Draper 83463 Fibreglass Mini Mattock and Pick, 400g

I bought this to get under and help removing a stubborn tree stump in stony ground. I thought it might help, however it virtually finished the job and seems to be the reach-for tool in all manner of applications.

OK, so I first bought the Roughneck version of this tool, as that had dozens of positive reviews. The Roughneck tool that arrived was rather poorly cast, and the head didn't seem to fit the handle properly, so I returned it.The Draper Mini Mattock and Cutter is better than the Roughneck Mini Mattock and Cutter, although also not perfect.They both use the exact same fibreglass handle, the Draper handle being blue and the Roughneck handle being yellow, but otherwise the handles are identical.The heads, however are quite different. The Draper head is about 60g lighter, has slightly longer and finer blades, a smoother surface, and a more matt paint finish. Overall, the Draper head seems better made.However, I still had to do a little work on the Draper head to get it to fit well on the handle. The inside of the head, where the handle slides in, was quite rough in one spot, which would have chewed up the surface of the handle, so I did give the inside of the head a going over with a round file, to get the handle to fit nice and snug. (It wasn't as grossly mis-shapen as the Roughneck tool though.)Also, in common with the Roughneck tool, the blades arrived very blunt - ground roughly to a kind of blade shape, but with a flat edge left on the end, so not remotely sharp at all. One might think this is for safety reasons during transport, and that MIGHT be part of the reason, but I'm inclined to think it is simply that these things are hand-ground in a factory very hurriedly, as the grinding on the edges is not very even. I used an angle grinder to give the cutting edges a proper shape, and a grinding stone to take the grinding burr off and to sharpen them a bit.(Having sharpened it nicely, I then felt I should protect myself from accidental injury, and make it easier to carry the tool in a bag safely, so I made two 'end caps' to cover the blade edges out of that mouldable plastic stuff called Polydoh that you drop into boiling water to soften and then just mould by hand. It was the first time I had ever used the Polydoh, but it actually worked remarkably well, was very easy, and the tool now has two bright yellow end caps that stay on securely and need a fair bit of force to pull off.)So, the tool as it is will probably be quite useful, but to make it into a GOOD tool you will need to grind an edge onto each blade tip.And is it a good tool? Yes, it is. It is excellent. I spent a few hours clearing some weeds and thinning out some small bushes in my (very small) garden. What I like about this tool is that you can grub out weeds down to the roots without disturbing too much of the surrounding soil or grass. You can of course lift weeds (brambles, etc.) out with a normal garden fork, but that disturbs a larger larger area of ground, whereas the mini mattock is more 'surgical', and leaves the lawn grass or other 'wanted' ground cover relatively undisturbed.I also found the tool very useful when removing some small shrub stumps that had grown too close to a path. I could use the 'mattock' blade of the tool to dig in a bit around the stump and to lever up the root, and use the 'cutter' end to then chop through the root several,inches below ground level. The narrow, sharp blade was also useful for weeding dandelions. etc. from between stones in a path.Overall, this is a really useful tool. It is a one-handed tool which you will be using on hands and knees rather than standing of course, unlike a full-sized mattock, but it can get into tight spaces well. It will be much MORE useful if you put a proper sharp edge on it, but may be quite useful anyway even if you don't bother. It comes apart easily for storage or transport.

After removing quote a lot of conifers to let the garden breath there was the slight issues of roots hampering the tidying up of the border.This allows the soil to be hacked and the roots to be slashed thus making the planting of new plants a lot easier than simply using spades, forks trowels etc..For me it's an eestial bit of kit for the shed.

good piece of kit for gardening

I read the reviews so went for draper over roughneck. It does indeed seem well made see pics - the ground edges are sharp, the hole looks well formed and the head is one piece (not welded). When you slide the head over the shaft use another hammer or weight to tap the top of the handle through the head. So it becomes very firmly wedged. I used a dead weight hammer I have.The handle is longer than expected. Weight is good. Bought this for digging small holes in the earth for plants and it seems perfect.

Great little itm

Good value

I purchased this product to clear my sons overgrown garden in his new house. It was used to clear massive brambles, weeds, various tough grasses, shrubs and 3 big tree tunks. Amazing tool and still going strong.