Small Gardening MT

[MultiMat]

I was doing some relaxing browsing at the hardware store a week or so ago & my eye caught a MT hanging on a hook in the garden tool section. It was only $20aus (MT's in OZ are normally very pricey), I thought, be wrong to leave the poor old faded thing hanging there  .


Spear & Jackson is a English company I think. The tool & packaging had no mention were it was made. I think it is a Chinese made tool. The handles feel like they are rubber coated  .Packaging stated 10 year warranty.




It took me a minute or two to work out why I could not fold the tool up to its original compact form . I had not noticed the pruners lock  . Crude but effective.


2 blades seem handy enough , 1 conventional the other looks like a grafting style blade.


Not sure how handy a can opener is in a garden tool  & I guess you could say the corkscrew would be handy for undoing nots  . I would prefer a awl instead personally. The saw surprised me, it worked well for me whilst I cut some shoots sprouting from a tree trunk under a deck. It was cramped & the compact size was perfect.



Pros
-Great compact size , perfect for pocket carry in the garden
-Pruners worked really well on green foliage
-Saw worked well for light duty sawing

Cons
-Handles suffer from sharp edge palm trauma syndrome. Rounded edges would've been nice
-Choice of can opener & cork screw as tools in a garden, MT odd.   

[Neil]

Yep S&J are a UK outfit but I think we can safely assume that tool came from another part of the globe.    My wife does the gardening, the only time I venture out there is when she requires grunt work... "Neil make the raised bed",  "Neil fetch the sand out the boot", "Neil paint the fence".... "Yes mistress"

I have to buy her a new pair of secateurs every other year as she's great at killing them

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

In her defence most secateurs are crap these days

Not bad for 20 bucks mate

[J-sews]

Very considerate of you Mat to bring the poor lost lamb home to the rest of your flock. Only two blades? I take it there must be some considerable spacers in that handle as well. Come to think of it, Bear is quite heavy on the spacers and light on the blade count in their shears tools. Leatherman too for that matter. Why is it do you suppose that no one does a full tool loadout in their shears multis?

[Neil]

Very considerate of you Mat to bring the poor lost lamb home to the rest of your flock. Only two blades? I take it there must be some considerable spacers in that handle as well. Come to think of it, Bear is quite heavy on the spacers and light on the blade count in their shears tools. Leatherman too for that matter. Why is it do you suppose that no one does a full tool loadout in their shears multis?

Because ..

a) Their mean
b) With a lot of sand and particulate mater around having greater clearance between tools may be a good thing?

[J-sews]

Very considerate of you Mat to bring the poor lost lamb home to the rest of your flock. Only two blades? I take it there must be some considerable spacers in that handle as well. Come to think of it, Bear is quite heavy on the spacers and light on the blade count in their shears tools. Leatherman too for that matter. Why is it do you suppose that no one does a full tool loadout in their shears multis?

Because ..

a) Their mean
b) With a lot of sand and particulate mater around having greater clearance between tools may be a good thing?

Wow, that actually has a sensible ring to it

[Neil]

Very considerate of you Mat to bring the poor lost lamb home to the rest of your flock. Only two blades? I take it there must be some considerable spacers in that handle as well. Come to think of it, Bear is quite heavy on the spacers and light on the blade count in their shears tools. Leatherman too for that matter. Why is it do you suppose that no one does a full tool loadout in their shears multis?

Because ..

a) Their mean
b) With a lot of sand and particulate mater around having greater clearance between tools may be a good thing?

Wow, that actually has a sensible ring to it

Sorry 

What I meant to say of course was...

a) Their mean
b) The fairies at the bottom of the garden steal the extra tools 

[Mr. Whippy]

First:

Matt, you obviously don't know the proper way of gardening.  If there isn't a sixer of cold malted beverage nearby, then you're just not doing it right.

Second:

I had to look up secateurs.    Is Secate a verb?  Does one secate with secateurs?  I know what I do with pruners....

[Neil]

Heck knows, its probably latin     Me I just use them to lop off the wrong bits of plants

[MultiMat]

I have to buy her a new pair of secateurs every other year as she's great at killing them

Neil ya cheap bast#rd you need to get the good lady a LM Genus  
BTW our secateurs tend to be left outside & get a bit of 'weathering'

Very considerate of you Mat to bring the poor lost lamb home to the rest of your flock. Only two blades? I take it there must be some considerable spacers in that handle as well. Come to think of it, Bear is quite heavy on the spacers and light on the blade count in their shears tools. Leatherman too for that matter. Why is it do you suppose that no one does a full tool loadout in their shears multis?

Felt right to rescue the wee unloved  tool  
Spacers, I had wondered that very issue Bob , but in the tool design's defence most of the pruners bulk goes into the blade handle side taking up most of the unused space , quite clever really. Cleverness is offset by the poor use of corkscrew & can opener on the other side.I think the big plus with this little oddity is it is a true compact MT.LM's garden/hunting MT's are a challenge to pocket carry  

Here is some pics Bob


Blade side, BIG spacers but...............


It does accommodate the lion share of the pruner  

First:

Matt, you obviously don't know the proper way of gardening.  If there isn't a sixer of cold malted beverage nearby, then you're just not doing it right.

Whipper man I hear you loud & clear mate   , but provisional assessment of the cap lifter/can opener tool (I have not tried it yet   ) have not been favourable.It looks like it is meant to be a can opener more than a cap lifter , but I suspect it would suck mightily at both  

 

[Gareth]

Nice review Mat.  Oddly I always thing of S&G as makers of garden tools and rather good saws, although they do a pretty complete range of other tools as well.  I doubt they had much of a hand in making this though.

[Chako]

That is weird enough that I like it.
Corkscrew on a garden MT. 
I guess one can enjoy the fruits of their labour.

[Neil]

That is weird enough that I like it.
Corkscrew on a garden MT. 
I guess one can enjoy the fruits of their labour.

<groan>