure glad he did! They are much easier for me to use. I do prefer the more traditional hoe shape, but the narrow one works well in certain situations.
We used the hoes throughout the garden season last year and have used them this year. We both really like them. There are times Matt prefers to use one of our full size hoes. Rogue makes full size hoe too, although we haven’t purchased one.
The only thing Matt didn’t like was an easy fix. He sanded off the varnish and applied a coat of boiled linseed oil. Seems like they fit our hands better that way and varnish can sometimes blister your skin.
There’s an old piece of folklore that says if two people’s hoes hit they’ll work in the same garden together next year.
After I learned about it several years ago I made sure to run around and clank hoes with anyone who was working with me in the garden. Matt teased me about it back then, but today he’ll often hit my hoe as we work side by side growing food for our family.
You can visit the Rogue website here.
Tipper
Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox
I’m a little late responding, but I have owned a Rogue garden hoe for many years, at least 15 years. I highly recommend them and hoping to get one a little larger sometime, mine is the narrow one about 4″ wide. My next one will be what I call a “regular ” garden hoe.
Rubbing dirt on your hands will prevent blisters and slippage from a polished finish. You are going to get your hands dirty anyway, why not start out that way.
The dirt will wear away to finish quickly and you will forget it was ever a problem.
hoes?
Those garden hoes look like good ones, and it’s great that they are made in the USA. My hubby uses a very old one that belonged to his grandpap. It is kinda heavy for me. They were made so sturdy way back when. Actually we use a garden rake a lot too…loosening up the soil between rows when you don’t want to get out the tiller. Thanks Tipper. As always, I enjoyed this post and everyone’s comments. Randy gave us all some good information about Amish-made garden hoes too. Have a great rest of your day everyone.
Sweet story of you and Matt clanking hoes together as y’all work side by side in garden.
My favorite hoe is the Push Pull Hoe by Hoss! Easy for me to handle and made it the USA!
I have a hoe from the early 1950s made by Blue Grass. Growing up in west Tn. in 40s and 50s, on a farm I had a lot of experience using a hoe chopping cotton. The hoe I have has been filed down over the years until it is about 2 inches tall but is good for flower beds. The problem I have with the modern hoe is the handles are too short about 4 feet. The hoe I have has a handle of 5 foot and is the original. The length means you can stand fairly erect and not kill your back as on the 4 foot.
In the late 40s and early 50s sometimes you could not hire enough choppers in the neighborhood. There were people from Memphis that would contract to furnish choppers, They would be transported in old school buses in W. Tn., N E Ark. and N. Ms. The farmer would furnish the hoes and water. Daddy would have an extra sharpened hoe that he would swap out for a dull one , resharpen and swap out for another dull one keeping a sharp hoe in the hands of the choppers. Daddy was a master in sharpening farm tools but could never sharpen a knife for some reason.
I can tell some very good stories about hoes and their use and my brother has written some true stories about the people from Memphis who chopped cotton. By the way the choppers were paid $3.00 per day and the bus owner paid .50 cents per individual that rode the bus. The bus driver usually did not do any chopping.
Herman, my Daddy was born in 1922, and raised on a sharecropper farm. I never head him mentioned a Blue Grass hoe but he thought that both the Blue Grass and Kelly axe (made by True Temper?) were the two best you could buy back in those days. I would think this would hold true for their other items.
I notice the edge on those tools. I would love to see y’all do a video on how y’all sharpen your garden tools, blades, pocket knives etc…. No one taught me when I was growing up, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Of course I can watch all kinds of videos from other places, but I just love seeing how y’all demonstrate and explain things.
Tipper, I bought a Rogue hoe last year after seeing you and Matt work the big garden. They’re a little more expensive but you get what you pay for! The only negative thing is there’s know one around to clank hoes with!!!
Have a great day.
Good morning, Tipper. Back in the day the hoes we & those in our community used were like the narrower one you show. I don’t recall ever seeing the wider one. I love the saying of two people’s hoes hitting means they will garden together again the next year. How ‘romantic.’ Keep clanging those hoes Matt & Tipper!!! 🙂
When my siblings and I divided my parents’ personal property after they passed away, my mom’s antique hoe was one of the items I requested. It had the longest handle I’ve ever seen on a gardening tool. I didn’t get to use it very long, as my ex-husband took it with just about everything else we owned when we divorced. I’m sure glad I didn’t hit hoes with him! Thank you for sharing the Rogue website.
Thanks! Always appreciate good recommendations. I’ve been picking up garden tools from an antique mall. Unfortunately, I don’t have your husband’s refurbish skills but they’re made much better and cost a lot less than new ones at the hardware store. I think they’re sold more for decoration and memorabilia but I have been able to find workable tools. Thanks again. Sounds like an interesting website,too.
Those hoes do look like well made tools. I’m going to check out Rogue Hoes.
Is clanking ya’lls hoes together similar to clanking ya’lls popsicles together? If so, you & Matt will sit in the same yard eating popsicles together next year. I love that! 🙂
Nice to hear about a company that still cares about producing a quality product. I like that they recycle the old disk blades too. And I always enjoy hearing the bits of folklore too.
Thank goodness there are still people making quality things. Sounds like a lot of people have taken notice to. I get so aggravated at stuff stamped out and not made to last. (I wonder, Matt, if those disc blades would make good knife blade steel.) I suspect the reason varnish cause blisters is that it doesn’t let your skin glide but rather rubs it. The way Matt did those handles will get polished more and more. I’ll be checking Rogue out. Anything to do with agriculture interests me, I reckon.
Is this an ad for rogue hoes?
Ed, it is a post sharing what hoes we like. If you’re asking if Rogue paid me to write it the answer is no they did not. I wrote it because so many people ask us about the hoes we use and I love sharing old folklore 🙂 As far as ads go I don’t have a problem with them. It takes a lot of time and money to have a blog, website, or YouTube channel. Ads provide payment for creators and writers while allowing readers and viewers to have free access.
I didn’t mean to make you mad?
Ed-you didn’t make me mad 🙂 I just wanted to thoroughly explain in case someone else was wondering the same thing.
I don’t have a problem with ads either as long as folks are forewarned that is what it is. I having been reading your blog from almost the beginning and honestly feel that I have done so because you had no ads. I feel that your blog has survived as long as it has for the same reason. My one and only reason for asking the question as I did is because I fear waking up one morning and finding my motivation for the day has become an infomercial.
I have heard the take about hitting two hoes together. I am not able to do much hoeing these days, but when I do, I often use a hoe with the head shaped like an arrowhead. It is probably made by True Temper and not of the quality of the ones made by Rogue. Lehman’s of Ohio sells two hoes made by the Amish. Theirs are handmade from the large sawblades used in the sawmills. They have a catalog that cost $6 and is full of non electric items and new things that were used in the past. Their store caters to the Amish people.
Thanks for sharing. That is quite the variety of heavy duty garden tools!
Dad had a wide hoe with two holes for mixing cement that I liked to use. ( I really didn’t like being in the fields working. I’d rather be down at the creek fishing or swimming. But, there was less wear and tear on my backside if I spent time in the field and garden.)I could go through the row getting the wide places clean and then use the smaller hoe to get the weeds that were close to the plant and pull fresh dirt up around the plants.
Jackie, a keen hickory switch and a dose of hickory tee, was a good motivator for encouraging reluctant kids to work in those gardens. Unlike today when kids are ASK to do something, kids of our generation were TOLD, as you said doing what you were told saved a lot of wear and tear on your rear end. I thank God for for the work ethics taught to me by parents, they sure made my “blue collar” life better.
You brought back a memory. Years ago, I was told about hitting hoes and you would work together next year.
We have had trouble find good hoes. Thanks.
That is so sweet! Clanking y’all’s hoes together.