We find great advantage in our 50x50 main garden plot, to choose from the 4 hoe designs we have accumulated depending on weed type & phase of growth.
1) standard hoe, good for trenching or hacking;
2)saddle hoe, excellent robust for just skimming under surface;
3)crescent hoe good for close quarter selective weeding;
4)an old design flat hoe that has more head angle giving more directed bite parallel to soil surface. Not so good for chopping like old standard, with similar stroke angle to saddle hoe.
The secret with hoes seems to be timing the operation before the weeds get more mature.

quote:

Originally posted by Minnow:
The Rogue Hoe...

As someone who doesn't farm or garden, a few years ago if you told me I'd own $100 or so worth of hoes, I'd have looked at you like you were crazy.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
My wife uses primarily a Japanese Weeding Sickle (Nejiri Gama).

I just bought one of these, based on your mentioning it. You really have to watch out for the (very) sharp blade when handling it, but it does a wonderful job of weeding. I had been using a hand-sized pick mattock, and I can see where, in some cases, it still might be the better tool, but I have moved the weeding sickle to the first choice.