Hi folks, this is a beautiful rainy day in California
and I'm really excited to be able to share with you how to make a Recycle Hoe.
This is a special type of hoe which I recently developed
and which allows us to control weeds
in a situation like this in the background, without damaging the plastic.
I developed this new hoe design which I call the Recycle Hoe.
And let me explain to you the three parts of it that are critical.
So the first thing you're going to need is a large piece of grass.
Okay, so this is a piece of grass.
The grass is called Arundo.
And it's a very common and invasive weed here in California in certain areas.
And you're going to use this as our handle.
These make great handles.
For our blade
what we're going to use is a piece of this steel strapping.
So this is steel strapping that comes from hardware stores.
You don't have to buy it.
It's very springy.
This is what they throw away.
And I'm always looking in dumpsters for all kinds of goodies
and I've noticed this stuff for many years.
And after noticing it for many years I finally figured out a way to use it in our research program.
So this comes in different sizes.
This size is 1/2 inch.
This size is 3/4s inch.
So we're going to use to make our blade.
It's a very, very sharp surface for cutting weeds.
Okay, so that's our blade.
And then to attach all this together
we're going to use a bicycle inner tube.
And this is one that means a lot to me because I ride a bike to work everyday pretty much.
And I go through a lot of tubes.
And in the process of all those tubes... I have a real hard time throwing tubes away because
tubes like this can be used for all different kinds of things.
And so I'd hung on to these tubes for years and years and I've got a big bag of them in my garage
And I knew eventually I would probably come up with some way to use these that would be... real useful.
Now to save time
I took the handle the way it comes off the plant
and I already removed all this outside wrapping.
So here's one that's already ready to go.
This handle is about 8 feet tall.
I like a nice, long, tall handle like this because it allows me to reach way out
and control weeds without having a stoop over so much. So it's egonomically really good.
I also prepared for us two blades.
Let's start with this first blade.
So here's the blade and this is a two foot long section of that metal strapping.
And we're going to attach it with
these two pieces of rubber.
So this piece of rubber here, this is about a 6 inch long piece of rubber
To do this what you're going to a need to do is take your
piece of strapping, bend it in half like this.
Keep the tension in it like that.
Make sure it doesn't slap you in the face.
Slide it through the tube, like this. So that both ends come through the end of the tube
Okay, like that.
And then we're going to grab on to those two ends
and
pull it over the end of our handle.
Move it down about like that
Now one thing that's kind of important is you don't want to have this sticking out so we will then
pull that back a little bit
pull this side back a little bit
and then I like to get the...
I don't want the end... this part of the handle sticking out so I move it just like that.
Okay. Real simple so far right?
Now you take your two foot long section of
tubing that you cut from the same inner tube
and you start wrapping it.
Now I like to keep this wrap really, really tight
because I want to be able to go around it many many times.
Okay, so I'm wraping that
all the way down to the end here overlapping just slightly.
So now you get near the end. Well how you going to attach it?
Well, what I do
is I just bring it around like this. I hold my thumb underneath there
and then I slip
that part over the top of the
previous wrap.
And there you've got it, alright?
Now to make the hoe blade the right shape
just push it slightly.
And look at that. Isn't that beautiful?
You've got a sharp hoe right here folks.
This thing can slice through soil like a butter knife slices through butter.
And it's really, really effective.
Now, we're not just going to put one blade on our hoe. We're going to put two blades on there.
And were going to use the other size.
We're going to redo this again.
Okay so we've got our 6 inch piece of tube right here.
We're going to bend that in half.
Slide that right through the
center of our
piece of tubing.
Boy is it windy out here. We've gotten some nice rain today.
Pull it over the end
like this.
Okay?
Now remember I'm going to pull this little bit here back
so it's in line with...or a little bit inside of the tubing. Because I don't want to cut myself.
Okay, now get it just in line... the rubber tubing and the end of the shaft are in line on this side.
And then I take
my rubber strapping and start wrapping.
Keeping it really tight as I go.
Now we're going to tie this one off.
Remember, put your thumb there, bring it around
get it underneath your thumb and pull it out, and there you go. You've got your second side of the hoe.
Now were going to push this down a little bit
And there you go folks.
You've got a beautiful hoe right here with a three quarter inch blade on one side
a half inch blade on the other side
and this can be very effective at controlling small weeds right down in these areas right near the plastic.
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Anyway, I hope this has helped you to figure out how you can make your own recycle hoe.
I hope you enjoy making it.
You might even make some for people and give them to them as a present.
You might share this design with another farmer or another gardener so that they can also use it.
And I really hope that this can be used by people in many different areas regardless of their resources.
And I hope that it can help them with their weed control and their weed management.
Take care !