GB2140661A

GB2140661A - Hand-held multi-purpose garden tool

Info

Publication number: GB2140661A
Application number: GB08414027A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Peter R Corbett
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1983-06-03
Filing date: 1984-06-01
Publication date: 1984-12-05
Also published as: GB8414027D0; GB2140661B

Abstract

A multi-purpose garden tool comprises a head assembly (3) mounted at the end of a shaft (1) for pivotal movement about an axis (9) transverse the shaft. The head assembly (3) includes two transverse soil-working members (14, 15) carried between side plates (6) and mutually laterally spaced such as to contact the ground respectively in front of and behind the axis of pivoting of the head assembly (3) as the tool is advanced over the ground. One or both of the soil-working members takes the form of a blade (15). The pivoting of the head assembly (3) on the shaft (1) provides a self-levelling action ensuring that both soil-working members (14, 15) are kept in ground contact. The tool can be used to break down and level soil and to cut surface weeds. The blades (14, 15) may be of inverted V-form and may include small tines to form seed furrows. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Hand-held multi-purpose garden tool The present invention relates to a hand-held multi-purpose garden tool which can be used for operations such as the tilthing and grading of soil, and cutting weeds.

According to the present invention there is provided a hand-held multi-purpose garden tool comprising a head assembly mounted at the end of a shaft for pivotal movement about an axis transverse to the shaft, the head assembly including two transverse soil-working members extending substantially parallel to the pivot axis of the head assembly and mutually laterally spaced such as to contact the ground respectively in front of and behind said pivot axis as the garden tool is moved over the ground, at least one of the soilworking members being in the form of a blade.

The pivoting of the head assembly on the shaft provides a self-levelling action by which the two soilworking members are continuously kept in ground contact, regardless of any unevenness, as the tool is pulled or pushed across the ground.

A tool of this form can be used to break down soil into fine particles (tilthing), to level the soil surface (grading), to remove surface stones, and to cut surface weeds (weeding) using the soilworking member formed as a blade.

Preferably, the two soil-working members are carried between a pair of side plates which also mount a pivot rod between, and in the same general plane as, the soil-working members. This pivot rod serves to define the said pivot axis of the head assembly, the shaft being connected thereto via a bridge plate centrally attached to the shaft and pivoted at its ends on the pivot rod. The position of the pivot rod enables it to make a significant contribution to the tilthing and grading actions of the tool.

The or each soil-working member formed as a blade may be substantially flat in conformation or have an inverted V-form cross-section; this latter cross-sectional form is not only strong, but also facilitates the breaking up of the soil surface and the collection of stones using the tool.

Furthermore, both edges of the or each blade are preferably sharpened so as to render the tool effective in either direction of movement.

Suitable limit stops can be provided to limit the pivoting of the head assembly relative to the shaft.

The head assembly can also be provided with one or more seed-drill tines carried by one of the soil-working members and movable between inoperative and operative positions in the latter of which the tine or tines project below the common plane of the soil-working members whereby to form seed drills when the tool is moved over the ground.

Instead of arranging for the tines to be movable into inoperative positions when not required, these tines can be designed to be detachable from the head assembly.

The preferred size of the head assembly is such as to enable the tool to be moved between normally-spaced plant rows; thus, typically, the blades are 230 mm long and are spaced by 140 cm.

Two multi-purpose garden tools each embodying the invention, will now be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a side view of a first one of the garden tools embodying the invention; Figure 2 is a front view of the Figure 1 tool in the direction of arrow A in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a top plan view of the Figure 1 tool; and Figure 4 is a side view of the second garden tool embodying the invention.

The multi-purpose garden tool shown in Figures 1 to 3 comprises a shaft 1, a mounting structure 2 carried at one end of the shaft 1 , and a head assembly 3 pivotally mounted on the structure 2.

As will become clear hereinafter, the tool can be operated by pushing or pulling; however, for the sake of convenience of description the right-hand end of the tool as viewed in side elevation in Figure 1 will hereinafter be considered as the front of the tool.

The mounting structure 2 comprises a tapered metal socket 4 which receives the tapered end of the shaft 1, and a bridge plate 5 to which the socket 4 is centrally welded.

The head assembly 3 comprises two identical side plates 6, a front soil-working member in the form of a blade 7 mounted between the front ends of the side plates 6, a rear soil-working member in the form of a blade 8 mounted between the rear ends of the side plates 6, and a pivot rod 9 extending between the side plates 6 at a position substantially intermediate of the front and rear blades 7 and 8 and lying in the same general plane as these blades. The blades 7 and 8 are rigidly secured to the side plates 6 and have an inverted V-form cross-section. Both the front and rear edges of both blades 6 and 7 are sharpened to provide a total of four parallel cutting edges in all.

The outer ends of the bridge plate 5 are downwardly curved and are pivotally connected to the pivot rod 9 whereby to pivotally mount the head assembly 3 on the shaft 1.

In use of the garden tool, the pivotal mounting of the head assembly 3 provides a self-levelling action by which the assembly 3 adopts an attitude such that the plane containing the blades 7 and 8 corresponds approximately to the ground plane.

As the garden tool is pushed or pulled across the ground surface, the blades 7 and 8 serve to break up the surface soil and distribute it evenly; the pivot rod 9 also plays a significant part in these tilthing and grading functions. It will be noted that the shaping of the blades 7 and 8 facilitates the flow of broken down soil over these blades; however, large lumps of soil will be impeded and broken down by the blades while stones tend to be caught up-between the blades and rod 9. As a result, the tool can be used to draw off surface stones.

The sharpened edges of the blades 7 and 8 enable the tool to be used as a weeding implement and are operative in this role in both directions of movement of the tool.

By applying suitable downward pressure to the tool, the blades 7 and 8 can be forced into the soil surface to a depth of about 50 mm which facilitates not only the breaking up of soil surface but also weeding.

Preferably the blades are 230 mm in length and are spaced by 140 mm; these dimensions ensure that the head assembly is of such size that it can be drawn between plant rows spaced by distances normally recommended for vegetables and other plants.

It has been found convenient to provide a limit stop for restricting the pivotal movement of the head assembly 3 on the mounting structure 2; in the present example, this limit stop is provided by a rod 10 extending between the side plates 6 and arranged to limit the movement of the bridge plate 5.

The versatility of the described tool can be extended by the provision of seed-drill tine assemblies 11 carried by the rear blade 8. Each tine assembly 11 comprises a mount 12 carried by the blade 8 and a tine 13 pivotal on the mount 12 between an inoperative position (see the left-hand tine in Figure 2) and an operative position (see the right-hand tine in Figure 2). As can be seen, in their operative positions, the tines 1 3 project below the plane containing the blades 7 and 8; as a result, when the tool is moved over the ground with the tines in their operative position, these tines serve to form seed drills.

When not required the tines 1 3 are moved up into their inoperative positions. The tines 1 3 are retained in their inoperative and operative positions by any suitable arrangement, for example by removable locking pins or resilient detents. Furthermore, the mounts 12 are preferably arranged to slide along the blade 8 so as to enable the spacing of seed drills to be set as required, the friction between the mounts 12 and blade 8 being sufficient to retain the mounts in their set positions.

In the present example, the mounts 12 are made of a resilient material and are so formed at their lower ends as to enable them to be snapengaged over the blade 8 and subsequently removed. With this arrangement, it is in fact unnecessary to provide for the pivoting of the tines between operative and inoperative positions, the tine assemblies being so designed that when attached to the blade the tines are in their operative positions and these assemblies then being removed when not required.

The garden tool illustrated in Figure 4 is similar to that shown in Figures 1 to 3, the only differences being that in the Figure 4 tool the rear soil-working member is constituted by a rod 14 while the front soil-working member takes the form of a flat blade 1 5 with sharpened leading and trailing edges.

Various modifications to the described tool can, of course, be made. Thus, for example, the front and rear soil-working members may have different cross-sectional forms from that shown.

In addition, the arrangement for pivoting the head assembly and the shaft 1 can be varied, the rod 9 being, for example, positioned above the plane containing the front and rear soil-working members.

Claims

1. A hand-held multi-purpose garden tool comprising a head assembly mounted at the end of a shaft for pivotal movement about an axis transverse to the shaft, the head assembly including two transverse soil-working members extending substantially parallel to the pivot axis of the head assembly and mutually laterally spaced such as to contact the soil ground respectively in front of and behind said pivot axis as the garden tool is moved over the ground, at least one of the soilworking members being in the form of a blade.

2. A garden tool according to Claim 1, wherein the head assembly further includes a pairof side plates between which the soil-working members are mounted, and a pivot rod which is carried by the side plates at a position intermediate the soilworking members and serves to pivotally connect the shaft and head assembly, the pivot rod lying in the same general plane as the soil-working members.

3. A garden tool according to Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the said at least one soil-working member in the form of a blade has sharpened leading and trailing edges.

4. A garden tool according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the said at least one soil-working member in the form of a blade has an inverted V-form cross-section.

5. A garden tool according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the head assembly is provided with at least one seed-drill tine carried by one of the soil-working members and movable between inoperative and operative positions in the latter of which the said at least one tine projects below the common plane of the soil-working members whereby to form a seed drill when the tool is moved over the ground.

6. A garden tool according to any one of Claims 1 to 5, wherein the head assembly is provided with at least one seed-drill tine releasably carried by one of the soil-working members and arranged to project below the common plane of the soil-working members whereby to form a seed drill when the tool is moved over the ground.

7. A hand-held multi-purpose garden tool substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 to 3 or Figure 4 of the accompanying drawings.