Skip to main content

Building a Whizbang Wheel Hoe

I am a fan of Herrick Kimball from the Deliberate Agrarian. I have read every blog post at his web site, built a whizbang chicken plucker (see it here), and own most of his books. So imagine my joy on Christmas morning when I unwrapped a Whizbang Wheel Hoe kit from Herrick's Planet Whizbang web site.  The contents were just some metal pieces, bolts and washers:

Putting it together.....

The key here is patient prep work. I bought some turpentine, sand paper, rustoleum primer, and red rustoleum paint at Lowe's. Then I rubbed each piece with a cloth "dabbed" in turpentine to remove any grease. After that I filed all of the sharp edges smooth, and lightly sandpapered each piece.


I did this prep work outside so I wouldn't get the house smelly or dirty. I hung the pieces on the clothesline with some string and little hooks I made from wire. Each piece was carefully primed and then painted a pretty red color.


While the paint was drying, I used the template and instructions to cut two handles from a 1 x 6 x 6' oak board I purchased at Lowe's. While at Lowes (I made one trip because it's like 20 miles from here - but so is everything!) I had also purchased linseed oil for the finish. Anyway, the handles were next:


Cut and drilled:

Herrick's handle rub made by combining 1/3 turpentine, 1/3 wax, and 1/3 linseed oil (yes it smells good at first then it smells terrible but does a great job):


Close up of handles with the rub applied - it really brings out the grain and gives the handles a nice feel:

My wonderful wife had already purchased the required wheel from Northern Tool as well as a cross-brace from Planet Whizbang. I put the metal parts together:

And then I put the handles on it:


I love my new Whizbang wheel hoe. It took about 3 hours total to do everything (I let the paint dry overnight so that's not including dry time). I hope it becomes an heirloom after I wear it out and rebuild it several times over the years.


Comments

  1. Nice Job! I love the concept of companies supplying Do-most-of-it-yourself kits. What a great way to keep the cost lower on great quality items and have the opportunity for customization too. Please let us know how it works! Found your site through the Barn Hop come visit ours www.wildbluebus.com if you'd like. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

David Bradley Walk Behind Tractor and Engine Swap

"A scythe is great for your back but very hard on your patience" - Patrick at Far Better Farmstead      It all started when it rained 80 inches this summer. Yes, I said 80 inches! Needless to say, I didn't get to put up much hay with my scythe and rake. I did do one good cutting, but should have got 2 or 3 and even the one cutting didn't cover the whole field. As much as I like the scythe, I started wanting a quicker way to cut a small amount of hay.  My fantasy rig is my old 600 Ford tractor with a sickle bar, rake, and old square baler. I sold the 600 several years ago and have regretted it every since. My second fantasy was a BCS or Grillo walk behind tarctor. You can get a sickle for them and many other implements as well. Both options are out of reach of our budget right now, so that's why I call them fantasies rather than options! As I searched around the web, I found out that Sears used to sell a walk-behind tractor called the David Bradley. ...

Whizbang Wheel Hoe After a Full Garden Season

Is summer already gone? It is so hard to believe that September is half gone. Despite lots of hard rain, about 75 inches here, our gardens did very well. I have been planning a post on the gardens (and lots of other posts, too) but we have been very busy just enjoying life here on the homestead. Anyway, the one new tool we used this year that really stands out is the Whizbang Wheel Hoe. The picture above was taken after a full garden season of almost daily use. The handles darkened a little from our dirty hands and the blued finish on the blade wore off with use, but the hoe held up wonderfully. How did it perform? Superbly! If you "stir" the dirt with it every other day or so, there will be no weeds. There were times we didn't do that, even for a full week when we went on vacation, and our garden was the most weed free that we've ever had. We still had to use a regular hoe between the plants, but this thing is very quick and easy down the rows.  Herr...